Address of welcome by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen to the Emperor and Empress of Japan at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki on 26.5.2000

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It is an exceptional pleasure and great honour to bid Your Majesties and your retinue a warm welcome to Finland. Presidents of Finland visited Japan on several occasions in the eighties and nineties, but this is the first time that a reigning Emperor of Japan has come to Finland. Thus it is a historic event in relations between our countries.

Your Majesties’ previous visit to Finland, in your capacities as Crown Prince and Crown Princess, remains a precious and pleasant memory for all of the Finns who had the honour to meet you. I am delighted that Your Majesties will have opportunities for many reunions during these few days.

Last year we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Finland and Japan. Japan was one of the first countries outside Europe with which newly-independent Finland wanted to create official ties. However, a few historically important encounters considerably pre-dated our political relations.

After the Japanese sailor Kodayu and his crew had been shipwrecked on the Russian coast, the Finnish natural scientist Erik Laxman escorted him to the court of Catherine the Great. The Japanese annals further report that Laxman’s son, Adam, led the expedition that took Kodayu back home to Japan in 1792. Nearly a century later, in 1879, the Finnish-born geographer and explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld became the first navigator in history to sail from Europe to Japan via the North-East Passage. He spent several months in Japan.

From Finland’s point of view, our official relations with Japan assumed great important very early on. In the beginning of the 1920s, the League of Nations was reaching a decision on the issue of whether Finland or Sweden should have sovereignty over the Åland Islands. Japan’s support for our views was a weighty factor in ensuring that the decision went in Finland’s favour. That preparatory deliberations in the matter were carried out under the direction of the Japanese-born Deputy Secretary General Inazo Nitobe adds significance to the role that Japanese statesmanship played in bringing about a solution.

The long geographical distance separating us meant, however, that interaction between us did not become very close in the first few decades. Since then, especially in the past couple of decades, relations between our countries have considerably broadened and deepened. Contacts on the political level have become a firmly-established feature, economic ties have increased many-fold, and cultural and scientific relations have evolved into a thriving network. In short, relations between Finland and Japan today are excellent.

The complete absence of problems in our relations is, I believe, a reflection of the understanding that prevails more broadly between our peoples. Thanks for this are largely due to cooperation between individuals and organisations. Cooperation of this kind is on a considerable – indeed, I could nearly say exceptional – scale between Finland and Japan. That has further increased the interest that we feel for each other’s cultures.

We Finns hold Japan’s ancient cultural heritage in high esteem, as we do your achievements in contemporary culture. We are pleased that Finnish culture: music, design, architecture – and in recent times also literature and film – have enjoyed success and recognition in Japan. It could be that a similar attitude to certain fundamental factors, such as our respect for clarity and simplicity, the close affinity with nature that we still feel and our understanding of the value of silence and empty space, have facilitated an empathy between our cultures. For us Finns it is a great honour that Your Majesty and all of the Imperial Family have often taken a personal interest in our culture.

When a direct air service linking Helsinki and Tokyo was inaugurated in the early eighties, it made contacts between our countries considerably easier to maintain. Without that link, the growth in our economic cooperation that the following decade brought could never have achieved the same dimensions that it did. But links between us no longer depend on travel facilities alone. Technology enables us to keep in touch with each other through information networks. Japan and Finland are in the vanguard of countries in transition to the information society.

Information technology and telecommunications have become an important sector of cooperation between our countries. Our trade in this sector is growing, but the joint development in which our research establishments and companies are engaging to create and introduce innovations in this field is also important. The Finnish wood-processing industry has had a presence in the Japanese market for a long time and in this sector Finland is Japan’s most important trade partner in Europe. Several companies in our metal products sector have likewise gained a foothold in Japan. Environmental technology and the welfare sector are emerging as new areas of developing cooperation.

Bilateral relations between Finland and Japan are part of the international network of ties. Our countries are working actively in international forums to promote peaceful development and ease the problems of developing countries. We in Finland appreciate the contribution that Japan is making within the United Nations framework. Indeed, Japan is the world’s biggest donor. The contribution that you are making in the development of the international trade and economic system is enormously important.

I wish you and your retinue a rewarding and enjoyable stay in Finland. I propose a toast to Your Majesties’ happiness and health, to the all-round success of the Japanese people as well as to continuing friendship and excellent relations between Finland and Japan.