Highlighting JAPAN

JAPAN-MEXICO RELATIONS

Caption: Students from the Japan-Mexico Lyceum in Mexico City perform a folk dance at Onjuku Elementary School. The senior high-school students had entered the gymnasium to a recital of the Mexican national anthem performed by the Onjuku Elementary School brass band.
Credit: TADASHI AIZAWA

Onjuku Revisited

Mexican and Japanese students join together for a traditional Mexican game.
Credit: TADASHI AIZAWA

Exchanges between Japan and Mexico began in a village in Chiba Prefecture. In September of 1609 a Mexican galleon (Mexico was then known as New Spain and was part of the Spanish empire) met with a storm and ran aground off the coast of present-day Onjuku-machi. Some 300 of the galleon’s crew members were rescued and nursed back to health by the villagers. In August of the following year, the crew returned safely to their homeland in a ship built by the shogunate.

400 years later, in September 2009, a ceremony commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Exchange between Japan and Mexico was held in the Mexico Memorial Park in Onjuku. Following an address from His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Naruhito, who is honorary president of 400th Anniversary of Exchange between Japan and Mexico, Mexico’s Ambassador to Japan Miguel Ruiz-Cabanas read a message from President Felipe Calderón. The ceremony also included the unveiling of the statue “Embrace,” made by the world-renowned sculptor Rafael Guerrero and donated by the Mexican government.

Making Connections

The Mexican students visit the Mexico Memorial Tower in Onjuku-machi, which overlooks the site of the 1609 shipwreck.
Credit: TADASHI AIZAWA

Further, on July 7, 2010, an exchange event was held in Onjuku-machi to welcome senior high school students from the Japan-Mexico Lyceum in Mexico City. The nineteen senior high school students from Mexico were received by 150 pupils from Onjuku Elementary School.

A Grade 5 pupil said afterwards, “They taught us a game, it was a lot of fun!” Her eyes twinkling, she went on, “Hearing about Mexico has made me really interested. One day I’d like to go to Mexico and teach them a Japanese game.”

One of the Mexican senior high school students said, “I’m glad I was able to visit the place where exchange between our two countries began. I was struck by how polite everyone in Japan was.”

Exchange between the two countries will continue beyond the 400th anniversary.