Nihonmatsu greets Kuwait’s Olympians in Kuwaiti style
TOKYO: Kuwait’s Olympians staying in the Japanese city of Nihonmatsu have received a warm welcome from locals in the surprising Kuwaiti style that would make them feel at home. Upon their arrival, a group of people from the Nihonmatsu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has greeted Kuwait’s delegation near their hotel with a large banner reading in the Kuwaiti dialect of Arabic, “We are with you. Go for it. Welcome here,” Vice-President Hideharu Ohta of the chamber said yesterday. “We hoped to extend our welcome to the athletes of Kuwait, which offered us tremendous support in response to the earthquake. As physical contact with them is prohibited due to COVID-19 concerns, we arranged a support event in this way while maintaining social distancing,” Ohta said.
“We sincerely wish that the Kuwaiti Olympians will fully restore their energies here, which is rich with lush greenery, and that they will produce outstanding results in the upcoming games,” he added. The heartwarming banner is now displayed at the hotel’s entrance to encourage the athletes before and after their training. In appreciation for Kuwait’s support following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Nihonmatsu City, located about 200 km northeast of Tokyo, has applied to host the Kuwaiti team for a pregames training camp.
At least 10 top Kuwaiti players are partaking in the Tokyo Games due between July 23 and August 8. Lara Dashti and Abbas Qali will compete in swimming, Abdulrahman Al-Fadhel in rowing and Mohammad AlMusawi in Karate. The other contenders are the shooters Abdulrahman Al-Faihan, Mansour Al-Rashidi, Abdullah Turgi Al-Rashidi and Talal Turgi Al-Rashidi. In the field-and-track, the participating Kuwaiti champions are Yaaqoub Al-Yoha and Madhawi AlShemmari.
An online seminar aiming at familiarizing the local residents with Kuwait was held earlier this month, in which Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) representative in Japan Miyoko Ishigami presented a one-hour lecture about the Kuwaiti life and culture. The event, organized by the city’s chamber of commerce, included talks between Ishigami and former State Minister for Foreign Affairs Masahisa Sato, which was later joined by the former Representative of Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East’s “Japan Desk” in Kuwait, Akira Tanaka.