Tokyo meets the world: Latvia

My first visit to Japan was in 1994, when I was studying at the Foreign Ministry’s training centre for young diplomats in Kita-Urawa for nine months. We learned a lot about Japan’s culture, history and policies, and also tried to learn Japanese language. While [my classmates and I] were certainly focused on our studies, we also had some time to enjoy Tokyo, go to Roppongi and Shibuya [laughs]. I now wonder how we were able to find all those nice karaoke bars and restaurants without Google Maps, but somehow when you’re 24, you manage.

Many things in Tokyo resemble the way they were back in 1994 and ’95, but many things have also been changing. I’ve certainly noticed how quickly buildings are demolished and rebuilt in the city. I’ve been living in Shibuya for five years now, and this area – including the surroundings of the embassy – is always under construction. Tokyo is always on the move.

The city is still just as busy as it was in 1994-95, but now that I have children of my own, I notice that there are more men looking after children – it’s not only the ladies who are taking their kids to school or pushing prams. Especially on the weekends, you see more men in parks and at playgrounds. In addition, I see more women in business and there are more women political leaders, including Tokyo governor Ms Koike, and that is encouraging. I have also noticed that many more Tokyoites now have pets – you see people walking down the streets and you expect to see a baby in their buggy, when it’s actually a dog or a cat. I think that wasn’t as common in the mid-’90s.

Our embassy is located in a quiet part of Shibuya (Kamiyamacho) and I like the area very much. I’d recommend coming here to walk around the small streets, popping into the many great coffeeshops we have and also enjoy strolling in Yoyogi Park. There’s also Cristiano’s, a nice Portuguese restaurant, while a recent addition to the local restaurant scene is A-Un, where one can enjoy Kyoto cuisine. The curry restaurant Spice Post is a very popular place, too. 

On the other hand, I like taking the road to Marunouchi, where you see the Imperial Palace and the moat around it on the one side and Japan’s business centre on the other. Those opposites, I think, very much sum up the mood of the city – ancient traditions coexisting with modernity.

There’s a shop called Riga Collection in Jiyugaoka, owned by long-time friends of Latvia, where you can buy linen, ceramics, teas, Latvian chocolate and Latvian beer. Latvian cuisine is influenced by culinary cultures from all around the Baltic Sea coast, including the Swedish and German cuisines. There’s a restaurant in Roppongi called Lilla Dalarna, which doesn’t sound very Latvian [laughs], but the chef prepares North European dishes and is available for embassy receptions. He can create tasty Latvian dishes with ingredients such as herring and beetroot, little piragi pies with minced meat, and desserts with cranberries, blueberries and other forest berries.

There is the Music Association, which was established in 2004. It originated with alumni of Waseda University, who formed a choir, went on a concert tour to Latvia and made friends with Latvian choirs. Besides music, the Association does a lot to promote Latvia in Japan and friendship between the two countries.

The choir Gaisma was formed by Japanese people who gather once a week to sing Latvian songs. They regularly participate in the Song and Dance Festival, which is held in Latvia once every five years and is one of the biggest choral and dancing events in the world. The culmination of the festival is a concert that sees 25,000 singers and dancers perform and that can last for more than five hours. The Song and Dance Festival is also a part of the UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity list since 2008.

There’s a lot of competition to get on that stage. Every village and school in Latvia has its own choir and there’s a contest from the local and regional levels up to the national level. Only the best of the best participate in the Festival, and choirs from abroad are also invited to join. The members of Gaisma have all learned Latvian and sing our songs in perfect Latvian.

In addition, there are Latvian language classes in Tokyo, which were originally held here at the embassy. But because of Covid, classes have been organised online for two years now. That has actually made learning more accessible, with students now participating from all over Japan. 

And in Kansai there’s the Osaka-based Kansai-Latvia Friendship Association, which promotes student exchange as well as business ties between Latvia and Japan.

Recent years in Japan-Latvia cooperation have been very active. First, Latvia celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, and Prime Minister Abe was the first foreign leader to visit Latvia that year. The start of the Reiwa era and the enthronement ceremony were also highly significant events attended by the president of Latvia. And in 2021, we celebrated 100 years of diplomatic relations between Latvia and Japan.

Latvia and Japan enjoy friendly and active cooperation. Japan de facto recognised Latvia’s independence in 1919, and [officially] in 1921, when Japan was among the first five countries – together with Belgium, the UK, France and Italy – to recognise Latvia. That is well remembered, and for a country that was occupied for 50 years, these anniversaries are very important.

Another noteworthy aspect is investment in strategic areas. In these complicated times, economic cooperation with likeminded countries gains momentum and becomes even more important for our own security. We are very happy that, for example, the trading house Mitsui Bussan has invested in the port of Riga and owns the Riga Universal Terminal there. Marubeni has invested in Conexus Baltic Grid, Latvia’s gas transmission and storage operator, which runs an underground storage facility from where gas can be pumped to neighbouring countries – Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland. Investments by Japan in these strategic sectors are highly significant.

I think Latvia and Japan agree that implementing the SDGs will be key to preventing conflicts and sustaining peace in the future. In Latvia, we are engaged [with sustainability] in a variety of ways, including by being a very green country and by trying to help other countries to achieve the SDGs.

Regarding the environment, I think one of the aspects Latvia and Japan have in common is that people treasure and respect nature. That is also reflected in Latvia’s policies, with 40 percent of our energy coming from renewable sources: hydropower, biomass, solar and wind power. Certainly now with Russian aggression in Ukraine, and even before that, there’s been a conviction that we need to be more sustainable in our development and less dependent on fossil fuels. And in Latvia we are accelerating the green transition, including by planning to build an offshore wind park in the Baltic Sea.

Latvia had to implement a wide range of reforms after regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, including with regard to introducing a market economy and overhauling education and the justice system. With that experience, we are trying to help other countries in their efforts to promote good governance, education reforms and the eradication of poverty. We can share the lessons we have learned in the reform process, both in terms of what we have done right and the mistakes we’ve made, so that other countries can avoid those mistakes.  

As for gender equality, women in Latvia are in very powerful positions. There are favourable circumstances, since our philosophy is that women return to work after having children. Achieving this requires investment in education and childcare. Having more women in parliament is also important – in Latvia one-third of MPs are women – because then, when laws are adopted, the perspective of how they affect women gets taken into account.