Ambassador Maruyama visited the Japanese Section

On Tuesday 5th November, the Ambassador of Japan in Ireland visited the University of Limerick. First, Ambassador Norio Maruyama and Second Secretary Keiko Nakata met with Acting President Professor Shane Kilcommins, Professor Sandra Joyce (the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), Professor Angela Farrell ( the Assistant Dean International of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) and Doctor Erika Marcet (Head of Japanese Section).

In that meeting, postgraduate Japanese student from the Irish World Academy, Mariko Tatso, preformed a beautiful reel. Ambassador Maruyama also had the opportunity to meet many students of from the Japanese Section at the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics (MLAL). After a short tour of campus, led by fourth-year students Gonzague Fabry and Clíona Rice, we gathered in The Globe for the main event of the day. The event consisted in student presentations from firth- to fourth-year students, international students from Japan and Transition Year students from Villiers Secondary School. The event concluded with an engaging conversation led by Ambassador Maruyama and moderated by Dr Erika Marcet, where the cultural, educational and economic ties between Ireland and Japan were explored.

The Japanese Section would like to thank the following students for their support and contribution to making this a very successful event: Layla De Marin, Ayumi Enokibara, Rania Alaorfi, Desmond Finnegan, Kate De Zarza, Ben Sheehan, Leo Ou, Jack Lawlor, Thomas Ashmore, Ben Murphy, Hana Yamada, Clodagh Lambert and Caoimhe Edmond. You can find photographs from this event on the  UL Japanese Instagram account.