On March 14, the new­ly-ap­point­ed Japan­ese Am­bas­sador to T&T Dr Aki­ma Umeza­wa host­ed this year’s Em­per­or’s Birth­day Cel­e­bra­tion Re­cep­tion at the Am­bas­sador’s res­i­dence in St Clair, Port-of-Spain, to com­mem­o­rate the 65th Birth­day of Em­per­or Naruhi­to.

Dis­tin­guished guests in at­ten­dance in­clud­ed Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Dr Amery Browne, Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie and his wife, Denise Ro­driguez-Archie, Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate, Nigel De Fre­itas; Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne, Mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the Sen­ate, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Re­i­ta Tou­s­saint, heads of mis­sion, mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps, and mem­bers of the Japan­ese di­as­po­ra in T&T.

Guests were treat­ed to sev­er­al pre­sen­ta­tions and dis­plays, in­clud­ing promi­nent sake from var­i­ous re­gions in Japan, high-qual­i­ty aqua­cul­tured seafood such as yel­low­tail and scal­lops served in sashi­mi, grilled, and fried styles.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, there were dis­plays of Bon­sai plants by the Bon­sai So­ci­ety of T&T and a show­case of the Yaris Cross Hy­brid by Toy­ota.