PATNA: Japan’s Nara prefecture and Bodhgaya in Bihar will soon have a ‘sister state twinning agreement’
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar who is on a four-day visit to Japan on Wednesday proposed to have a sister state twining agreement with Nara prefecture to strengthen bilateral relation between the two places of Buddhist importance.
Nara prefecture has the distinction of having more UNESCO World Heritage Listings than any other prefecture in Japan and also has huge number of Buddhist temples and sites like Bihar. Japan has 47 prefectures.
Nara’s prefectural governor Shogo Arai supported Nitish’s proposal and also agreed to follow it up. “The Indian Embassy in Japan will provide necessary support to see that the twinning agreement takes shape,” a statement issued from the office of Bihar CM said on Wednesday.
Both the leaders also discussed about the significance of Buddha’s teachings in today’s world and how Buddhism is common link between Nara and Bihar and especially various Buddhist sites in the two regions.
The Nara governor also praised the kind of visionary leadership that Nitish Kumar has given to Bihar and the significant development that the Indian state has witnessed in his leadership.
Nitish, accompanied by Bihar’s chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Indian Ambassador in Japan Sujan R Chinoy and other state officers, also visited famous Todai-Ji temple in the city of Nara.
Todai-Ji is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful seven great temples, located in the city of Nara in Japan.
Bihar CM thanked the governor for facilitating the visit to Todai-ji temple and for inviting him to Nara. The governor also hosted traditional lunch in the honour of Bihar CM. Chinoy was present during the Bihar CM’s visit to Nara and meeting with Governor.
Earlier in the day, Nitish Kumar met the representatives of Ecocycle Corporation, a Japanese company working on environmental issues, at Indian Embassy in Tokyo and had fruitful discussions on bringing the Corporation’s technology to Bihar to tackle the problem of contaminated water.
Prior to that, Nitish met the representatives of Innovation Thru Energy Company Limited and was briefed about utility of the ice battery’s cold ice chain technology for preserving food, vegetables, fruits and vaccines.