The delegation of the Republic of Slovenia was seeking for a site for their athletes’ preparatory training camp in Japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games scheduled this summer. Abiko City agreed to host the training camp in response to the request of Chiba Prefecture.
AIRA dispatched interpreters to the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding between Slovenian Olympic Association and Abiko City. (No.21-5)

Date & time: May 26th (Mon), 2021 10:00～12:10
Venue: Abiko City municipal office (mayor’s room, meeting room), the remains of Jigoro Kano’s villa, Citizen Gymnasium (martial arts training place)
Dispatched interpreters: Ms. Rie Hama, Mr. Hiroshi Osaki

Many scheduled training camps for the Tokyo Olympics have been cancelled due to COVID-19, but Abiko City has decided to host the training camp by taking necessary measures in accordance with the Japanese government’s “guidelines for players and officials” with the cooperation of its citizens and the medical association.
A total of nine players and staff members of Judo, Karate and Taekwondo are coming here for the training camp from the Republic of Slovenia. They will stay at a hotel in the city from July 13th to July 30th and use Citizen Gymnasium (martial arts training place) as their training site.
The signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding was attended by Ms. Ana Polak Petric, Ambassador of Slovenia to Japan, Mr. Minoru Ito, the Representative Director of International Convention Bureau in charge of Chiba Prefecture Sports Concierge, Mr. Junichiro Hoshino, Mayor of Abiko, Mr. Akira Aoki, Vice Mayor and Mr. Norihiko Maru, Educational Director.

・Courtesy Visit
Prior to the ceremony, Ambassador Petric paid a courtesy visit to Mayor of Abiko.
Mayor Hoshino introduced the calligraphy writing by Jigoro Kano “擇道竭力”, which means “Once you have found out your way, then make your best endeavors.” and explained the relation between Jigoro Kano and Abiko City. He also introduced an episode to the ambassador that before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games the Cuban female Judo team visited Abiko and got good results at the games, and wished for good achievements by the Slovenian players, too. Ambassador Petric expressed her appreciation for Mayor’s decision to offer the training camp site among COVID-19. At the meeting they also talked about other topics such as the current situation of COVID-19 and vaccination rollout in Abiko in a friendly atmosphere. Ms. Hama and Mr. Osaki from AIRA interpreted for Mayor Hoshino in collaboration. Ambassador Petric talked in English and an embassy staffer interpreted it into Japanese paragraph by paragraph.

・The signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding
The ceremony was conducted in the presence of lots of news media. Following the speeches given by Ambassador Petric and Mayor Hoshino, they signed the memorandum. Mayor Hoshino introduced in his speech the bronze statue of Jigoro Kano built at the remains of his villa as well as his calligraphy writing of “力必達”, which means “If you’ve made the best effort, it brings you an achievement by all means.”

・Q & A
Following the signing ceremony and phot shoots, Q&A session was conducted with the news media. In response to the question “What do you expect from the training camp amid more than 50% of public opinion against the Olympic Games?” Ambassador Petric expressed her appreciation for Abiko’s decision to offer the training camp site in such difficult circumstances and explained that all the players and concerned people would take safety measures such as PCR testing before their departure from the country as well as daily testing during the Olympics period. In response to the question about the name recognition of Abiko in Slovenia, Ambassador told that the majority of Slovenians don’t know about Abiko yet just like most Japanese are unfamiliar with Slovenia while she pointed out that many Slovenians practice Judo and know the name of Jigoro Kano. She frankly answered the questions and told she was going to introduce Abiko and its warm welcome of Slovenian delegation notwithstanding under COVID-19 on Slovenian TV and other media.
She also showed how close she feels to Japan mentioning some common points in the two countries: people don’t wear shoes in the house; many people like Soba noodles; the nature is beautiful.
In response to another question about the communication between local people and Slovenian delegates, Mayor Hoshino told he would consider setting up an opportunity for the delegates and children in Abiko to spend time together even a half day after the games are over and before they leave Japan since interact activities during their training camp is prohibited.
Ms. Hama and Mr. Osaki were calm and confident when interpreting the speech of Mayor Hoshino as well as the following Q&A. Actually, it seemed to be hard to explain the writing of Jigoro Kano in English, but their interpretations were very understandable thanks to their collaboration and prior investigation of the writing.

・Inspection
After the signing ceremony was finished, Ambassador Petric inspected the remains of Jigoro Kano’s villa and the civic gymnasium guided by a staffer from Abiko municipal office. On the way to the inspection sites, Ms. Hama and Mr. Osaki explained topics about Lake Tega and Abiko to Ambassador Petric.

Ms. Hama and Mr. Osaki had a hard time preparing for this interpretation as changes in the Mayor’s speech and questions by the media were brought up just before the ceremony started. Nevertheless, they cooperated with each other studying every topic including the biography of Jigoro Kano, which enabled appropriate interpretation by them on the day.

(Translated by Mr.Katsumi Nakajima )