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 Russian
President Vladimir Putin was invited to Gushikawa City on July 23, after
the summit ended, to attend boys' judo exhibition matches because of
the city's Russian connection. After the municipal arts theater was
completed in 1994, a Russian ballet troupe and a Russian orchestra performed
there.
A black belt in judo himself, Putin
could not confine his performance to just hand-shaking with the four
boys on the tatami mat. He took off his suit, took a bow in front of
one of the boys, threw him over his shoulder, and then let the boy do
the same shoulder throw to him--all with his tie still on!
Italian Prime Minister Giuliano
Amato on July 21 visited the village of Ginoza to attend a ceremony
to unveil a replica of the "Mouth of Truth," a famous sculpture and
tourist attraction in Rome, placed at the village's marketing center
for local products, as a mark of friendship with Italy.
Village Mayor Yasukatsu Urasaki
said his village has had no previous ties with Italy, but added that
building a friendship with a foreign country with no past historical
ties is truly an effort for international exchange.
Greeted by village children playing
Italian songs upon his arrival, Amato said that he was touched by the
warm welcome and that the replica will serve as a symbol of bilateral
friendship.
U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered
a special message to the people of Okinawa when he visited the
Cornerstone of Peace at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman City.
Engraved on the cornerstone are the names of both Japanese and American
people who died in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.
Okinawa hosts over half of the American
forces stationed in Japan on less than 1% of the nation's land mass.
The first U.S. president to visit the island in 40 years, Clinton said
the United States "will keep all our commitments" to reduce and consolidate
U.S. bases in the prefecture.
"Okinawa has played an especially
vital role in the endurance of our alliance. I know the people of Okinawa
did not ask to play this role. We take seriously our responsibility
to be good neighbors, and it is unacceptable to the United States when
we do not meet that responsibility," he said in the speech.
 French
President Jacques Chirac, known as a sumo buff, stopped over in Nagoya,
central Japan, en route to Okinawa to watch the 11th-day bouts of the
Nagoya Grand Sumo
Tournament at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium.
It was the fourth time for Chirac
to watch the sumo tournament. His first experience was back in 1984,
when he was the mayor of Paris. He donated the Chirac Cup to the Nihon
Sumo Kyokai (Japanese Sumo Association), to be presented to a tournament
champion beginning with the Nagoya tourney.
French officials said Chirac checks
up on the results of bouts each day via the Internet when the bi-monthly
tournaments are on in Japan.
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