Japan's Princess Kako addresses Brazil's Congress, meets with Lula in presidential palace
The younger daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko also addressed Congress and thanked Brazilians for hosting Japanese immigrants for more than a century. Her trip, which started on June 5, marks the 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
'The efforts of the Japanese who came, and the Brazilians who went to Japan, are deepening our bilateral relationship of friendship," Kako told Brazilian lawmakers. 'I hope that the relationship between the two countries is a long lasting one.'
Congress speaker Hugo Motta told the princess he hopes Brazil's ethanol 'can help Japan reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.'
Brazil has the largest population of people of Japanese descent in the world, estimated at about 2.7 million. About half of those live in Sao Paulo state, official figures show, where the princess last week received the state's highest honor from Gov. Tarcisio de Freitas.
Emperor Naruhito has no male children, which makes his brother Akishino, Princess Kako's father, the first successor in line. Japan's tradition does not allow women to take the throne.
Princess Kako will arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Friday, where she will visit the Christ the Redeemer statue and a museum of Japanese immigration. The last part of her trip will take place in the city of Foz do Iguacu, where the world famous Iguacu falls are located.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: Brazil's Lula says he will discuss Trump tariffs with BRICS group
BRASILIA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva presented himself as a torchbearer for multilateralism in a fractured world in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, revealing plans to call the leaders of India and China to discuss a joint BRICS response to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. "What President Trump is doing is tacit — he wants to dismantle multilateralism, where agreements are made collectively within institutions, and replace it with unilateralism, where he negotiates one-on-one with other countries," Lula said. "What bargaining power does a small Latin American country have against the United States? None." Lula said he will initiate a conversation at the BRICS group of developing nations about how to tackle Trump's tariffs. He said he planned to call Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, and China's Xi Jinping and other leaders after. The group also has Russia and other emerging economies among its members. "I'm going to try to discuss with them about how each one is doing in this situation, what the implications are for each country, so we can make a decision," he said. "It's important to remember that the BRICS have ten countries at the G20," he added, referring to the group that gathers 20 of the world's biggest economies. Lula stressed that Brazil now holds the presidency of the BRICS and said that he wants to discuss with allies why Trump is attacking multilateralism and what his goals may be. Trump called the BRICS "anti-American" and threatened the bloc's nations with additional 10% tariffs last month, while the group gathered in a summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: 'I won't humiliate myself': Brazil's president sees no point in tariff talks with Trump
BRASILIA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - As U.S. tariffs on Brazilian goods jumped to 50% on Wednesday, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters in an interview that he saw no room for direct talks now with U.S. President Donald Trump that would likely be a "humiliation." Brazil is not about to announce reciprocal tariffs, he said. Nor will his government give up on cabinet-level talks. But Lula himself is in no rush to ring the White House. "The day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk, I won't hesitate to call him," Lula said in an interview from his presidential residence in Brasilia. "But today my intuition says he doesn't want to talk. And I won't humiliate myself." Despite Brazil's exports facing one of the highest tariffs imposed by Trump, the new U.S. trade barriers look unlikely to derail Latin America's largest economy, giving Lula more room to stand his ground against Trump than most Western leaders. Lula described U.S.-Brazil relations at a 200-year nadir after Trump tied the new tariff to his demands for an end to the prosecution of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is standing trial for plotting to overturn the 2022 election. The president said Brazil's Supreme Court, which is hearing the case against Bolsonaro, "does not care what Trump says and it should not," adding that Bolsonaro should face another trial for provoking Trump's intervention, calling the right-wing former president a "traitor to the homeland." "We had already pardoned the U.S. intervention in the 1964 coup," said Lula, who got his political start as a union leader protesting against the military government that followed a U.S.-backed ouster of a democratically elected president. "But this now is not a small intervention. It's the president of the United States thinking he can dictate rules for a sovereign country like Brazil. It's unacceptable." The Brazilian president said he had no personal issues with Trump, adding that they could meet at the United Nations next month or U.N. climate talks in November. But he noted Trump's track record of dressing down White House guests such as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. "What Trump did with Zelenskiy was humiliation. That's not normal. What Trump did with Ramaphosa was humiliation," Lula said. "One president can't be humiliating another. I respect everyone and I demand respect." Lula said his ministers were struggling to open talks with U.S. peers, so his government was focused on domestic measures to cushion the economic blow of U.S. tariffs, while maintaining "fiscal responsibility." He also said he was planning to call leaders from the BRICS group of developing nations, starting with India and China, to discuss the possibility of a joint response to U.S. tariffs. Lula also described plans to create a new national policy for Brazil's strategic mineral resources, treating them as a matter of "national sovereignty" to break with a history of mining exports that added little value in Brazil.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: Lula plans new 'national sovereignty' policy for strategic minerals
BRASILIA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters on Wednesday of his plans for a new national policy treating strategic minerals as a matter of "national sovereignty" in order to avoid exporting minerals without adding value locally. "We won't allow what happened in the last century to happen again, where Brazil exports raw minerals and then buys products with very high added value," the president, known as Lula, said in the interview. "We want to add value in Brazil." Lula's comments came as a new 50% tariff hit U.S. imports from Brazil amid a political spat between the two countries linked to an investigation against the South American country's former president, Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, under house arrest since late Monday, is standing trial on charges of plotting a coup to overturn his 2022 electoral defeat. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing. U.S. President Donald Trump, seen as a Bolsonaro ally, has decried what he calls persecution of Brazil's former leader. Trump has long sought to secure U.S. supplies of critical minerals, complaining of China's near-total control of the industry and striking deals with Ukraine to secure critical minerals in exchange for defense help. Currently, Brazil lacks a complete mapping of its mineral wealth, Lula said, adding that his government would start this process by setting up the national council on mineral materials and standards. The council will safeguard Brazil's control of its mineral wealth, allowing the country to become a global leader in the energy transition, Lula said, adding that businesses will not face difficulties following the council's creation. "Few countries in the world have the opportunity that Brazil has in this area," Lula said.
