Today, 23rd of December is a holiday for celebrating the 75th birthday of our Emperor, Akihito.
In my recent column, I’ve introduced you the extraordinary speech our Emperor has given at the Linnean Society of London in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Von Linné and asked you to “read it by all means…”.
In the New Year special edition of Asahi Weekly magazine (Jan.2 and 9th editions combined) now on sale at bookstores, appears an interview of Dr. Toshitaka Hidaka, ethologist, and Mitsumasa Anno, artist, in which they comment on this Emperor’s address.
Those two giants of Japanese culture commented very much like I did about this wonderful speech of the Emperor. I was so delighted that although my previous introduction of this speech to the public was by a sheer chance of being invited to Kobe symposium on preservation of bioresources, I had to ask all of you again to “read it by all means”.
