Members of the Australian Parliament visit Speaker Oshima
On Tuesday 17 April, a delegation from the Parliament of Australia, headed by the Hon Tony Smith MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was in Japan at the invitation of the House of Representatives of Japan, visited the House with his delegation and met with Mr. Tadamori Oshima, Speaker; Mr. Hirotaka Akamatsu, Vice-Speaker; Mr. Keiji Furuya, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Rules and Administration; Mr. Masatoshi Ishida, Mr. Yoshio Maki, and Mr. Wataru Ito, Directors of the Committee; and Mr. Kazuma Nakatani, Mr. Akio Fukuda, and Mr. Tetsuya Shiokawa, Members of the Committee.
Speaker Oshima began by welcoming the delegation to Japan, stating the importance of building a closer bilateral relationship as special strategic partners with shared fundamental values. Touching on the fact that the people of the two countries have favorable relations, as well as the governments, he expressed hope for greater exchanges between the parliaments and parliamentarians to strengthen ties. He also gave his thanks for the support Japan received from Australia after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami on 11 March 2011.
In reply, Speaker Smith expressed appreciation to Speaker Oshima for his invitation to Japan. He agreed that the two countries have solid friendship, citing active exchange not only in the field of business but also in other areas including education and tourism. He then noted that the greatest effort should be made, including mutual visits, to further foster parliamentary relations.
They also talked about other subjects including exchanges between their parliamentarians on the occasion of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
