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Nations partner on tourism and development: Ambassador Richards

Jamaican diplomat,
U.N. adviser

Fulfilled destiny, leveraging
diplomacy for development

Name: Shorna-Kay Richards
Title: Ambassador of Jamaica
URL: http://jamaicaembassy.jp/Hometown: Kingston, Jamaica
Years in Japan: 2Leaders & Readers
WARREN MEEHANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The island nation of Jamaica is best known
for its Blue Mountain coffee, reggae music,
fastest runners, scenic waterfalls and coollaid-back vibes — but as an advocate ofrighteous causes around the world, Jamaica
is also a nation that punches well above its
weight. Whether advocating for humanrights, the regulation of the trade in smallarms, the elimination of nuclear weapons, ordealing with sustainability, Jamaica has beenchampioning issues of international significance since its independence in 1962.
“A mosquito might be small, but if it stings,
you will know about it,” explained ShornaKay Richards, Jamaican ambassador to Japan.
Having been personally invested in manyof Jamaica’s vital causes over her diplomatic
career, she knows the power of that sting.

Richards motto would be“if a task is once begun,
never leave it ‘till it’s done, be the labor great orsmall, do it well, or not at all.” HIROMICHI MATONO

The invisible hand of destiny

Richards always felt her appointment asambassador to Japan was destiny. After completing a Spanish major at The Universityof the West Indies, Richards attended theUniversity’s jobs fair, and a position with theforeign service was the only job she ended
up applying for, becoming one of only four
women eventually recruited. Years later,when she looked at her high school yearbook, she saw that in answering a question
about her future, her classmates had predicted she would be Jamaica’s first female
ambassador to Spain. Jamaica did not thenhave an embassy in Spain, but she was nonetheless on a career path to bigger things in
the diplomatic service.
As a young diplomat in 2005, Richards
visited Japan as part of a group on a United
Nations Disarmament Fellowship program,which included study visits to Nagasaki andHiroshima. She had an opportunity to havea briefing from one of Japan’s nuclear bomb
victims, or hibakusha, an experience thatleft an indelible impact. On the final day ofthe study visit, Richards was asked to makea speech on behalf of the group, and in her
speech she promised to take the appeal of
the hibakusha if she ever had a chance towork at the United Nations and said shewould take every opportunity to work on
the cause of nuclear abolition, which she did.
Years later, Richards had the good fortune toreturn to Japan as ambassador and was able
to visit Hiroshima on the 76th anniversary ofthe bombing, having kept her promise to thehibakusha.
“I’ve come full circle,” she mused. “I neverimagined when I came here in 2005 that Iwould one day be ambassador to Japan. I

Shorna-Kay Richards attended The University of the West Indies and graduated witha bachelor of arts degree in languages andinternational relations, before attending
the Elliott School of International Affairs
at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where she pursued a Master’sdegree. After graduation in 1994, Richards
soon began working at the Ministry ofForeign Affairs and Trade in Kingston. Her
first overseas assignment was to Washington in 1998 at the Permanent Mission ofJamaica to the Organization of American
States.
In 2009 she was assigned to the Jamaican High Commission in Pretoria, SouthAfrica, where she served as head of chancery and briefly as acting high commissioner, before taking up an appointment
in 2012 as Jamaica’s deputy permanent
representative to the United Nations inNew York, where she served until 2016. In
2020, she was appointed as the Jamaicanambassador to Japan and from 2022, she
was appointed as a member of the U.N.
Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.

cannot tell you how emotional that was forme that it happened — I made that promise,and now I am ambassador. There is an invisible hand, a destiny.”

Partners in sustainability

With tourism accounting for a large portionof Jamaica’s economy, the island was hit
hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since fully
reopening in June 2020, Jamaica is now creating a tourism resilience plan with the rest ofthe Caribbean, guided by the recently created Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Management Center at The UWI.
Jamaica has been leading the charge inits hemisphere and globally to try to build
sustainable tourism and manage future
crises. Jamaica is now working with Japan,
through the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA) to shape best practices in tourism management and share them with therest of the Caribbean. Partnering with JICA,
Jamaica is now building back its tourism sector better and stronger, putting particularemphasis on ocean health and sustainability
in areas such as ocean plastic, sea life and rising sea levels, as well as looking at ways fortourism to lessen its environmental impact.
Measures include banning disposable plastics, transitioning to green energy and partnering with JICA on the transfer of technicalskills with regard to waste management.
Japan, as a member of the G7, has beena particularly important friend to small
island developing states (SIDS) like Jamaica
and middle-income countries by providing
financing for the transition to green energy
and resilience to climate change. Japan uses
its own Vulnerability Index to assess theneeds of countries most at risk from natural

population, high levels of education, we’vebeen ranked very highly for ease of doing
business, and the government is putting in allsorts of incentives for investment.”
HIROMICHI MATONO

disasters and climate change.

Investment Opportunities“Japan and Jamaica may not be privileged bygeographic proximity,” Richards explained,“but we are privileged by trade, and we see
Japan as a strong, reliable, supportive andgood friend to Jamaica.” One area for investment that the G7 nations have identified tosupport low and middle-income countries
such as Jamaica is infrastructure. Jamaica has
a dynamic culture and is home to the International Seabed Authority and the seventhlargest natural harbor in the world.

Richards highlighted Jamaica’s strategic
location as a logistics hub offering opportunities in the recently created low-tax special
economic zones. Shipping and port-facility
companies can set up operations as developers or occupants in the zones for warehousing and distribution centers to benefit from
Jamaica’s near-shore advantage vis-a-vis
North America and our capacity to accommodate Panamax-sized vessels. . And it is
not just physical infrastructure that advantages Jamaica as an investment opportunity. Richards explained, “Jamaica is a stabledemocracy, we have an English-speaking

What’s the next port?

After nearly 30 years as a diplomat, Richards isn’t certain what will be next. For themoment, she is still working on what sheterms her “J-J garden,” a fusion of Jamaica
and Japan, growing mosses, tulips and her
beloved Bougainvilleas, and is focused on her
carrying out her duties as a member of thethe U.N. secretary-general’s Advisory Board
on Disarmament Matters to which she wasappointed recently. After so many years as adiplomat, Richards is still a confident believerin the power of culture. “Everyone is using
soft power nowadays,” she said. “We just haveto rely on it more.”

Times Gallery

Don Bravo

Italian restaurant innovates in suburban Tokyo

The celebration of Tequila Day and the launch of the Visit Mexico website
in Japanese took place at the Embassy of Mexico with reporters, celebrities and company representatives in attendance. Shown here are Ambassador Melba Pria and Japanese talent Exile ÜSA. EMBASSY OF MEXICO

wheat flour rise in the refrigerator for two tothree days before baking it in a wood-fired
oven at 450 degrees Celsius for just a minuteand a half. The result is a dough that when
baked is clearly savory, crispy and sharply
delicious, a flavor that is unique to the Don
Bravo group of restaurants.
Complementing the various hidden innovations in Taira’s orthodox menu are clearly
more experimental dishes, such as confit ofAddress
Don Bravo
3-6-43 Kokuryocho,
Chofu-shi, Tokyo
https://www.donbravo.
net
ayu sweetfish served with Shine Muscats
and edamame. He also provides alcohol pairings as well as nonalcoholic pairings such as
Chablis-inspired blended teas with lemon
peel and other ingredients.
Opening a high-end restaurant in a residential district is one adventure, and including pizza to the high-end menu is another,but many foodies today are starting toembrace such a bold attitude.

YURIKO KOIKE
GOVERNOR OF TOKYOYOSHIKI NAGATOMO
MAYOR OF CHOFU

We are very pleased that
the Italian restaurant Don
Bravo was selected as one of
the Destination Restaurants
2022. Don Bravo, locatedin the city of Chofu in the Tama area, takes
extreme care with the ingredients and techniques of the dishes it offers, and is endorsedby many gourmets. One of Tokyo’s strengths
is how you can enjoy food from all over theworld, with charming restaurants around themetropolis devoting themselves to improving their cuisine. We hope that people fromaround the world will come to Tokyo andenjoy the charms of its various cuisines.

We are very pleased thatDon Bravo was selected as
one of the Destination Restaurants 2022 and that chef
Masakazu Taira chose thecity of Chofu as the location for opening Don
Bravo. Though Chofu is located near the metropolitan center, it is blessed with rich naturesuch as lush greenery and spring water typical of the historical Musashino region and thegently flowing Tama River. It is a scenic townthat features the ancient Jindaiji temple.
When you come to Tokyo, take a little
detour to Chofu, and while strolling around,go spend a wonderful time at Don Bravo.

TAKEO TERAOCONTRIBUTING WRITERDon Bravo is neither located in a rural areaabundant with nature, nor in a tourist destination. It is located in a residential area inTokyo’s suburbs, the Kokuryo district of thecity of Chofu, a place people do not usuallyvisit in search of gastronomic delights.
Chef Masakazu Taira, owner of the Tokyo
restaurant Don Bravo learned his skills atsome of Italy’s most prestigious restaurants.
Using superior ingredients and techniques,
he cooks every pizza with the utmost care,winning over the hearts and minds of hisguests. With time, the restaurant graduallyattracted a more gourmet fan base, and thecuisine it offered changed to suit.
Today he offers pasta and pizza lunch specials. In early summer, he starts with a cold
corn soup. The second dish is raw oysters
with Sicilian lemon oil. There is nothing surprising in these combinations of ingredients;
indeed, they are the height of orthodoxy,“serving a dish that people have never seen
before might result in a brief surge of popularity, but it wouldn’t last long. I want to serve
dishes that everyone knows but develop
new ways of cooking them to deliver higherquality.” For example, he does not follow
the Neapolitan style of making pizza, which
is characterized by a soft and fluffy dough;instead, he lets a dough that includes whole-Organized by the Embassy of Panama, Panama Film Weekend — Latin
American Movies in Japan was held at Libra Hall in Tokyo from July 22
to 24, in which four Panamanian movies produced in Panama wereshown. EMBASSY OF PANAMA

After four years inJapan, Ambassador
Pekka Orpana andMrs. Paula KuruOrpana said goodbye to friends andcolleagues at afarewell reception at
the Finnish Embassyin Tokyo. EMBASSY

Upon completing hertenure, Slovenian
Ambassador Ana
Polak Petric met
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko
Koike to thank her
for the successful
Olympic Games,
which further
deepened cooperation between Japanand Slovenia.

OF FINLANDEMBASSY OF SLOVENIA

Acclaimed director and choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou, known for
creating the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics, presented
his latest work, “Transverse Orientation,” in Tokyo and Kyoto. Here hestands with Greek Ambassador Dimitrios Caramitsos-Tziras (center) andMargarita Mavromichalis. JUNKO NAGATA@GREECEJAPAN.COMThe Embassy of Bolivia in Japan celebrated the 197th anniversary ofBolivia’s independence at the Kumin Center Hall in Tokyo’s Akasaka
area on Aug. 7. From left: Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign
Affairs Kentaro Uesugi, Bolivian Charge d’Affaires Natalia Salazar andTako Mayor Tomiko Hirayama. EMBASSY OF BOLIVIAAmbassador Aleksandra Kovac of Serbia with Hiroshima MayorKazumi Matsui during her visit to the city on July 8. She also visited
memorial sites and discussed cultural exchange projects with the Senda
Pan Flute Choir, supported by EU-Japan Fest. EMBASSY OF SERBIA

The minister of internal affairs and communications, Yasushi Kaneko, andthe First Deputy Minister of Communications of Cuba, Wilfredo Gonzalez(center) meet to discuss bilateral cooperation in telecommunications. At
right is Cuban Ambassador Miguel A. Ramirez. EMBASSY OF CUBA

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