UNAFEI 173rd International Seminar
By Irani Ganga Wakishta Arachchi, LLM (Wales), LLM (Malta)
Attorney-at-Law
Senior State Counsel [Senior Public Prosecutor]
Attorney General’s Department
Sri Lanka

On behalf of my fellow participants from Japan and overseas, the participants of
the 173rd International Programme of UNAFEI, I consider it a great honour and privilege
to stand here today, this evening, amongst you, especially the day before our departure,
to express our sincere gratitude to those who very well deserve it.
For most of us, this was the first time in Japan though I have been here twice before.
But I have to tell you that this is the first time I have been fully exposed to a hundred
percent Japanese atmosphere. More often than not, we have heard, read or as of thepresent era ‘googled’ about Japan. It is common that the Japanese bear an international
reputation as being punctual, methodical, hard-working and polite, some characteristics
we strive to achieve at times back home. Moreover, Japan is also renowned for its safety,
beauty, rich nature, unique architecture and, above all, their hospitality. We were indeed
fortune to experience all these good qualities during our stay here. I will elaborate themlater.
From the day we arrived in Japan, be it at Haneda or Narita Airports, we weretreated with much kindness, to which we are very grateful firstly to JICA and then toUNAFEI. As is the routine, most of us here spent the initial day or two at the JICA TokyoInternational Centre. All staff therein were so caring and were constantly trying theirlevel best to assist us and manage the activities conducted at the JICA Tokyo
International Centre to facilitate our smooth integration to the next phase of theprogramme. In this regard, let me express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Ukai, and the twobeautiful and elegant Japanese ‘Mother hens’, Ms. Hisa and Ms. Aratani. From the time
we set foot on Japanese soil until we board the planes tomorrow and the day after, I am
certain that we kept them really occupied, at times burdening them with all our problems
and at times on a daily basis. They were our ombudsmen, or should I call them‘ombudswomen’? Needless to say, they had some kind of solution to each and every
problem we handed them. May I wish that you continue to be JICA Coordinators formany more years!
The orientation programme at the JICA Tokyo International Centre was an eye
opener for all of us and helped us actually confirm what we have either heard, learnedor read about Japan. When I learned that traditionally the Japanese wife is entitled tothe monthly pay check of her spouse, oh, I wanted to be Japanese!
Nothing could compare to the warm welcome we received at the UNAFEI
premises upon our arrival. I still don’t know whether it is a typical Japanese greeting orno, but they were all assembled at the main entrance, waving their hands, full of smiles,
and even carried our bags! At that moment I realized ‘Watashi-wa Nihon ga dai suki desu’(I love Japan). Later this practice became a common occurrence whenever we either leftor reached the UNAFEI premises, and the practice gave us much joy. I am sure we will
experience the same salutation, but of course, this time we would all depart with a very
heavy heart. Because we have created deep rooted bonds that run across 17 countries
including Japan. By now we have found friends that will last a lifetime and more. We
will definitely miss UNAFEI, JICA and Japan, but each of you will always have a placein my heart.
An interesting tailor-made programme awaited us with the main theme revolving
round ‘Violence against women and children: how to prevent reoffending’, aninternational concern, if not properly addressed, will cost countries, millions of dollars ayear. The learning was not limited to paper, since we encountered ample travelling by

way of site visits that exposed us to various aspects of the criminal justice system here inJapan. At times, it was difficult to comprehend whether it was enjoying the learning orlearning to enjoy. Imagine our surprise when we heard that it was a KING at UNAFEI
who did all this – KING Taku, or Prof. Takuya Furuhashi, our programme officer. No
wonder we received royal treatment wherever we went! Please accept our heartiest
congratulations for a job well done, Prof. Furuhashi! We are ever so grateful. You andyour team here need a good round of applause from us.
The cross section of the participants, including judges, prosecutors, correctional
and probation officers, the visiting experts from overseas as well the Japanese experts
took us through a plethora of lectures, workshops, practical exercises which were topic
oriented. More often than not, the day was not enough to ask questions in clarification.
Their input was so interesting that we were totally immersed with the issues pertaining
to violence against women and children, offender rehabilitation and prevention ofrecidivism. The best experience was our first-hand exposure to the Japanese criminal
justice system and their best practices. Some of us were so fortunate that we even had
the privilege of speaking to two judges!! Many thanks to Jun-san, our group’s saibankan(judge) for organizing this visit.
The study tour to Hiroshima, Osaka and Kyoto was the highlight of theprogramme. So was the Yamanashi prefectural police visit. I was slightly luckier thanmy fellow participants to have made a visit to Sapporo at the courtesy of the Asia Crime
Prevention Foundation (ACPF). I fulfilled my dream of visiting the Royce chocolate
factory at Chitose airport on this visit. All the teams that made their respective visitswere fascinated by the Japanese criminal justice system as well as their hospitality. Ourmouths ached, ears full, from the chit chat for days to follow. Some of us made it to thenews, to the papers or magazines that carried our photos. A heartfelt ‘thank you to ACPF’
from all of us for the memorable two days, especially to Yoshida san for his superb andrelentless coordinating efforts to make us comfortable and at ease, all the time.

The most exciting was the visit to the Hiroshima Memorial Centre. As a child anda student, I had read so much about Hiroshima, and I was spell bound when I saw thereality. Coming from a country where the Japanese bombed in the 1940s, I still could not
imagine the devastation experienced by Hiroshima itself. The marked difference of thevisitors was apparent—they were full of laughter upon entry and the faces so sad anddead silence prevailed upon exit. So much was the impact of the audio-visual displays.
Imagine what it could have been to be really in it. So, I did what I always wanted to do
all my life, pray for the peace of those whose lives were sacrificed for no fault of theirown. It also teaches us the devastating effect of atomic or nuclear bombs, or weapons ofmass destruction and why the world should canvass ‘peace’ instead of war. Why
violence of any form should not be tolerated any further and canvass for and practice‘prosperity without crime’.
Now again to the good side of things. I enjoyed leaning Japanese as a language. I
even managed to introduce myself in Japanese. And therefore ‘Minasan-ni aete ureshiku
omoimasu ’ (pleased to meet you).
But none of these wonderful experiences would have been possible if not for JICA,
both here and in our respective countries. To JICA, ‘Konotabiwa omaneki itadaki arigatou
gozaimashita’. I wish that JICA would continue its missions for generations to come. In
addition to JICA, ACPF sponsored us on many occasions to cushion our stay here andwherever we went so that we never faced any inconvenience at all. I will fail in my duty
today if I do not mention the extent of care and concern demonstrated by the officers ofthe ACPF Sapporo branch to look after the two of us, Masan and myself. However, when
the pilot announced that we cannot land due to bad weather, which I witnessed frommy window, and indeed it was, with butterflies in the stomach, I woke Mr. Ken and Ma
up and told them to pray!
Despite the bad weather, the ACPF Sapporo branch cared so much for us that fromthe time we departed UNAFEI they were in contact with Mr. Ken, our companionthrough the tour, I think he is not here today, inquiring about us and our foodpreferences. So much so, we ended up having a ‘Chinese’ dinner in Japan after the party!
Catching the ‘Missing the spices’ I would call it later. Let me wish that ACPF would
continue to live their mission “Prosperity without Crime” and spread it like a virus in its
true sense to minimize crimes all over the world. Once again thank you ACPF for yourkind generosity.
We would never forget all the staff members here at UNAFEI, be it at the cafeteria,
security or cleaning, whoever facilitated our daily survival here. Our heartfelt thanks go
to the secretariat staff headed by Mr. Fujita. There are nine to be exact, Mr. Koseki, Mr.
Onda, Mr. Saito, Ms. Matsuda (the lady with the camera), Mr. Kondo, Ms. Iinuma (Hasan), Ms. Hisayo and finally the librarian, Ms. Naoko. Thank you very much indeed!
Now let me turn to the UNAFEI Professors. Back home, when we werecommunicating with UNAFEI via email, we visualized these ‘professors’ in comparison
to that of our countries. Oh, they ruined our imagination at the welcome stage anddisappointed us on the very first day itself! Do you know why? They are a set of very
young—compared to me that is—and energetic handsome men and beautiful women as
opposed to the professors who are, for sure 60 plus back home! Even though one cannot
summarize their efforts into words, because words are inadequate, however eloquent
one is. Arigatou gozaimashita to the team of professors here at UNAFEI! Our gratitude toyou runs so very deep. I regret that individual names cannot be mentioned, as by now
you are waiting for me to finish, but I should mention one person that lingered with usalways whenever she was around, the Deputy Director Ms. Ishihara, who was always
there with us enjoying the nights at lounge B! Thank you, madam.
The unique feature we experienced at UNAFEI was that almost all their professors
and academic staff, as well as Director Seto and Deputy Director Ishihara sitting throughour sessions every day, the whole day. That was amazing! I don’t know who ran their

show, unless it was on ‘auto pilot’. They were so attuned to the sessions, providing us
the necessary guidance and, at times, with their prompt interventions!
Now let me turn to our Japanese friends. To all the five ‘sans’, Jun, Ayumi, Aki,
Yayoi and Shin. You were wonderful! To start with, Jun-san was always at our service.
We were so privileged to have the ‘Saibankan’ waiting for us because, upon our return,at least for the Japanese participants, be prepared to await him next! Ayumi the everenergetic prosecutor, she always had things that are Japanese to eat, anytime, anywhere.
Aki, the artist, who was always so very helpful. Yayoi the ‘chocolate lady’ who I bumped
into at the gym whenever I went there. She was there every day! Shin saw that his
conversations with us was minimal—the language was the barrier, oh, but you are a kind
one, Shin san.
Day after day, on weekdays and weekends, from morning until night, frombreakfast to dinner, on the trains and buses, we shared precious moments and had fun.
At one point we accidently found out that the official camera could do ‘selfies’! Being
able to see a smile in the cafeteria or hear ohayou gozaimasu, konnchiwa, konbanwa, or aburst of laugher emanating from somewhere in the building was heartwarming. We all
giggled during the Japanese classes and moved our bodies the best way we could in
Lounge B, our party point. Yes, we did it all together. And, yes, all these memories are
unforgettable.
Unknown to Taku san, Ayumi and Aki had a mission especially assigned by me,that is to teach me Japanese. So I hope my Japanese teachers are content with theirstudent by today. Please let us put our hands together for the Japanese participants of
the 173rd UNAFEI Programme as they were our lifelines here in Japan, always, I repeat,
always assisting us with whatever we wanted to do or wherever we wanted to go. They
facilitated our smooth transition to the Japanese culture and mannerisms. Hontou-ni
arigatou gozaimashita. I sincerely hope the connections we made will last long.

Outstanding hospitality was extended to us by the Volunteer Probation Officers
during our visits to their respective homes. They showered us not with only with food,but also gifts. Ms. Iizuka and her VPO friends entertained us with music and evenprovided us with material big enough to enable three groups to sit and watch thefireworks at Chofu. I pity those who missed it. We really appreciate the services renderedby the Volunteer Probation Officers here in Japan, to encourage and engage inrehabilitation and to promote social integration of their respective assignments.
Finally, let me also thank each and every one of the fellow participants who camehere with me, from all over the world, for their understanding, cooperation and theconnectivity we have by now established. If not for you, it would have been very boring
indeed. Thank you very much for your contributions in any manner whatsoever, to makethese five weeks interesting and enjoyable.
To all of you once again, I thank you very much for your patience. I hope I did notbore you too much with all the details. Finally, let me wish each and every one of you asafe journey home tonight. To the rest of you, have a safe flight home, reunite with yourfamilies, but keep us in your hearts!
Saikou-no omoide-wo arigatou gozaimashita.