Iran, Japan call for broadening of cultural interactions

Iranian and Japanese officials, in a meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, underlined the need for the expansion of cultural relations between the two countries. During the meeting in the Iranian capital, Head of Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Arts Ehsan Aqaei and Japanese Ambassador to Tehran Koji Haneda discussed cultural interactions and arranging exhibitions of the two countries’ contemporary artworks. Aqaei expressed the hope that the Japanese ambassador would help reinforce the cultural relations between Tehran and Tokyo. “If the Japanese envoy has any program for holding joint exhibitions and propose it to us, we will eagerly study it and specify our possible areas of cooperation,” the Iranian official said. The Japanese ambassador, for his part, pointed to the status-quo in the cultural relations between Iran and Japan, and said, “As the head of Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Arts said the interactions between Iran and Japan should expand, specially in the fields of arts and culture in which we are willing to further expand our cooperation with your museum.” Diplomatic relations between Iran and Japan were formally established in 1926 and throughout history, the two countries have maintained a friendly and strongly cooperation in various arenas. The two countries' officials have held talks in different economic, trade, political and cultural fields in recent years to explore new ways of expanding bilateral ties. Iran is one of the main oil suppliers to Japan.