President Tony Tan Keng Yam will make a State Visit to Japan from 28 November to 6 December 2016, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Japan (SJ50). This is President Tan’s first State Visit to Japan and the second ever State Visit by a Singapore President. During the visit, President Tan will visit Tokyo, Kyoto and Miyagi.
In Tokyo, President Tan will have an audience with and be hosted to a State Banquet by Their Majesties Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. President Tan will also meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will host President Tan to a banquet. In addition, President Tan will meet other Japanese political and business leaders, and attend a reception for Singaporeans residing in Japan.
In Kyoto, President Tan will be hosted to a banquet by Kyoto Prefecture Governor Keiji Yamada, Kyoto City Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa and the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In Miyagi, a prefecture in the Tohoku region which was affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, President Tan will visit the Shichigahama Toyama Nursery School. The school is one of the reconstruction projects funded by the Singapore Red Cross with donations from the Singapore Government and people.
President Tan will be accompanied by Mrs Mary Tan; Minister for Manpower Lim Swee Say; Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ms Sim Ann; Members of Parliament Ang Hin Kee and Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar; and senior officials from the President’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Manpower.
During President Tan’s absence, Mr J Y Pillay, Chairman of Council of Presidential Advisers will exercise the functions of the office of the President from 28 November to 1 December 2016 and Madam Halimah Yacob, Speaker of Parliament, will exercise the duties of the President from 2 to 6 December 2016.
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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
27 NOVEMBER 2016