Awards Ceremony for the Sixth Iue Asia Pacific Culture Prize and Iue Asia Pacific Research Prize

The Awards Ceremony for the 6th Iue Asia Pacific Culture Prize and Iue Asia Pacific Research Prize was held at the Kobe Portopia Hotel on October 12 (Fri.), 2007. In the first session of the Awards Ceremony, Mr. Satoshi Iue, Representative Director, Asia Pacific Forum, Awaji Conference Japan (Representative Honorary Member of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.) presented a prize certificate and a check for five million yen to Mr. Keijiro Otsuka, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International Rice Research Institute, the organization that won the Iue Asia Pasific Culture Prize. Mr. Iue also presented a prize certificate and a check for one million yen to Mr. Yoshihiro Nakanishi and Mr. Nissim Kadosh Otmazgin that won the Iue Asia Pasific Research Prize. In addition, the dissertation by Ms. Tamaki Endo was selected for “Commendation” and awarded a certificate and memorial. Following that, Mr. Yoneo Ishii, Chairman of the Judges Committee for the Asia Pacific Culture Prize, and Mr. Makoto Iokibe, Chairman of the Judges Committee for the Asia Pacific Research Prize, explained their reasons for selecting this year’s prizewinners. After that, the winners themselves gave an acceptance speech and the research selected for the Asia Pacific Research Prize was introduced. In the second session of the Awards Ceremony, Mr. Keijiro Otsuka introduced the activities of the IRRI under the title of the “IRRI’s Mission and Impact of ‘Green Revolution’”. Next, with the coordination of Mr. Yoneo Ishii (President, National Institutes for the Humanities), Mr. Keijiro Otsuka of IRRI and Mr. Iwao Watanabe, Auditor for the Institute of Fertilizer Science, talked about “Environmental and Food Issues: IRRI’s Challenge” as part of a commemorative discussion. The Awards Ceremony was attended by Mr. Om Prakash, Consul General, Consulate-General of the India in Osaka and Ms. Maria Lourdes V. Ramiro Lopez, Consul General, Philippine Consulate-General in Osaka, and some 100 other people. The audience listened attentively to the acceptance speeches of the prizewinners and the commemorative discussion.