Visit of TAO site by Mr. Hidenori Murakami, Japan Ambassador in Chile

There is the history of interchange more than 110 years between Japan and Chile since the Japan-Chile Treaty of Amity and Commerce Agreement were concluded in 1897. After that Japan is a country having the oldest friendly relationship in Asian countries for Chile. As well as cooperation about politics and the economy, the conclusion of promotion and the tax convention of the cooperation in the field of disaster prevention pushes the interchange promotion in the field of technology more these days.

Mr. Hidenori Murakami, Japan Ambassador resident in Chile, visited to TAO Chajnantor site on February14, 2012. It was good opportunity to see the academic activity of The University of Tokyo in Chile. He had a plan go to the observation facility on mountaintop at first, however he could not visit observatory due to historic heavy rain and to the high risk for access to the mountaintop. He inspected the observatory from place of 5,000m above see level and commented as follows. "I can recognize students of the University of Tokyo are working in hard environment and they are put under intense international competition. I thank for this arrangement deeply."

Mr. Murakami, Japan Ambassador (left) and Mr. Nishi, secretary. The mountain of background is Co. Chascon near Co. Chajnantor.

Historic heavy rain around facility of ALMA

The following image is the brochure of Chile Embassy for introduction of Japan.Other than the cooperation in economy and technology with Japan, the cooperation with the academy is written extensively in the brochure. The astronomy in particular is the field that utilized the characteristic of the two countries to the maximum, and it cannot develop without the mutual support of the two countries. The most important point is the fusion of highest technologies that Japan provides and best observation site in the world for astronomy in Chile. It may be said that TAO is one of the important projects to become a target of mutual support for the two countries. It is expected in future by the further reinforcement of the cooperation system that there is bigger progress in the astronomy.