Japanese Ambassador Tarumi Hideo delivers a speech at the ceremony on February 25. Photo: Courtesy of Embassy of Japan in China

After three years, the 13th China-Japan Friendship Adult Ceremony was successfully held at the Embassy of Japan in China on February 25. Japanese Ambassador Tarumi Hideo, Chinese and Japanese guests attended the ceremony on that day. 

The event was organized by the Beijing Japanese Student Association, with the theme of "My Time, Inherit the Past and Develop the Future." About 140 Chinese and Japanese new adults attended the ceremony. In his speech, Ambassador Tarumi Hideo quoted the Chinese poem "There is a chance to meet thousands of miles, but there is no chance to meet each other," and talked about the power of the destiny, hoping that young people of Japan and China would feel the magic of destiny by attending the coming of age ceremony together at the Japanese Embassy. "I hope that people could pay attention to and concern about each other's culture, society and history in the future and through a variety of communication to enhance mutual understanding, and write a new chapter in the development of Japan and Chinese relations," he said. The traditional Japanese ceremony was held at the end of the event, to wish the new adults to enter a new path in life.