1/20/2016
Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture Establishes “Kuwait Friendship Medical Study Fund”

His Excellency Mr. Abdul-Rahman Humood Al-Otaibi, Ambassador of the State of Kuwait to Japan, received a courtesy call, on Tuesday January 20, 2016, by His Excellency Mr. Yoshihiro Murai, Governor of Miyagi Prefecture located in Northeast Japan.

H.E. Governor Murai expressed his gratitude to the State of Kuwait for supporting reconstruction efforts in Miyagi Prefecture and other affected areas in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011. He also commended Kuwait’s generosity towards Japan during that difficult period.

At the meeting that was attended by several officials from Miyagi Prefectural Government and by Mr. Yousef Al-Tarkit, Third Secretary at the Embassy of the State of Kuwait in Tokyo, the attendees touched upon the reconstruction progress, and discussed matters concerning the bilateral relations between the State of Kuwait and Japan.

H.E. Governor Murai announced that the prefecture would establish the “Kuwait Friendship Medical Study Fund” with a capital amounting to 9 billion yen, out of the 16 billion yen allocated to Miyagi Prefecture from the sales revenues of the Kuwaiti crude oil donation. The Fund would provide financial support to students in the Prefecture studying at a newly established School of Medicine at the University of Tohoku. This is in line with efforts to fill the need for doctors and medical facilities in the prefecture since the disaster.

Miyagi Prefecture is located in Northeast Japan and was one of three prefectures hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. Soon after the disaster, the State of Kuwait offered Japan a donation of 5 million barrels of crude oil, upon noble instructions by His highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Amir of the State of Kuwait.