From climate talk to NGO visit, Japanese first lady has her hands full on Sep 14

Ahmedabad : The Japanese PM and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will hold the 12th India-Japan annual summit in Gandhinagar on Thursday. Shinzo Abe will also join Modi in an 8-km road show from the Ahmedabad airport on Wednesday.

Ahmedabad district collector Avantika Singh said the Japanese first lady will visit various institutions where she will interact with people, and deliver a lecture on climate change at the Gujarat University. Akie Abe will visit Ahmedabad Management Association, Blind’s People Association, and the Gujarat University, apart from visiting Calico Museum and Sabarmati riverfront on September 14 as part of her visit to the state, Singh said.

Apart from a tour of the Sabarmati riverfront, Akie Abe will also visit the city’s heritage Calico Museum of Textiles, known for its distinguished and large collection of Indian textiles. The first lady is also slated to visit the vocational training unit of the Blind People’s Association, an NGO, and see the work being done by the inmates, the officer said.

She will inaugurate ‘Origami Mahotsav’ being organised by the Japan Information and Study Centre at the Ahmedabad Management Association.

After inaugurating the festival, which celebrates five decades of Gujarat’s vibrant bonding with Japan, Akie Abe will interact with 400 odd students of Japanese language who study there as well as around 30 Japanese students of the Gujarat University as part of an exchange programme.

On Thursday, the two prime ministers will attend the ground breaking ceremony for the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, commonly referred to as the Bullet Train project.