The Jamaican Embassy in Tokyo must be one of the liveliest and people oriented I have seen, well, not like I know how any other embassy operates, but I can imagine. The Embassy has line up of events in celebration with Jamaica's 60th year of independence. [Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962.] The day is celebrated as a national holiday on the island.
The Embassy of Jamaica in Tokyo has planned a year long celebration for the 60th year of independence for Jamaica. The celebrations started off with JBMC Day ( Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Day. The event was a success as over 30 Japanese journalist ands influencers took part in the event. Of course, they were treated to some complementary Blue Mountain and performances. For those of you who don't know, Japan is the largest consumer of Blue Mountain Coffee in the world.
The next event on the roster is called "Diamond Selectionz" Celebrating 60 years of Jamaican Music Inna DJ Style. This is inline with Reggae month, held every February since 2008. The event of course will be online, streaming on facebook. Many DJs are on the line up, but the two that stand out to me are DJ Delano from the Renaissance sound and Sami-T from Mighty Crown. According to H.E. Ms. Shorna-Kay M. Rchards, ( Jamaican Ambassador to Japan): "This will be one of the must attend events for the year long celebration".
In March, the event will coincide with International Woman's Day. I am looking forward to see what they have in store. The ambassador also gave mention of an event called Culture Yaad which will be the first in person event under the ambassador's appointment which started in 2020. The event will include, fun food and reggae music, most likely in the hear of Tokyo. There will also be a national day reception in September where members of the Jamaican community in Japan will have the opportunity to celebrate alongside Japanese business and government officials. I went to one of these events a couple years back and it was a good time. I think I even made a post about it on the block
Below is a picture of the H.E. Ms. Shorna-Kay M. Richards, The Jamaican Ambassador for Japan. I must say, she is doing a great job in her role and I look forward to meeting her this year. Who knows, maybe I can pitch Reggaejahm to her and see what the embassy can do? Hmmm nah, but I will definitely let her know what we are up to. The Jamaica Embassy in Japan Goes Hard!
You can read more about H.E. Ms. Shorna-Kay M. RICHARDS in an interview she did here.
Sources:
The Jamaica Gleaner
The Jamaican Embassy Tokyo Facebook page
ReggaeJAHM.com