TORONTO, May 28, 2003 -- York University today joined the Japanese government’s Sakura Project, and will plant 250 Japanese flowering cherry trees on campus, symbolizing the long-standing close relationship between Japan and York.
Japan’s Consul General in Toronto, Takashi Koezuka, and York University President and Vice-Chancellor, Lorna R. Marsden, performed a ceremonial tree planting this morning on the grounds of York’s award-winning "green" Computer Science and Engineering Building.
"We are grateful to the Japanese government for this generous gift of Sakura, which acknowledges York University’s long friendship with Japan and support of Japanese culture," said Marsden. She added that York would host a meeting of Japanese and Canadian university presidents next year, in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of Canada-Japan diplomatic relations.
The Japanese flowering cherry tree, or Sakura, is a revered symbol of Japan. Its blossoming marks the arrival of spring and is celebrated in Waka and Haiku poetry and with annual Hanami, or flower-viewing picnics under the Sakura’s full bloom. York is the first university to participate in the Sakura Project, which aims to plant 3,000 trees in Ontario by 2005.
The Sakura in bloom in Toronto’s High Park are a gift from the City of Tokyo, made some 40 years ago in appreciation for Toronto accepting re-located Japanese following the Second World War. The Sakura Project began in 1990 with then Ambassador of Japan to Canada, Michio Mizoguchi, who wished to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation. The project was launched in Ontario in 2000. Funds are raised locally among Japanese Canadians and Canadian friends of Japan to obtain Japanese cherry tree varieties nurtured in North America.
York University’s support of Japanese culture is wide-ranging. York’s Japanese Language Program is one of the top ranked programs in the country, and York is the only university in Canada that offers a course in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language. A long standing institutional partnership with Meiji University in Tokyo supports Canadian Studies at Meiji and brings Meiji students to Toronto every summer to study at the York University English Language Institute (YUELI).
York University has taken the lead in Canada to promote the study of Asia Pacific peace and security, through the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS), and the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). York’s Osgoode Hall Law School has an exchange agreement with Waseda University Graduate School of Law to promote comparative and international legal education. Scholars in the International MBA program at York’s Schulich School of Business are currently investigating the penetration of Internet technologies in Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises relative to other developed and developing countries. York’s Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science (CRESS) collaborates with the Japanese Space program and Space researchers at Kyoto University and Nagoya University.
York professor and artist Ted Bieler is the creator of the stunning Wave Breaking sculpture that graces the entrance to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, and York’s Faculty of Fine Arts offers courses in Japanese tea ceremony and the shakuhachi flute, and master classes in the Japanese theatre arts.
-30-
For further information, please contact:
| Susan Bigelow | |
| Media Relations | |
| York University | |
| 416-736-2100, ext. 22091 | |
| sbigelow@yorku.ca |
YU/053/03
