On June 21, the NEAR Secretariat invited the NEAR Honorary Ambassador to Aomori Prefecture, Japan and held an online meeting with him.

The event was attended by Mr. Sumi Toshiyuki, NEAR Honorary Ambassador to Japan, Secretary-General Kim Ok-chae, experts on different NEAR member countries, and the Japanese government official seconded to the NEAR Secretariat. They discussed how to revitalize the promotion of NEAR.

NEAR Secretary-General Kim Ok-chae explained how he started the program to appoint NEAR ambassadors and pointed out that the NEAR member regional governments of Japan have been relatively passive in recent times. Mr. Kim asked Mr. Sumi to promote NEAR hereafter.

Chairman Sumi of the NPO Aomori Korea Net, the NEAR Honorary Ambassador to Japan responded that he would pay attention to the role played by NEAR, which has been active in diverse areas. He said he would make his best effort to promote NEAR.

The NEAR Secretariat first appointed local opinion leaders as NEAR Honorary Ambassadors in 2020. Based on their abundant knowledge and experience, they are able to communicate directly with the community residents of each member regional government to promote NEAR. Currently, there are 41 working honorary ambassadors from five countries: China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Russia.