【Photo Diary】 (2) Visit to Norway to Mark 150 Years Since Discovery of Leprosy Bacillus

Published on August 3, 2023

I would like to share with you some of the photographs taken during my visit to Bergen, Norway, from June 19 to 24, 2023, in my capacity as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and chairman of The Nippon Foundation.

During my stay in Norway’s second largest city, I attended a two-day international conference to celebrate the 150th anniversary of discovery of Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, by the Norwegian Dr. Gerhard Armauer Hansen in 1873.

[June 21, Bergen, Norway]

Stradivarius mini concert: From left, Ms. Rino Yoshimoto (1st violin), Mr. Florian Schötz (2nd violin), Mr. Raphael Paratore (cello) and Mr. Pinchas Adt (3rd violin), all playing Stradivarius instruments on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, The Nippon Foundation’s partner organization.
Under the Instrument Loan Project launched in 1994 to make greater contributions toward classical music, The Nippon Music Foundation has now come to own 21 instruments made by Antonio Stradivari and Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù and loans them gratis to young promising musicians and internationally active musicians regardless of their nationalities.

 

With the Earl of St. Andrews, chairman of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, during a coffee break.

 

With commemorative blocks to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1873 discovery of the leprosy bacillus by Dr. Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen.

 

Another wonderful performance for the evening reception.

 

Posing with the performers: from left, the author, Mr. Pinchas Adt, Rector Margareth Hagen of the University of Bergen, Ms. Rino Yoshimoto, Mr. Raphael Paratore and Mr. Florian Schötz.

 

With Mr. Artur Custódio Moreira de Sousa of the Movement for the Reintegration of People Affected by Hansen’s Disease (Morhan) of Brazil.

 

From left, Mr. Hide SakaguchiI, president of the Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation; Mr. Haakon Steinar Vatle, CEO of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation; Mr. Bernt Jacob Pettersen, its board leader; and the author.
The Bergen-based foundation owns and operates the sailing vessel Statsraad Lehmkuhl, which made a 20-month One Ocean Expedition global training voyage including a port call in Japan as part of the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science initiative.  
I stressed the importance of nurturing marine experts through such training voyages and other means who will come together to meet the existential challenges facing our oceans.

(To be continued

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【Photo Diary】 (1) Visit to Norway to Mark 150 Years Since Discovery of Leprosy Bacillus

August 1, 2023
I would like to share with you some of the photographs taken during my visit to Bergen, Norway, from June 19 to 24, 2023, in my capacity as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and chairman of The Nippon Foundation.During my stay in Norway’s second largest city, I attended a two-day international conference to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the discovery of Mycobacterium leprae, the

【Photo Diary】 (3) Visit to Norway to Mark 150 Years Since Discovery of Leprosy Bacillus

August 3, 2023
I would like to share with you some of the photographs taken during my visit to Bergen, Norway, from June 19 to 24, 2023, in my capacity as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and chairman of The Nippon Foundation.During my stay in the second largest city in Norway, I attended a two-day international conference to celebrate the 150th anniversary of discovery of Mycobacterium leprae, th