Happy New Year! All of us at The Nippon Foundation wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2024.

Turning 85 on January 8, I am ready for taking on challenges in the months ahead and beyond.

On January 31, I will visit WHO headquarters in Geneva in my capacity as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and chairman of The Nippon Foundation to jointly issue the 19th annual Global Appeal to End Stigma and Discrimination against Persons Affected by Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Initiated in 2006, the annual appeal is issued on or near World Leprosy Day, which falls on the last Sunday in January. It calls for an end to the unwarranted discrimination that persons affected by leprosy continue to face and aims to spread awareness of this issue. Over the years, this message has been endorsed by, among others, political, business, academic and religious leaders around the world.

From February 7, I plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to display a flag with the message “Don’t Forget Leprosy” at the top of Africa’s highest mountain.

This will be a follow-up to my ascent of the 3,776-meter-high Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak, in the summer of 2022, which I climbed to give a boost to the “Don’t Forget Leprosy” campaign that I launched in August 2021. The campaign was initiated to send the message that leprosy and those who are affected by it must not to be forgotten even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

By climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, I want to mark a fresh start in the fight against leprosy in Africa and other parts of the world.

I understand that the air at the top of Kilimanjaro contains only about a third of the oxygen that it does at sea level, and the temperature drops to 15 degrees below zero Celsius. There is only a small possibility－around 10%, I am told－of me reaching the 5,895-meter summit.

I have learned that for an 85-year-old senior citizen with a Grade 1 disability－I have a pacemaker implanted in my chest－reaching the top of Kilimanjaro would merit a place in the Guinness World Records.

My family jokingly said this isn’t something suitable for a man of my age to be undertaking. But I am completely serious. I take the climb as reconfirming my strong resolve to achieve my life-long quest for a world without leprosy and the stigma and discrimination associated with it.

I am doing everything necessary to prepare well for the trip. On the ascent, I will be accompanied by two doctors and five staff members of The Nippon Foundation, including my secretary and photographer.

And please don’t worry. I will also have the courage to stop if I feel it is the right thing to do.