【Photo Diary】(1) My 600th Overseas Trip: Belgium, the United Kingdom and Russia
Published on October 27, 2025
I would like to share with you some of the photographs taken during my 10-day, three-nation tour which brought me to Belgium, the United Kingdom and Russia from September 15 to 24, 2025, in my capacity as honorary chair of The Nippon Foundation.
In Brussels, I met with General Secretary David Edwards of Education International (EI), one of the world's largest teachers' organizations, to ask EI to endorse the Global Appeal 2026 to End Stigma and Discrimination Against Persons Affected by Leprosy to be launched in late January.
Moving on to London, I attended an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (GBSF).
In Moscow, I conferred with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and sat in on the signing of memoranda of understanding between the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) and two Russian thinktanks.
The tour marked my 600th overseas trip since 1980, when my secretary began keeping a record of the trips I made and the foreign leaders I met; on the occasion of that first trip, I met with then South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan in Seoul. Since then, I have visited 125 countries, spanning a total of 3,702 days.
I’ve had 571 meetings with heads of state/government and 1,504 meetings with ministers. If I include the years before 1980 (when I was 41), then the number of foreign trips is far higher.
[September 16, Brussels, Belgium]
With General Secretary David Edwards (far right) of Education International (EI). Through its 375 member organizations, Brussels-based EI represents more than 33 million teachers and education support personnel in 180 countries and territories.
This was the only meeting on this trip that I had in my capacity as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination as well as honorary chair of the foundation. Leprosy is also known has Hansen’s disease.
(To be continued)