Mamoru Shinohara, Ambassador of Japan to Costa Rica, has been quite busy lately. As reported by the Costa Rica Star in November, the government of Japan is working on a special clean energy project in Guanacaste. More recently, Ambassador Shinohara presented the keys of 45 vehicles to be used by rangers, firefighters and scientific researchers at our National Parks.

The vehicles are now under the responsibility of the National Conservation Areas System (Spanish acronym: SINAC). According to journalist Michelle Soto of national newspaper La Nacion, the fleet kindly donated by the land where the sun originates include:

• 30 pick-up trucks
• 11 Mitsubishi 4×4 sports utility vehicle
• 4 minivans

The donation above was augmented by network servers to connect SINAC field operations with administrative offices, portable computers, software licenses, and even firefighting equipment for the brave volunteers who make up the forest brigades in Costa Rica.

Altogether, this donation by the Embassy of Japan comes up to about $7.4 million. This is part of the Hatoyama diplomatic initiative, which is aimed directly at forest conservation projects and carbon credits. Future donations in this initiative are forthcoming; in June of 2014 the SINAC expects to receive small boats, outboard engines and jet skis for patrolling the waters surrounding San Lucas Island.

Other benefits of the Hatoyama initiative will include infrastructure repairs to SINAC facilities in the Manuel Antonio and San Lucas Island National Parks. In fact, a new visitors center in Manuel Antonio should be completed by 2015.

Costa Rica and Japan have enjoyed close diplomatic relations since 1928, although these relations were suspended from 1941 to 1953 due to World War II. After Costa Rica abolished her standing army on December 1st, 1948, politicians and jurists drew inspiration from Japan’s post-World War II Constitution and its renunciation of war to develop a blueprint for peace; this was actually part of the plot of the Metal Gear: Peace Walker video game. Since 1953, Costa Rica and Japan have been friendly nations.