ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OMITTED 

This is a very special part of Australia's landscape and Canberra’s landscape. It's the home of our first federal parliament and now a museum of democracy that holds so much of our history and so many of our values and aspirations as modern Australians. I'm also the first Canberra-born Governor-General, which I take very seriously, specifically coming to places like this that tell so much about Australia's history, about the history of Canberra and our parliamentary democracy that I grew up with. And it's always such a delight for me and all Australians to host visitors here in our beautiful capital city, especially now. And I'm sure everybody is enjoying our autumn trees. The leaves and the colors here are spectacular. And I know that Autumn is a season which is particularly special to the Japanese people as well.

Governor Uchibori, thank you for hosting us and sharing the produce and the sake of Fukushima, but most importantly, thank you for that inspiring presentation. To see that you took from such difficult circumstances such extraordinarily optimistic opportunities, and the way you described what it took as a leader to take people from that sense of pessimism to pride in the prefecture, and to do that with a hope that your children and the children that will come want to be proud of the Fukushima Prefecture after such a difficult time, you told such a wonderful story.

My husband has a long and special relationship with Japan. Having been an exchange student in western Tokyo for a year in 1982. He's been studying Japanese and Japanese culture ever since. He introduced me and our daughter, who's now 25, to Japan. And we try, or at least we did try, before my appointment, to visit Japan every year. I also had the very rare and special opportunity to attend the seventh anniversary commemoration of the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami when I traveled with Melanie Brock. Melanie, as a dear friend, invited me to join her, and we traveled to Minamisanriku, and I attended the very important and solemn commemoration with the mayor there. I was very much struck by the fact that seven years later, it was still a source of great sadness, but also of great hope. Back then, in 2018, the recovery process was well underway. We wandered around that community and met many of the people involved in that reconstruction. But so much more has happened. The economic, social and environmental recovery has continued to be deeply impressive and very encouraging and very exciting.

Australia has a very warm and close relationship with Japan, and especially with the people of Fukushima following that devastating earthquake and tsunami. Australia, like Japan, knows about disasters. We know what it's like when nature erupts in catastrophic events. We're not as prone to earthquakes as Japan is, but we're living with flooding rains right now, not far from here, and we've seen them so devastatingly this week, take lives. We've also had to live with regular bush fires, cyclones, heat and many years of drought around our country. And I'm just very proud that when I look back and think about the Australia that responded to the people of Japan, the people of Fukushima, intuitively and generously, we knew the heartache and the mental and economic strain that lay ahead of you.

Our prime minister at the time, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, visited Minamisanriku in the month after the disaster, and saw firsthand what the tsunami had left in its wake. Prime Minister Gillard took with her all of Australia's condolences and our readiness to continue to help the people of Japan. I think, as you noted, she was the first official international leader to make the journey to spend time with you, and I know that meant a great deal.

I'm glad that we've been part of the recovery ever since, as a country and individuals across Australia who have a deep connection to Japan, I'm delighted to see that trade and travel between our countries is rising, and your astonishing numbers of return of tourists and your export markets must be so pleasing. Australians are already enjoying imports from Fukushima Prefecture, beef and rice, sake and seaweed. I know that close to 1 million Australians traveled to Japan last year, 50% more than the year before, and that will continue to grow. There is something very dear about Japan that draws us back again and again, and never fails to draw new generations. I know that our relationship will only grow stronger in the years ahead.