Under the Japanese Camera Lens

On January 30 Hitoshi Honda, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ukraine, on behalf of the Japanese government transferred to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine audio and video equipment as a part of the Japanese cultural grant valued at 40.9 million Japanesc yen (approximately $350,000).

This program began in 1998 with an appeal from the National Museum of History of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Arts to Ukraine’s National Agency for Development and European Integration, which, in their turn, appealed to the Japanese Embassy in Ukraine with a request for help in obtaining audio and video equipment for the museum. A corresponding agreement in the form of exchanged notes was signed by the governments of both countries on July 30, 1999.

Last September the cultural grant from Japan arrived in Kyiv, and in December the equipment was assembled and adjusted in cooperation with Japanese specialists. The museum received 207 items of audio and video technical equipment: VCRs, television terminals, video theater, a video montage shop, digital cameras, and also audio equipment.

National Museum of History of Ukraine intends to use this equipment for a more complete showing of the exhibitions, holding conferences, symposiums, and lectures, as well as for organizing educational television programs on Ukrainian culture and history.