PM Hou joins Japanese PM in wreath laying ceremony

BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO IN JAPAN

PRIME Minister Rick Houenipwela on Friday joined Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and 14 other Pacific Island nations in a wreath-laying memorial ceremony for the Tsunami victims in Iwaki, Fukushima.

PM Hou and wife Madame Rachael Hou were present when Japan PM Abe and co-chair of the PALM 8th summit, Samoa’s representative minister, laid a wreath to remember the fallen.

The ‘great east Japan earthquake’, biggest in history of Japan occurred in 2011 killing hundreds of people and devastating the whole of Iwaki and Fukushima.

The wreath laying ceremony was held after the welcome ceremony at the Yumoto station, Iwaki which PM Hou was part of.