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Fitial offers land to honor Japan emperor
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Posted on Apr 22 2006
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has volunteered his family land for the construction of a memorial commemorating the 2005 visit of Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko to Saipan.
“I have offered my own family land in Marpi to build a memorial in honor of Emperor Akihito’s recent visit to the Commonwealth,” said Fitial in his first annual State of the Commonwealth Address on April 22.
The emperor and empress made a historic visit to Saipan on June 28 and 29, 2005, to mourn the World War II dead.
Also, the governor said that his administration aims to build a temple and another Japanese memorial in the CNMI “in honor of World War II casualties.”
He disclosed these plans even as he noted that the CNMI will continue to revive the Japanese market.
“One of our main priorities is to revive the Japanese tourism industry. Although Japanese tourist arrivals dropped…we continue to be bullish on Japan, a growing economy,” said Fitial.
He cited that Japan arrivals went down 21 percent in February this year, compared with the same month last year. In March, the market plunged 26 percent compared with March 2005. Arrivals from Japan last month totaled 24,309.
The market suffered heavily due primarily to the departure of Japan Airlines in October 2005. The airline used to bring in 155,000 tourists from Japan annually.
In his speech, Fitial said it was encouraging that former Japanese congressman Saburo Tsukamoto visited the CNMI at his invitation “and pledged to bring back Japanese investments.”
Further, Fitial told his audience that he is quite proud “of securing additional Northwest flights during one of my visits to Japan” this year.
Northwest flies daily from Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. Following Fitial’s visit to Japan last February, the airline said it would introduce another flight from Narita beginning tomorrow, April 24. This new service from Tokyo, which flies three times a week, is seen to generate an additional 5,160 seats from Japan per month.
Japan arrivals reflect more than 60 percent of the overall tourist arrivals in the CNMI a year.
Last year, the CNMI received over 500,000 tourists. The Fitial administration aims to increase this figure to 1 million after four years.
