THE CONSULATE General of Japan in Seattle has a new Deputy Consul General, Junichi Sumi, who arrived in March. Sumi replaces Maki Kawamura (“Fourth Seijin-Shiki USA,” napost.com, Jan 2023), who has moved on to the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok.
Sumi is a Japanese Middle East expert, especially on Iran. To date, he has been stationed in Tokyo, London, Tehran, Kabul, then Tokyo, Baghdad, New York, then Tokyo and Tehran again. He speaks Japanese, English and Farsi (Persian). He hails from Izumo, “land of the gods,” on the Sea of Japan.
Please help Sumi-san feel welcome when you see him at community events. He seems especially knowledgeable about Middle Eastern rugs!
A map, to help the reader prepare for meeting Sumi-san, is below.
Pop Quiz:
(1) What sea dominates the map?
(2) What great city, marked in red, can be described as the crossroads of the Middle East?
(3) What trading route connected this region to Japan for 1300 years?
(4) What Eastern religion crossed this map? When?
(5) Who wrote, “The moving hand once having writ moves on?” Photo: Anoop Gupta. Image: Google Maps
