Secretaria de Relações Internacionais | Office of International Relations

Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho, Secretary for International Relations at UFSC, and Yasuhiro Mitsui, Consul General of Japan in Curitiba.

On 12 December 2024, Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho, Secretary for International Relations at UFSC, represented the university’s Rector at the Santa Catarina State’s Brazil-Japan Friendship Week, held at the historic Santana Fort in Florianópolis. The ceremony was attended by Yasuhiro Mitsui, Consul General of Japan in Curitiba, along with his wife, Paulo Baltazar, president of the Wakamiya-Maru Association, and other distinguished local authorities.

The event celebrated the historical and cultural ties between Brazil and Japan, marking the anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to Brazil on 22 December 1803. As part of the commemoration, a plaque was unveiled at Santana Fort in honor of the five Japanese who disembarked there, recognizing the journey of the Russian ship that brought them to Brazil.

In addition, an exhibition was inaugurated, showcasing the epic voyage that began in 1793. The exhibition, featuring documents and historical records, will remain open to the public at the Santana Fort until the end of the week.

Visitors from the Consulate-General of Japan at the Office of International Relations (SINTER/UFSC).

On 14 December, the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) welcomed representatives from the Consulate-General of Japan to its main campus in Florianópolis. The meeting took place at the Office of International Relations (SINTER/UFSC) and was attended by the Secretary for International Relations, Professor Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho, the International Relations Professor Iara Costa Leite and the student Thomas Placido, a member of the Japanese Studies Center (NEJAP) at UFSC. Representing the consulate were the Vice-Consul of Japan Misaki Shoji and the Consulate’s Cultural Advisor Akemi Ferreira.

At the meeting, they discussed the possibility of furthering UFSC’s cooperation with Japanese universities, especially with regard to scholarships for graduate studies in Japan (Study in Japan). UFSC currently has agreements with three Japanese universities: Fukuoka University, University of Tokyo, and Chukyo University.

Consulate-General of Japan promotes a lecture on Diplomacy and Exchange in Japan at UFSC.

In addition to the meeting, representatives of the Consulate-General of Japan gave a lecture on Diplomacy and Exchange in Japan, as well as on the intercultural exchanges between Japan and Brazil. The event, held at the School of Socio-Economic Sciences (CSE) Auditorium on the Trindade Campus, discussed the history and future prospects of Japan-Brazil relations and the demand for intercultural exchange between the two geographically and culturally distant countries.

On 15 December, Professor Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho, accompanied by the head of Translation Service at SINTER Luciana Miashiro Lima and the student Thomas Placido, attended the celebration of the 220^th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in Brazil, which took place at the Santana Fort in Florianópolis.