Mascot boosts Thai-Japanese links on anniversary of diplomatic ties

Thailand is among Japan’s oldest allies in Asean, Japanese Ambassador Shiro Sadoshima said yesterday.

He personally supervises the Muay Thaishi mascot project, which carries several important messages. 

First of all, Muay Thaishi is regarded as a red snapper, which in Japanese is “tai”, so it fits the bill.

According to Japanese culture, tai is often served during auspicious occasions such as weddings to bring good luck.

With its felicitous meaning, the mascot was appointed as the ambassador of friendship between Thailand and Japan on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Sadoshima, who studied performing arts in college, said Muay Thaishi, the fish mascot, could have been born in the Chao Phya River. 

“He’s active and likes to work out. 

“He also likes Muay Thai [Thai boxing], |but he’s not good at punching and kicking |due to his short legs and hands, so he prefers bumping [as exemplified by his style of |dancing].”

Vote online

“He promotes mango mizumanju, a traditional Japanese sweet with a piece of mango wrapped in jelly in order to boost sales of delicious Thai mangoes in the Japanese market.”

The envoy also invited Thais and Japanese who admire the character to vote online for Muay Thaishi, which now has his own Facebook page, during Japan’s annual mascot contest in November.

Both countries will celebrate the 130th anniversary of diplomatic ties in September of next year. 

Major milestones in modern Thai-Japanese relations include strong economic and business relations, especially in manufacturing and other industries, he said. Japanese companies see Thailand as a hub for their international and Asean businesses.

The two countries have a close royal family, people-to-people and cultural associations. 

Tourism between the two has been growing rapidly in recent years with about 800,000 Thais visiting Japan and 1.4 million Japanese coming to Thailand annually. Japan has cooperated with Thailand to boost its high-added value industries such as space technology, automobile parts, food processing and agriculture, medicine, and information and communications technology.

They have also worked together in research and development, human resources development and infrastructure development including on Bangkok’s urban mass transit lines, high-speed railways, and the Dawei deep-sea port and industrial estate project in cooperation with the Thai and Myanmar governments.