The mayor’s office of Tomi city in Nagano Prefecture of Japan donated 100 Japanese cherry trees, Sakura, to Moldova. The trees will be planted in different public places in Chisinau and Cahul. Eight of them were planted in the Park “Valea Morilor”, near the Stair of Cascades, on March 12. The event involved athletes and members of the National Olympics Committee.

The 100 trees are a gesture of good will of the Japanese people in relation to the Republic of Moldova and symbolize the countdown to the Olympic Games, assistant secretary of Moldova’s Embassy in Tokyo Daniel Vodă stated for IPN in connection with the tree planting event in “Valea Morilor” Park.

The planting of Japanese cherry trees is a cultural project initiated a year ago. “We want the trees brought from Japan to remain in the Republic of Moldova for many years and to blossom in the spirit of the bilateral friendship between the two countries. This planting event will motivate the Moldovan athletes, will bring good luck to the Moldovans at the Olympic Games and we hope they will return home with gold medals,” stated Daniel Vodă.

In the tree planting event, Kazutoshi Hayashi, counselor at Japan’s Embassy in Chisinau, said that this donation is a sign of friendship between Moldova and Japan. In Japan, the cherry flowers are the symbol of spring and each spring when these flowers blossom, they celebrate in the family or with friends.

Japanese cherry trees are brought to the public sphere of Moldova for the first time. Besides the municipality of Chisinau, trees will also be planted in Cahul, which signed a memorandum of cooperation with Tomi. Seven institutions are beneficiaries of the donation. Six of them are based in Chisinau. Each institution that will receive trees will have to look after the planted trees.