Kirk here with a connection between Kumamoto and national / international news. Takashi Shiraishi, who is currently chancellor of the Prefectural University of Kumamoto, has an impressive resume. He was at Kyoto University before coming to Kumamoto in 2018. He’s in the news now as chair of the “International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons.” You can read about that group here:
https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press3e_000514.html
As the page indicates, former U.S. President Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General António Guterres participated in recent meetings of the group (their first).
Here’s a quote from the page where featuring a photo of Takashi Shiraishi and Angela Kane laying a wreath:
— start quote — Representing the experts, Takashi Shiraishi, chancellor of the Prefectural University of Kumamoto, and former U.N. Undersecretary General Angela Kane laid flowers at the cenotaph for the victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II.Shiraishi serves as chair of the two-day meeting of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons, or IGEP, which started Saturday. — end quote —
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20221211-76424/