Indian, Japanese golfers Win-Win at 70th Anniversary India-Japan Friendship Golf Cup

GURUGRAM (INDIA): A galaxy of golfers from India and Japan played together in mutual harmony and won in unison a plethora of awards giving a push further to the friendly relations between India and Japan at the 70th Anniversary India-Japan Friendship Golf Cup played in Gurugram on Sunday. Led by Kunihiko Kawazu, Minister & Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan, as many as 70 Japanese diplomats, top corporate executives and entrepreneurs, and 38 top Indian bureaucrats and industry leaders participated in this friendly golfing tournament organised by Asian Community News (ACN) Network with the support of the Embassy of Japan, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII).

Organised to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Japan, the golfing event was inaugurated by Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Singh Chautala on Oct 9. He played a tee off from hole number 1 at the Golden Greens Golf Club, Gurugram to launcch the event.

While lauding the efforts of the Asian Community News (ACN) Network, the Haryana deputy CM said that attempt should be made to take the relations between India and Japan forward, and bring more Japanese investment to Haryana, which is already a home for them.

The golf was played amid the cloudy and cool weather at the lush green golf course situated in the lap of Aravalli hills in Gurugram. The awards rained the same evening, Brig Sanjay Mishra emerged as the Tournament Winner Gross Score. Kunihiko Kawazu, Minister & Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan presented the winning trophy to him.

Masaya Sakakibara, Maruti Suzuki India Limited won the Japanese Winner in the Net score category.  Kani Yukio Takahashi, Director, Canon India was announced as Japanese Runner-up in Net score category. Kenji Sugino, Secretary-General, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII) presented trophies to both the winners.

The Closest to pin in the overall category award also was won by Kani Yukio Takahashi, Director, Canon India, and Shigekazu Suenaga, Chief Representative, Toray Industries Inc to India, handed over the trophy to him.  Pradyuman Tripathi, a senior bureaucrat from the government of India was announced as winner in the Indians Winner Net category, and Prakash Yadav, CMD, AJU Group of Japanese Hotels presented the trophy to him.

Shusuke Suto, Managing director, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries gave away the trophy to Paramjit Singh in the Indians runner up Net category.  The Longest Drive award was won by Ryotaro Hanai, NGK SPARK Plug. Manu Chopra, MD, PDS International, presnetd the trophy to Hanai.

Sunil Tyagi, Managing Partner, ZEUS Law presented the winning trophy to Ms. Naho Shigeta, MD, InfoBRIDGE who teed off at the hole no. 1 in the Ladies category net.

One of the interesting features of the award ceremony was the lucky draw which was decided after randomly picking up the business cards of the participants from the bowl.

Interestingly, the Canon Laser Printer award sponsored by Canon India was won by Shigekazu Suenaga, Chief Representative, Toray Industries Inc to India, but he announced to surrender the award as he said he already had a Conon printer at his office. In another attempt, Yoshinori Nonoyama, TG Minda won the Canon printer as well as accessories. Shigekazu Suenaga presented this award to him.

A consolation prize sponsored by Canon was the Canon miniature USB, which was won by Tomofumi Suenaga, Honda Cars Limited. Kani Yukio Takahashi, Director, Canon India gave away the award to the winner.

Gopal Mor, Director, SCALAR felicitated  Kani Yukio Takahashi, Director, Canon India with an ACN souvenir and Tejas Boghani welcomed Kenji Sugino, Secretary-General, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII).

According to Sanjeev K Ahuja, Editor-in-Chief and CEO, Asian Community News (ACN) Network, organisor of the golfing event, Kenichiro Toyofuku, Director, Corporate Planning, Maruti Suzuki India, Shigekazu Suenaga, Chairman, Toray Industries (India), Tsuneya Katagiri, India Head, All Nippon Airways (ANA), and Shusuke Suto, Managing Director, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also played in this grand golfing event which is turning out to become a symbol of friendship between India and Japan.

He offer his gratitude to the senior management of Golden Greens Golf Club including Ravi Grover and Saurabh Chopra for supporting and hosting the event.

Honorary ACN Editorial Advisory Board Member Joonhwa Bin, Managing Director, Southwest Asia, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), a trade promotion arm of the government of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) also participated in the event.  Editorial Advisory Board was constituted by the organisor of this event Asian Community News (ACN) Network. Jay H Araki, UJA Global Advisory, Prakash Yadav, CMD, AJU Group of Hotels, Shiv Kothari, Chartered Accountant, and Founder of Chain of Tokyo Stores, Arshi Krishnachar, India head, Seoul Semiconductor, J C Pegu, former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax department greeted Keji Sugino and other senior dignitaries from Japan and India  .

Senior Indian government and public sector undertaking (PSU) functionaries representing Niti Ayog, Invest India (Japan Plus), Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), Container Corporation India Limited (CCIL), International Infrastructure Finance Corporation Limited (IIFCL), Income Tax Department, Ministry of Defence, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), and others would participate in the event.

Some of the major companies including Canon, AJU Group of Hotels, PDS International, ZEUS Law, Kingfisher, AKARUI Centre for Japanese Language, KURUMA Travels, WSF Social Enterprise, SCALAR, BIMAGE, and Bensons Trophies supported this event as sponsors.