Berlin - German President Horst Koehler praised his country's relations with Japan on Friday, during a visit by Prince Hitachi and his wife to announce the winners of a prestigious arts prize. "With no other East Asian country have we maintained official connections for so long," Koehler said, in view of next year's 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Germany and Japan.
Koehler spoke of shared experiences uniting the two countries, referring to their roles as aggressors during World War II.
"Both our countries went through deep valleys in the previous century. Today we are respected members of the international community of states," the German president said during a lunch held in honour of the imperial couple.
Koehler added that this brought responsibilities to help solve new challenges, including climate change and world poverty.
Prince Hitachi, the younger brother of the Japanese emperor, was in Berlin to announce this year's winners of the Praemium Imperiale, often called the Nobel prize of the arts world.
This year's recipients of the 15-million-yen (111,000-euro) prize include British playwright Tom Stoppard, Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.
