Ambassador to Japan, Giorgio Starace, and Japan's envoy to Italy Keiichi Katakami on Friday took part in a meeting in Rome of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's newly revived bilateral friendship section, said a statement from a group of Italian lawmakers who are members.
The meeting focused on future bilateral activities in which the lawmakers will take part, according to the statement. Such activities include the screening of a prestigious Japanese entry to the Venice Film Festival in September, the Rugby World Cup taking place in Japan this autumn the Para-Olympics which Japan is hosting in 2020.
The IPU's Italy-Japan friendship section is chaired by conservative MP Eugenio Zoffili and contains 15 members of the lower and upper houses of parliament including Italy's new conservative family minister Alessandra Locatelli.
The Japanese members are chaired by Akira Amari, who has served as his country's labour, economy and public administration reforms minister.
The national parliaments of 178 countries are members of the IPU and 12 regional parliamentary assemblies are associate members.
The IPU has permanent observer status at the United Nations and works to promote democracy and inter-parliamentary dialogue.
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