Have you ever heard of the film "Sushi in Suhl", which was released in Germany in 2012 and is based on a true story? This article is about the main protagonist of the film, Rolf ANSCHUETZ, who ran a Japanese restaurant in the former DDR. The author is Gero SEIFERT, who was president of the German-Japanese Society Halle in Saxony-Anhalt from 1998 to 2020 and was in contact with ANSCHÜTZ before he died.

Our colleague MAKINO Hitomi describes in this article how a participant of the German-Japanese Youth Leaders Exchange started his own exchange program with Japan for Hamburg's youth fire department

On the occasion of the 160th anniversary of Japanese-German diplomatic relation, we or our friends and partners, on the initiative of SEKIKAWA Fujiko (Head of Language Services at JDZB), present in this column people from both countries who have filled or are still filling the partnership relations between our two countries with life. In a joint publication by the Japanese-German Society Tōkyō and the JDZB, "Bridge Builders - Pioneers of Japanese-German Cultural Exchange" (2005, IUDICIUM Verlag), many people who have actively shaped German-Japanese relations have already been honored. This is where this column picks up. In addition to famous personalities, also those who are less in the media-spotlight will be introduced. Stay curious!

In the first article of the new blog section "bridge walkers" JDZB staff member and section initiator SEKIKAWA Fujiko recalls how she first met her famous aunt Deko.