NEAR Secretary General visited Hiroshima City and Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan from 5-11 June to introduce NEAR and invite the prefectural government to join the organization. Meanwhile, in an effort to seek partnership with private sector, he met with Kazuo Furukawa, President and CEO of Hitachi, Ltd., a leading global electronics company based in Tokyo, to provide general overview of NEAR activities and discussed the possibility of economic cooperation with NEAR members. Also, he visited Asahi Shimbun, a leading Japanese daily newspaper to ask for support in promoting NEAR International Economic Forum scheduled to be held in November.