Geography

The republic of Djibouti is located at equal distance between the Equator and the tropic of Cancer. Its location, on the eastern african coast, at the outlet of the Red sea and of the Aden gulf, in between Suez and the Far East, has been - along with its proximity to the wealthy provinces of Abyssinia - at the origin of its strategic importance. Djibouti has boarders with Ethiopia, Erythree and Somalia. Its coast line goes from Ras Doumeira, in the North, down 370 km to Loyada, in the South. Its area represents around 23,000 square km.

Population

The population of the republic of Djibouti reaches around 800,000 inhabitants, with 400,000 people gathered in the city of Djibouti. The inner districts; Ali-Sabieh, Dikhil, Obock, Tadjourah and Arta; gather 20 to 30,000 inhabitants each. The remaining of the population is composed of nomads who live in the bush. The Afar people and the Somalis people are the two main groups in the country. There is a significant minority of Arabs from Yemen, along with other groups coming from Ethiopia, Europe, and the Indian under-land.

History

The defeated monster "Djab Bouti" The origin of the name Djibouti would come from the Issa legend, which relates the story of a fabulous animal, who lived there and who killed goats and men, was hunted and killed by these men. Another explanation is that the Afar people used to call this land GABOD (plateau). The Arab navigators named it GABOUTI. And with the arrival of the French, the name became DJIBOUTI.

A little bit of prehistory

The country does not lack lithic vestige, and the few things discovered, were found on the surface, since no significant excavation has taken place. The oldest pieces discovered in the Abbe lake area, are, 3 million years old, roughly shaped stone tools, of "chopper" type, which experts believe to be related to the significant discoveries of the Awash Valley in Ethiopia. The country seems to have gone through the neolithic period without having knowledge of the polished stone. Remains of a 1.3 to 1.6 million years old elephant, discovered at Barogali, in Gobaad, tell us about a cutting up site, with numerous bones and tools made of basalt. A human maxillary more than 100,000 years old, which came from an archaic homo sapiens or an homo erectus, has been found at Hara Ide, also in Gobaad

Nature

The submarin fauna represents a great variety of species and colours: tuna fish, barracuda, napoleon, mantha ray, carangue, king fish, and the thousands of coral fishes (clown fish, balist, green parrot), etc. The land faune is also very diverse, with carnivores such as the cheetah, and the fennec; with herbivores, and with numerous bird species (200). In spite of the hard climate, the landscape offers touristic treasures such as the Assal lake, the mangroves and the beautiful beaches of the islands

Lake Abbe lake Assal

Economy

The economy of Djibouti primarily lies on the third sector activities. The other two sectors are less developed. The primary sector accounts for approximately 5% of the Gross Domestic Product. This sector has to face the unfavorable cimatic conditions (dry grounds and little water availability). Nevertheless, the fishing industry represents a promissing activity, considering the significant ressources along the coast line of Djibouti. The secondary sector accounts for approximately 15% of the Gross Domestic Product. Therefore, the third sector is the dominant sector of the economy of Djibouti, accounting for 80% of the Gross Domestic Product. With a modern harbour, railways, an International Airport, and a reliable telecommunications network, Djibouti was able to develop its banks, businesses, insurance companies and transportation related services networks. Moreover, the country's liberal commercial and financial system, along with its stable currency, freely convertible and tied to the american dollar with a fix parity (1 USD = 177.721 DJF), facilitates the foreign exchanges.

Websites links: www.office-tourisme.dj (french) www9.ocn.ne.jp/~djibouti/ (japanese) Embassy website

View of Djibouti city Port of Djibouti

Djibouti -Japan Relation

Djibouti and Japan have been enjoying a very close and friendly relationship. The excellent and stable bilateral relations can be seen from the significant role Japan play in Djibouti's development. Japan has cooperated with Djibouti government and its people in many sectors that are very vital for the daily life in Djibouti such as school building and road construction and technical training. Moreover, as a field of grass root relation between the people to people relation, the Tokyo University of Agriculture have been in Djibouti for more than one decade, the university has been leading a very positive campaign of greening the desert and the training the local people how to plant the most suitable trees and protect them. Finally ,since the Djibouti has biggest international port with a free zone and the most liberal economic in the east African region with almost unrestricted banking and commerce sector we hope a large volume of investment and trade between the two countries, various economic cooperation projects and cultural and student exchanges will take place in the future.

The National Day

Djibouti is a multicultural country with a great cultural heritage that goes back for thousands of years. To learn a bit about the Djiboutian people and the diverse cultures, the National day of Djibouti on June 28 2005 is a perfect event that brings all the heritage and culture of Djiboutian from all ethnic groups into one spectacular event. In this parade, the Djiboutian culture is manifested in forms of various arts such as dances, music, clothing designs and crafts. Obviously this event will give a great chance for the Japanese people and specially the kariya city which is our twin city to know more about Djibouti, of course, it will give also a better chance to promote mutual understanding and exchanging between the Djibouti delegates and local representative including government and community leaders and business groups. In this great occasion also we are preparing very special tasty Djibouti foods That will be available at African pavilion. We hope our honorable guest and visitors will have a great joy and wonderful memory about Djibouti National Day and Aichi Welcom View of Djibouti city

Those pictures are part of national day corner

Djibouti Pavillon Traditional dance(sadehley)

Hinna (a local art)