In a first, Japan floats house league for promotion of yoga

NEW DELHI: A group of 42 members of Japanese Parliament on Tuesday launched a Parliamentary League for Promotion of Yoga, a first of its kind institutional mechanism which will promote both the ancient discipline and ties between India and Japan.

The league, launched by India’s ambassador to Japan Sujan Chinoy in the presence of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, will be headed by Hakubun Shimomura, former minister for education, culture, sports, and science and technology, who had attended the World Culture Festival in Delhi in 2016 at the invitation of the spiritual leader.

Hiroyuki Hosoda, who leads the Japan-India Parliamentary Friendship League, will be the adviser and Yamada Hiroshi, Member of Parliament from the Upper House, will be the secretary general. More Japanese MPs are expected to join the association soon, people familiar with the matter told ET.

Chinoy said that the establishment of the league comes at an opportune moment. “India and Japan have a special strategic and global partnership based on our shared values of democracy, rule of law, tolerance and transparency... Yoga is an invaluable patrimony of humankind. It was inscribed in 2016 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” he said.

The establishment of the league provides a boost to preparations for the Third International Day of Yoga in June 2017, according to officials of the Indian Embassy in Japan.

2017 has been declared as the Year of India-Japan Friendly Exchanges and the parliamentary forum will further promote India’s soft power. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the chairman of the Yoga Certification Steering Committee of the Quality Council of India (QCI). In pursuance of the memorandum signed in 2015 between Yoga Organisation of Japan and the QCI for the promotion of Scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga, the first QCI examination outside India was held in Japan in 2016.