Cervantes Institute opens in Tokyo

The Cervantes Institute has inaugurated its new facility in Tokyo. The building will host as many as 12,000 students who want to learn Spanish and discover new things about Spain, out of the 400.000 students in Japan who are already doing so.

With 8,000 books in account, The Tokyo Cervantes Institute contains the largest library in Japan of Spanish language books. The library, named after Federico García Lorca - a Spanish poet very popular in Japan - will host various Spanish film showings on a regular basis. The Spanish/Mexican film Pan's Labyrinth was the chosen film to inaugurate the ceremony.

Emperor and Empress Ahihito and Michiko, along with various other influential Japanese personalities, were invited to attend the inauguration by Spanish King and Queen Juan Carlos and Sofía. Everyone enjoyed the onstage performances of passionate Flamenco numbers danced by world-renowned Flamenco dancer María Pagés. Spanish delicacies were on hand, cooked up by Catalan chef Joseph Barahona, who also recently opened a Spanish cooking school in the capital city of Japan.

Read the original news article (in Spanish) published in El Pais.