Actress Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, told Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Tuesday about her recent visit to Somalia and asked for Japan's continued support for UNICEF, Foreign Ministry officials said.
Kuroyanagi briefed Kawaguchi on the plight of children in orphanages and women in refugee camps in the war-torn African country, which the goodwill ambassador visited in late July, the officials said.
During the meeting, Kawaguchi pledged the governments willingness to support education in Africa and the preservation of water resources ahead of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg to be held from Monday to Sept. 4, they said.