Kanji Tsushima was deeply moved when he heard that one of the students in his Japanese-language class 30 years ago in Bucharest had won two awards for her role in introducing his country's culture to Romania by translating modern literature.

"She was by far the most enthusiastic student in my class" from 1976 to 1978 at Dalles Popular University, said Tsushima, who was then a second secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Romania.

His former student is Angela Hondru, who now heads the Japanese Studies Department at Hyperion University in Bucharest.