It is still early days for the public to note the Thai Food Festival on May 11 and 12. For organizers Team Thailand, however, time is getting short, especially as this year's festival will be double the size of those of the last two years. The festival aims to strengthen the ties between the peoples of Japan and Thailand, enhance understanding of Thai tradition and culture, and promote better appreciation of Thai cuisine. Ambassador Kasit Piromya sets the tone for this light-hearted, Maytime day in the park when he refers to the festival as "Thai food merriment."
It is still early days too in the ambassador's tour of duty in Japan. He is used to working at high speed with a range of issues, and so feels comfortable with the Tokyo pace and scope. For much of his career he has specialized in international economics and trade, "since before it was fashionable," he said, and so is au fait with the essential Thai-Japan economic relationship. His wife used to be a Pan Am flight attendant who often visited here. She, too, feels familiar and happy to be living in Tokyo.
From an early age Piromya accepted the thought of becoming a career diplomat. "I was advised by my parents, and I didn't seem to mind," he said. He was born in the old capital of Thonburi, and as a child used to cross the river by boat to attend school, a Christian institution, in Bangkok. For his secondary education, along British lines, he was sent to the Indian hill station of Darjeeling. Thereafter he studied political science at Chulalongkorn University, and went to Georgetown University in the U.S. for his first degree in international affairs.