The National Archives of Australia on Tuesday ceremoniously returned thousands of historical Japanese company records that had been seized by the Australian government during World War II.
Japanese Ambassador to Australia Sumio Kusaka said at a reception in Canberra that the handover of 3,300 boxes of documents not only signifies how far Japan-Australia relations have come since the last world war but provides an "invaluable snapshot of the history of business activities of Japanese enterprises in Australia."
"It will now be possible to obtain a broader understanding of Japanese people and their businesses in the country in the early 1900s, providing us with considerable insight into the very early stages of trade and business relations between our two nations," Kusaka said.