Hinokuni and Rukai Sign Expanded Appraisal Pact; King Kaie III Tours Center, but Holdings Stay Undisclosed

The Foreign Ministry announced on the morning of the 20th that it had signed, at a reception facility in Kyobashi, a revision expanding its drift-object appraisal cooperation pact with the Kingdom of Rukai. Yuichi Amamiya, 55, a councillor at the ministry's International Cooperation Bureau, signed for Hinokuni, and Deputy Director Manon Kailea, 48, of Rukai's Collection Agency signed for Rukai, with visiting King Kaie III, 34, attending as a witness. The revision expands the existing pact, previously reported in August, to formally institutionalize reciprocal training for appraisal personnel in treaty language, laying the groundwork for full-scale implementation at a scale of a dozen-odd people a year with roughly three-month training terms.

As previously reported on the 1st, 9th and 12th, a preliminary dispatch ahead of full implementation will send Third Appraisal Center technicians Hajime Umezu and Kasumi Hiwada to Rukai for about three weeks starting around November 10th, with Rukai technicians dispatched in turn to Hinokuni; Seiichi Minowa, who will handle the Hinokuni-side reception, was among three attendees from the center at the signing. Deputy Director Kailea said, "More than anything, I'm glad we could put into treaty language a framework for technicians on the ground to actually go back and forth."

The revised text, for the first time, codifies practical details — setting the training term at roughly three months once full implementation begins, along with procedures for selecting host sites, status protections for staff while abroad, and how knowledge gained during training is to be handled. Councillor Amamiya explained, "What used to rest on verbal understandings, we've now fixed in treaty language. The preliminary dispatch becomes the first real test of these provisions."

Following the signing, Kaie III toured the Third Appraisal Center. As previously reported on the 16th, the tour was kept to an explanation of how the storage building operates, and individual holdings, window drift objects included, were not shown. Minowa, who guided the tour, said the King remarked, "Just being told which shelf holds what is meaningful enough," showing no sign of objecting to the non-disclosure policy itself. A Foreign Ministry source again repeated the explanation given on the 16th: "Disclosing an individual item is the same as showing something not yet appraised. Royal blood or not, we don't make exceptions to procedure."

As it happened, in the small hours of the very day of the tour, that same storage building had just taken in the first object ever recovered from Window 5, 'the Sword Country,' believed to have been sent on purpose, as previously reported. A Foreign Ministry source said, "This morning's item gets the same treatment as everything else in storage," stressing that the overlap in timing with the visit was purely coincidental. The principle that a window's opening remains beyond anyone's control, naturally, remains unchanged.

The ministry also confirmed, as previously reported on the 16th, that resident representatives of Hekikai Isles, Rukai's neighbor, were invited to the reception following the signing. As previously reported on the 12th, 13th and 18th, Hekikai Isles has formally requested cooperation on dispatching appraisal personnel to Hinokuni, modeled on the Rukai framework, and Tokei Precision Optics is already working on cost estimates for observation equipment, as previously reported. A ministry source again drew the line reported earlier: "Now that the Rukai framework is settled, it's easier to move talks with Hekikai to the next stage. But the invitation itself is not a promise of expanded cooperation."

Councillor Amamiya summed up, "Following the interim agreement on the Window Treaty reported on the 15th, we've been able to move individual cooperation items forward one at a time. Negotiating without hiding that we're caught in the middle — that's still true here." King Kaie III's itinerary continues with a visit to Window 1, 'the Lit City,' on the 21st, before he departs on the 22nd.

One Hekikai Isles representative who attended the reception said modestly, "It was worthwhile to watch the Rukai framework take shape up close. We know our own case is still some way off, so for today we're content to watch quietly." Mayor Motoko Ukai, commenting after the ceremony, said, "Before the content of the pact, I want to credit the fact that technicians on the ground now have a structure for meeting face to face. The numbers can come later," staying true to her familiar refrain.