Rukai's Trial Exchange Formally Set for Around Nov. 10, Three Weeks — A Step Toward Expanded Appraisal Cooperation
Japan's Foreign Ministry and the Kingdom of Rukai's Bureau of Salvage formally announced on the 2nd the previously reported trial personnel exchange: two to three people from each side, for roughly three weeks starting around November 10. Full-scale implementation, at a scale of more than ten people a year, is being pushed back to next fiscal year or later; for now the focus is mutual observation of appraisal methods. The exchange is positioned as groundwork ahead of King Kaie III's state visit from October 19 to 22.
As previously reported, Manon Keirea, 48, deputy director of the Kingdom of Rukai's Bureau of Salvage, has been in Tokei since mid-September discussing a personnel exchange in appraisal work with the No. 3 Appraisal Center. The outline that took shape in talks on September 25 — two to three people from each side, for roughly three weeks starting around November 10 — was formally announced jointly by the Foreign Ministry and the Bureau of Salvage on the 2nd. The program will center on mutual observation of appraisal methods; full hands-on training, at a scale of more than ten people a year over roughly three months, is again confirmed to be pushed back to next fiscal year or later.
The trial exchange is positioned as groundwork ahead of King Kaie III's state visit from October 19 to 22. A Foreign Ministry source said, "We want to have at least a small, concrete result to show by the time of the visit, in terms of expanding the cooperation agreement." In a comment timed to the announcement, Deputy Director Keirea said, "I think appraisal is an attitude before it's a technique. I'd like to start by having each side watch the other, and be watched." Rukai's delegation is reportedly being arranged around two appraisal assistants from families with generations of service in the kingdom's recovery fleets, which trace back to the time of the king's great-grandmother.
On Hinokuni's side, working-level coordination is being handled under Yuichi Amamiya, 55, the Foreign Ministry's councillor for international cooperation, who is also the previously reported head of the delegation to the multilateral Window Treaty talks. Amamiya said, "This will run alongside the Window Treaty negotiations, but this is cooperation without conflict. In an autumn full of negotiations where we're caught in the middle, it's a relief to have something that can move forward without friction." The No. 3 Appraisal Center has not yet named its point of contact, and officials say the previously reported Preliminary Survey Association (chaired by Kaname Tsuyuki) may also be asked to help with part of the training.
The Kingdom of Rukai is known as the only country whose royal house carries Drifter blood, and as a nation built on the technology of recovering drift objects — "the country that picks things up." Ties with Hinokuni have deepened steadily since the August expansion of the appraisal cooperation agreement. One diplomatic source said of the trial exchange, "In an autumn with so much friction over the Window Treaty and data disclosure, there's real value in visibly advancing cooperation with a partner like Rukai, where there's so little friction to begin with."
In the Diet, some members of the previously reported ruling-party study group "Opening Up Observation" (led by Representative Sota Miyake) have welcomed the trial exchange. Miyake commented, "In an autumn when contentious issues like the Window Treaty and the disclosure bill tend to dominate the face of our diplomacy, having even one low-friction piece of cooperation like this changes the mood in the chamber a little." Within the Foreign Ministry, however, some take a more cautious view, noting that "appraisal cooperation and the Window Treaty talks are separate tracks, but from the outside it could look like we're favoring Rukai."
The final delegation membership is expected to be settled by mid-October. The Foreign Ministry plans to finalize the scale and length of the full training program for next fiscal year's budget by the start of the new year, based on how the trial exchange goes. Officials say the state of the trial exchange's coordination will itself be reported as a working-level matter separate from the ceremonial program during King Kaie III's visit.
