2016 Spring Conferment of Decoration Ceremony for Mr Stephen Duxfield

Date	Friday, 12 August 2016
Venue	Consul General's Official Residence

A ceremony was held to confer The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays to Mr Stephen Duxfield, as a foreign recipient in the 2016 Spring Conferment of Decorations.

Over many years Mr Duxfield has made a great contribution to the furthering of mutual understanding and friendly relations between Japan and New Zealand through organising Japanese cultural activities, Japanese-language education activities, sister city exchange and sports exchange in his role as president of the New Zealand Japan Society of Auckland and board member of Sister Cities New Zealand.

Consul-General Yokoyama made a speech praising Mr Duxfield’s achievements and conferred the award to him. Mr Duxfield expressed his great appreciation and his enthusiasm to further strengthen the friendly relations between the two countries.

Mr Duxfield was congratulated by friends and family who attended the ceremony and there were also congratulatory speeches from Member of Parliament Melissa Lee, Director of the Auckland office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Tucker, and Auckland Council Manager of Global Partnerships and Strategy Holly Warren.