On 11 April, 2014, a delegation of Japanese researchers and business persons visited the Embassy. Their interest area was Hunza valley in Baltistan Pakistan. Ms. Rei Watanabe is promoting Hunza green tea, honey and herbs from Hunza to Japan. Dr. Takuji Shirasawa and Ms. Daniela Shiga are conducting research on anti-aging and longevity. They are interested in the food and fruits of Hunza and would like to research if these add to health and long life of Hunza people. They also thought Hunza was similar to their city of Takayama in Nagano prefecture (famous for longevity of its people) and proposed that Hunza and Takayama be declared twin cities.
Ambassador Farukh Amil (فاروق عامل) described the scenic beauty and history of the valley to the team, Dr. Talat Imtiaz discussed with the researchers various techniques used in assessing longevity and the role of food and environment. The touring team proposed to research the facts of healthy life style of people living in Hunza; study diet, glacier water, food, recipes, and ingredients; study elixirs made for medical use from Mulberry and Apricot.
The business group intends to promote the beauty of Gilgit-Baltistan areas in Japan to boost the tourism sector and pursue business improvement between Pakistan and Japan, and examine the possibility of investment in this area of Pakistan.