On 6 January 2011, Mr. Hiroshi Furura, President of Ibaraki Council of Senior Citizens Welfare Service, Mr. Katsuo Kikuchi, President of Japan Auto Business Kyodo Kumiai, which oversees Thai technical trainees in Ibaraki Prefecture, and Mr. Shingeki Okata, Secretary of Ibaraki Prefecture of the Association of Small Business Entrepreneurs met with Mr. Singthong Lapisatepun, Minister of the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo to present the donation money worth 1.2 million yen on behalf of the Ibaraki Council of Senior Citizens Welfare Service for Thai flood victims. Part of the donation money or some 600,000 yen would be transferred to the bank account of the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo; the other 600,000 yen was presented to the embassy in cash. Mrs. Chantana Boon-Arj, Minster Counsellor (Labour) of the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, witnessed the handover of the donation money. At the meeting, the Japanese delegations and the Thai minister discussed and exchanged views on various issues including the possibility of sending Thai nurse, old-age cares, and massage therapists to work in Japan due to a shortage of workers in old-age care industry in Japan.
