JAPANESE DRUMMERS ON SPECIAL MISSION IN SARAWAK

SIBU (Malaysia), Sept 26 (Bernama) -- Zuiho Taiko, a Japanese
traditional drum group is in town on a special mission in East Malaysia of
Sarawak-state.

The group with four drummers and their leader Shinjro Fukuoka, at the
invitation of Japanese professor Ken Nakazawa, will perform at the opening
of a Muhibah Day Centre at longhouse Rh.Michael Jalak in Bawan, Kanowit
Saturday at noon.

The centre was set up by a group of Japanese expatriates here led
by
Prof Nakazawa.

The group will also give similar performances at the Sibu Gateway
Saturday evening and at Spring, Sarawak's premier lifestyle mall in Kuching on
Sunday, all under the arrangement of Jason Tai of the Pansar Company which owns
the mall.

"We are in Sarawak for two other reasons of own own," said the group's
spokesman Ryo Matsutomo, a director of the Nanko Airinkai Foundation which helps
intellectually challenged people in the Nagasaki Prefecture.

"We want to apologise to the Sarawak people for the atrocities committed by
Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.

"We also want them to know that the Japanese are now peace-loving people
and Japan is a country which advocates world peace," he told reporters here
Friday.

Matsutomo said they would express these through their 40-minute
performances.

The four drummers, Koichiro Tsuji, Syouichi Takakura, Tomohiro Iwamoto and
Dan Yamashita are intellectually challenged young men who had performed at the
1992 Paralympic Games in Spain, United Nations headquarters in New York, in Los
Angeles in 1997, 2000 Australia Paralympics Games, and in Sweden in
2004.

This is their first visit to Malaysia where they will also perform in
Penang on Sept 29.

Matsutomo said each of the four had been playing the drum for over 20
years, first as a hobby and then becoming professionals.

He said playing the giant drums had helped them improve their coordination
and fitness.