Staff writer
A mission headed by Ikuo Hirayama, a leading Japanese artist, will be dispatched by Tokyo in September to explore the possibility of Japanese cooperation in preserving valuable cultural assets in Central Asia, government officials said April 24.
The cultural mission is part of Japanese efforts to achieve a new foreign policy goal by strengthening hitherto-weak relations with countries in what the government calls the "Silk Road region," the officials said, asking not to be named.