Stefan Pecho to be awarded Japan's Order of Rising Sun

Stefan Pecho, the founder of Japanese-language university studies in Slovakia, will become only the second Slovak ever to receive Japan's Order of the Rising Sun on Thursday, the Japanese Embassy has told TASR. Pecho will be awarded for his merits in the field of promoting Japanese language teaching in Slovakia and deepening mutual understanding between Japan and Slovakia. Pecho founded the first Japanese-language university studies programme in Slovakia at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1986. He helped to acquire the first official grant from the Japanese government for supporting and developing Japanese language studies in the former Czecho-Slovak Federation.