Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, welcomed Toyoei Shigeeda, a newly appointed Ambassador of Japan to Lithuania. During the meeting, the Speaker and the Ambassador of Japan discussed bilateral cooperation in the areas of economy, culture and science, and touched upon the relations with Russia. Mrs Graužinienė also expressed her appreciation of the fact that, despite great geographical distance, our countries enjoyed close inter-parliamentary cooperation, as demonstrated by the visit of Masaaki Yamazaki, President of the House of Councillors of Japan, to Lithuania last July, and active engagement of groups for inter-parliamentary relations in both parliaments, and visits of our MPs to Japan.