At the invitation of Japan Agon Shu, the “Star Offering” delegation led by Jiang Jianyong, Vice chief of State Bureau of Religious Affairs as the leader and the Vice Secretary General of the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) Song Enlei as the vice leader and consisting of other 13 members from State Bureau of Religious Affairs, Chinese Buddhist Association, Heilongjiang and Guangdong Bureau of Religious Affairs, Municipal Party Committee of Kaili Guizhou, Beijing University, Zhongshan University, Beijing International Studies University and members of the CAIFC to pay a friendly visit to Japan. The delegation visited the director of the Agon Shu, Mr. Kiriyama Seiyu in Kyoto and participated in the 36th “Star Offering”. The “Star Offering” is held in the Agon Shu Honzan Kyoto on February 11th each year. It is held mainly for offering sacrifice to ancestors and praying for happiness and a total of over 500 thousand people participated in it. Such activity was designated as the large scale sacrifice offering activity held regularly each year. The delegation also visited Nara, Kanagawa Prefecture and Tokyo and communicated with related departments, furthering the exchanges and cooperation between Buddhist circles in China and Japan through this visit and promoting the non-governmental friendship between the two countries.
