On 3 November, the Government of Japan announced recipients of the 2024 Autumn Conferment of Decorations on foreign nationals, among which the decoration of Phout Simmalavong, Minister of Education and Sports and President of the Lao-Japan Friendship Association, was announced Phout was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star in recognition of his contribution to strengthening relations between Japan and Laos in the fields of education and sports.
When Phout was Dean and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the National University of Laos, he dedicated himself to supporting Japanese researchers in the faculty, including advice on their surveys and research. He also made significant contributions to the development of Japanese researchers for Lao studies and academic exchange between Japan and Laos.
From 2019 to 2021, Phout served as Deputy Minister of Education and Sports, and through close cooperation with JICA, improved the quality of teachers through grant aid, ‘the Project for Improving Teacher Training Colleges’ and revised mathematics textbooks for primary education through technical cooperation, ‘the project for Improving Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Primary Education.’
In addition, he has made efforts to dispatch Lao government officials to Japan through the grant aid including ‘the Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS).’ During his tenure and up to the present, 128 master’s students and 33 doctoral students have been dispatched to Japan.
He has also made efforts to strengthen Japanese language education in Laos. As of 2021, the number of Japanese language learners had tripled (from 1,046 to 3,118) compared to the beginning of the program in 2015.
Since 2021, as the Minister of Education and Sports, Phout has been actively implementing policies to recover the learning opportunities lost due to the pandemic, including building a supplementary learning system by introducing digital learning in cooperation with the Government of Japan and international organizations, and has also attended many events to publicize the outcomes from Japan’s assistance. In addition, he contributed to the realization of ‘the Project for the Reconstruction of the Chao Anouvong Stadium,’ which he had continuously urged the Government of Japan since 2019 when he was Deputy Minister of Education and Sports, and which will be a token of the friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
Furthermore, as Chairman of the Lao-Japan Friendship Association, Phout was warmly received a series of visits by Japanese dignitaries and held meaningful discussions with them. He was also a former international student in Japan who studied at Tohoku University from 1997 to 1999 on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (Now known as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and obtained a master’s degree in history. He has often been invited to the send-off receptions for Lao students coming to Japan under the scholarship programs provided by the Government of Japan as a guest of honor. He has offered his words of encouragement to each student.
The conferment ceremony for Phout is scheduled to take place at a later date at the Embassy of Japan in Laos.
