The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Tokyo hosted a solemn ceremony on 12 October 2021, during which the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Japan, Mr. Martin Tomčo, presented the Gratias agit Award 2021 granted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Mr. Jakub Kulhánek.

The Gratias agit Award has been awarded annually by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic since 1997. The award is given to selected personalities for promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad. It is made in the form of a crystal globe designed by the academic painter Zdeněk Petr. The handover to all laureates awarded for the year takes place annually in Prague in the Great Hall of the Czernin Palace, unfortunately this year due to the pandemic situation of covid-19 this ceremony was canceled and the handover was transferred to individual embassies abroad.

Ms. Daniela Ryugo is a Czech professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and is strongly linked with its Department of Czech Studies, where she began working in 1995 and has been active as an external lecturer to this day. In 2021, we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of this Department at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, one of the Japan's most prestigious universities. Department of Czech Studies was founded in 1991 as the first in Japan and offered students high quality teaching of the Czech language and literature. Ms. Ryugo participated in shaping the pedagogical work of the Department and in the education of a whole generation of Japanese students. She has always paid close attention to her students, not only during the teaching time and activities, but also in their later work in the Czech Republic and Japan. Ms. Daniela Ryugo thus contributed to an extraordinary and long-term flourishing of the Czech-Japanese relations primarily by educating Japanese students of the Czech Studies, as well as by actively spreading awareness of the Czech culture and society and supporting the teaching of Czech language to the general Japanese public.