Tokyo National Museum is accelerating its network of international partnerships. On 19 October, the museum signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco aimed at strengthening cooperation across a broad range of fields, from academic research to personnel exchange. The signing ceremony took place at the museum's Heiseikan, with TNM director Makoto Fujiwara and the Moroccan library's director Samira El-Mariji both in attendance.

The agreement comes in a year of special significance for both countries: 2026 marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Morocco. It also follows a similar accord the museum concluded in June with the National Museum Foundation of Morocco, underscoring TNM's deliberate push to deepen cultural ties with the North African kingdom through successive institutional agreements.

Speaking at the ceremony, Fujiwara framed the museum's overseas agreements around two objectives: reinforcing the international network of Japanese art, and practising cultural diplomacy. The museum has in recent years moved quickly to sign memoranda with institutions in Europe and North America, and the Morocco agreements extend that strategy to Africa.

For her part, El-Mariji stressed the shared responsibility the two institutions carry — geographically distant as their countries are — to preserve cultural heritage and pass it on to future generations. She described that heritage as a living resource that illuminates the present and provides a foundation for envisioning the future, adding that deepening mutual understanding of each other's cultural property would in turn strengthen the friendship between the two nations.