India's elephant Suriya brought luck to Japan: Abe

New Delhi, Aug 22 (UNI) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today indicated that an elephant, Suriya, donated by India in 2001 brought luck to his country, helping Tokyo overcome a ''grinding recession''.

''Suriya arrived in Japan in May 2001, just as Japan was struggling to wrest itself from a grinding recession. Suriya was our reminder that the sun will indeed rise again,'' Mr Abe said in his address to a joint sitting of Parliament.

He also recalled the other elephants given by India. ''Prime Minister Nehru kindly gave Japan an elephant that bore the name of his daughter Indira. Since that time the government of India has donated three other elephants to Japanese zoos in total, and each of these has a name that is hard to forget: Arsha (hope), Daya (benevolence) and Suriya (the sun).'' ''For all these things, please allow me to extend my sincere gratitude on behalf of the people of Japan,'' he said, amid thunderous applause from the MPs.

UNI