The armor from the three territories sent to what is now the Republic of Malta by the "Bunkyu Mission to Europe" sent from Japan at the end of the Edo period has "returned home" for the first time in about 160 years, and is being restored at a workshop in Kyoto City. It is progressing. The country plans to exhibit it at the 2025 Osaka/Kansai Expo as an "important item of friendship." Ambassador Andre Spiteri expressed his hopes for the situation, saying, ''I hope that things will return to their former glory and that a new relationship between the two countries will be built.''