On March 29, 2019, a solemn ceremony for the installation and consecration of the bust of Joseph Goshkevich, a native of the Minsk province and the first Russian consul in Japan, took place at the Cultural Center of Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan. The event was attended by the rector of the Orthodox church in Hakodate, priest Nikolai Dmitriev, the head of the Russian consulate in Hakodate, Boris Sokolov, and representatives from the Far Eastern Federal University branch in Vladivostok. The Ambassador of Belarus to Japan, Ruslan Yesin, emphasized the importance of continuing efforts to preserve our shared historical heritage in his speech.

The bust of Joseph Goshkevich, created by Soviet sculptor Oleg Komov, was donated to the Goshkevich Memorial Society in Hakodate by the Union of Soviet Societies of Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries in 1989. In the 1990s and 2000s, there were several attempts to install the monument in a public place in the city. Thanks to the joint efforts of Belarusian, Russian, and Japanese parties, the bust was installed at the Cultural Center of Hakodate between 2017 and 2019.

Joseph (Osip) Goshkevich was born in 1814 in the village of Strelichev, in the Rechitsa district, now the Khoiniki district of the Gomel region, into a family of a poor priest. The family likely belonged to the priestly lineage of Goshkevichs (in Belarusian tradition, Hashkevichs), which included the righteous saint John Kormyansky.

Osip's father, priest Antoniy Goshkevich, was friends with the renowned scholar archpriest Ivan Grigorovich, who collected the works of Saint Georgy Mogilevsky and compiled the 'Belarusian Archive of Ancient Documents.' Ivan often visited the Goshkevich home, conversing with young Joseph, mentoring him, and allowing him to read his works. According to Joseph, it was he who awakened his interest in spiritual activities.

In 1835, Joseph Goshkevich graduated from the Minsk Theological Seminary and entered the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. He participated in the publication of the translation of the Old Testament from ancient Hebrew into Russian.

After graduating from the academy, Goshkevich joined the Russian Spiritual Mission in China and spent ten years in Beijing (1839-1848), studying several Eastern languages, including Chinese, Manchu, Korean, and Mongolian.

Due to his knowledge of Eastern languages, he was invited to serve in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Asian Department. In the 1850s, during an expedition to the shores of Japan, Goshkevich learned the Japanese language. In 1857, he published the 'Japanese-Russian Dictionary' with 10,000 lexical units, which contributed to the study of the Japanese language in Russia and Europe. In 1858, Goshkevich became the first diplomatic envoy of Russia to Japan.

In 1865, he returned to St. Petersburg and soon retired due to health reasons. He acquired a small estate 'Mali' near Vilno (now the Ostrovets district of the Grodno region), where he spent his last years continuing his scientific research. Joseph Antonovich passed away on October 5, 1875. In 1899, his work 'On the Roots of the Japanese Language' was published in Vilno.