Filipino delegates off to Japan for Kizuna Project

MANILA, Philippines - The first batch of Filipino delegates of the Short-Term Invitation Program under the Youth-Exchange Project with Asia-Oceania and North America or the Kizuna Project recently left for Japan.

Forty-six university students accompanied by four supervisors are in Japan until Dec. 19 to experience firsthand the recovery initiatives at disaster areas caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake last March 2011, and to promote better understanding on the reconstruction in Japan. The students are also participating in lectures and workshops about the reconstruction efforts and disaster risk management of Japan. Participants also engage in homestay with local Japanese families. 

The Kizuna Program is coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Japan, through the cooperation of the Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) of the Embassy of Japan, and the National Youth Commission (NYC) of the Philippines.

Under the Short-Term Invitation Program, 207 university students, ages 18 to 24 years old, along with 16 supervisors, will go on a two-week immersion to Japan. The second and third batches will be dispatched in March 2013.

The Kizuna Program is aimed at encouraging participants to communicate to other countries that Japan is on its way to recovery. Through their experiences, the participants will be able to provide accurate and first-hand information to the global community not only about the recovery of Japan, but also of the many attractions in various parts of Japan.

The Kizuna Project, the word kizuna meaning “bonds,” will invite more than 10,000 youths from the Asian/Oceanian regions, including 285 Filipinos, to have an opportunity to participate in especially designed programs.  The project was approved by the Japanese Diet as part of the third supplementary budget in November 2011, and will be implemented by the end of March 2013.