36 Filipino students join cultural exchange to Japan

MANILA, Philippines - The second batch of participants of the newly launched Jenesys 2.0 left the Philippines last March 25 for a seven-day cultural exchange to Japan.

The 36 Filipino university students were part of the 360 youths from all the 10 Asean member states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), participating in the program.

The Jenesys 2.0 is designed to create camaraderie among the Southeast Asian youths and Japanese counterparts through intensive interaction, workshops, and structured exchanges of view. The delegates are also expected to gain practical knowledge on Japan’s experiences for promoting local regions to address development gaps and attain global excellence by utilizing local resources, creativities and branding strategies, and realizing effective agglomeration of economies among region/prefectures.

Participants experienced the advanced and safe technology through the Shinkansen in Tokyo. They also paid courtesy calls to the local governmental offices to learn about the Japanese governing system;  established the AEC Youth Network by interaction with the Japanese university students through school visits and dialogues; and experienced homestay with local families.

One of the many programs under the Jenesys 2.0 is promoting consciousness toward ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) among the young generation within the Southeast Asian regions to result in the making of the AEC Youth Network.

The Jenesys 2.0 is aimed at forging a stronger relationship between the ASEAN member countries and Japan, and to let the young generation of Japan have a deeper understanding of ASEAN countries and AEC; and to add another 30,000 youths to the 30,000 young people who previously traveled to Japan under the previous Jenesys program.

Supported by the Government of Japan, the Jenesys 2.0 ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Youth Network is organized by the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE), in close cooperation with the National Youth Commission (NYC) of the Republic of the Philippines.

All expenses incurred during the program were borne by the Government of Japan.