Japan invites Phl youth to be goodwill ambassadors

MANILA, Philippines - The government of Japan through the Japan Information and Culture Center of the Embassy of Japan as well as the Japan International Cooperation Center, in cooperation with the National Youth Commission (NYC), is calling on Filipino youths to be part of the 400 “Tohoku-shinzen-taishi” or “Philippine-Tohoku Goodwill Ambassadors” who will be Japan-bound early next year under the JENESYS Program.

The 400 youth ambassadors will stay in Japan for nine days and stay with Japanese families and interact with Japanese youths in schools and other educational institutions.

The youth ambassadors will go to Japan under two different themes. Two hundred youth ambassadors under the JENESYS “Go Green” will depart for Japan in April 2012. In addition, 200 youth ambassadors under the JENESYS “Japan’s Disaster Management and Recovery Efforts After 3.11” will leave in May 2012.

All the 400 youth ambassadors will learn and understand Japan’s experience and lessons learned from past natural disasters. They will also witness Japan’s on-going recovery efforts and see how it was possible for Japan to make a fast turn-around from the recent earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011.

Interested parties can get application forms and guidelines from the National Youth Commission, the implementing organization in the Philippines. The guidelines and the application forms can also be downloaded from the NYC website and Embassy of Japan website. All applications with complete requirements should be submitted to the NYC JENESYS Secretariat on or before Nov. 18, 2011.