Japan US Exchange Day 9: Day 1 of Joint-Conference

Today we met back up with our Japanese counterparts to begin the joint conference here in Tokyo. This is the same group of educators from Japan that we met with in San Francisco for three days at the beginning of May when their visit to the United States was concluding. It was great to see them again. Especially now that we have been able to experience their country and culture for the last week and a half. The main outcome for these two days is for us to discuss our two systems and plan some joint projects that can be done cooperatively between our schools in the United States and Japan.
Our day started with a welcome from Matthew Sussman, the Executive Director of Fulbright Japan. Matthew has lived in Japan for the past 20 years and this is his first year as the director of Fulbright Japan. Matthew reiterated to us that although we may have noticed many differences there are also many similarities between our two countries which is why our bond is strong.

Matthew Sussman, Executive Director of Fulbright Japan welcomes everyone to the joint conference.

Next up we were welcomed by Jeff Adler, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy here in Japan. Mr. Adler emphasized the importance of this type of study in keeping the bond between Japan and the United States strong. He told us that it is a priority of Ambassador Kennedy to emphasize and support exchanges for study and research between the United States and Japan.

Jeff Adler welcoming us to the joint conference.

Finally we were welcomed by Mr. Kojiro Kakimoto, Senior Specialist for Personnel Exchange – International Affairs Division at MEXT the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. He told us of Japan’s active involvement in promoting Education for Sustainable Development. He told us that the bilateral relationship between our two countries is important as no one can solve all of the problems alone.
We then had a lecture from Professor Osamu Abe from Rikkyo University. He founded the first ever Japanese research center for ESD and is the president of the Japanese Society of Environmental Education. He said many interesting things but one of the main takeaways I had was that in the past environmental education has focused mainly on the relationship between nature and humans. For instance, what impact do our activities have on the environment? However, he said that it is also necessary to change human to human relations as well.

Professor Abe speaking to us about ESD.

All of the US teachers did a joint presentation on our journey so far in Japan. We focused primarily on our experience in Omuta where we have spent the past 6 days.

This afternoon we heard from some program alumni from Japan that presented about their joint projects with their US counterparts.