KYOCERA Invites Thirty Chinese Children to Japan
The Ninth Friendly Exchange Mission of Chinese Children
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July 25, 2006
Kyocera Corporation (President: Makoto Kawamura) is conducting a tour for the Friendly Exchange Mission of Chinese Children visiting Japan as part of its CSR activities. Under the exchange mission, children from China are invited to Japan for nine days from July 30 to August 7 this year.
On this occasion, a total of 30 children from Shanghai will be given the opportunity to go on a sightseeing trip around Tokyo, to visit Japanese school in Kyoto and experience a three-day home-stay in Kagoshima prefecture in Kyushu. This will be the second time that children from Shanghai have been invited since the sixth exchange mission in 2003. In Kagoshima, the children will be divided into two groups and participate in festivals to enjoy the cool evening air. The festivals will be held at the Kokubu and Sendai Plants of Kyocera Corporation, where they will sing the Chinese songs they have been practicing in the lead-up to their visit to Japan.
Schedule for the Ninth Friendly Exchange Mission of Chinese Children to Japan
Period: Eight nights and nine days from Sunday, July 30 to Monday, August 7, 2006
Itinerary:
Sunday,
July 30 |
Arrive at Narita Airport |
-Brief orientation at the Koraku Garden Hotel |
Monday,
July 31 |
Sightseeing in Tokyo |
-Visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, NHK Broadcasting Center and other venues in Tokyo |
| Tuesday, August 1 |
| Wednesday, August 2 |
Travel to Kyoto by bullet train
Visit to Ritsumeikan Junior & Senior High School |
-Visit Ritsumeikan Junior & Senior High School (the Co-Learning House on the Biwako-Kusatsu Campus) for cultural exchange
Both Japanese and Chinese students participate in a hands-on education program adopted by Ritsumeikan which includes a card game to cultivate logical thinking and a simple programming exercise using a Lego car.
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| Thursday, August 3 |
Visit to Kyocera head office
Sightseeing in Kyoto |
-Reception at Kyocera head office
-Tour of the Kyocera Museum of Fine Ceramics and Showroom at the head office
-Visit Arashiyama to see a monument inscribed with a poem which was erected in commemoration of the Premier Zhou Enlai, Kinkaku-ji and other venues in Kyoto |
Friday,
August 4 |
Travel to Kagoshima
*Have home-stay for two nights and three days at the homes of Kyocera employees |
-Courtesy call on the City Office of Kirishima
-Visit to Kyocera Kokubu Plant and meet their host families
The children will then stay with their respective host families |
| Saturday, August 5 |
-Exchange with the host families (Morning)
-Participate in the festivals held at the Kokubu and Sendai Plants and sing Chinese songs (Afternoon) |
| Sunday, August 6 |
-Farewell party
The children have lunch with the host families |
| Monday, August 7 |
Return to China |
-Depart from Fukuoka Airport and return home
-Brief farewell ceremony at Shanghai Pudong International Airport |
Participants: Children from the fifth to the ninth grades in Shanghai City
Number of participants: Nine supervisors and 30 children,14 boys and 16 girls
Brief Background
Shortly after Kyocera was established, the current Chairman Emeritus, Kazuo Inamori, visited the United States for the first time on business, and was exhilarated by the experience of witnessing a different culture. Based on his experience, Inamori has conducted tours to invite children to countries abroad since 1976. His desire is to offer children the opportunity to directly experience the culture of another country during their youth, while they are still impressionable and their views are unbiased. He also hopes that the experience will help these children broaden their views and become capable of making judgments from a global perspective, and that the children will grow up to have many dreams, which is his idea of the ideal person. Children participating in the tour can learn many things and better understand the countries that receive them by coming to know different cultures and by experiencing friendly exchanges with the local people. The tour has helped expand the network of international exchanges at the non-government level.
This year marks the ninth year of the tours targeting the children of China. The tours started in 1997 when 10 children from Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, were invited. The area from which participants are drawn has expanded since 2001, and the number of children invited has increased. Invitations are extended to major cities in China and areas that have a close connection to Kyocera, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Dongguan City in Guangdong Province and Guiyang City in Guizhou Province*. Currently, children from these areas are invited alternately each year.
This tour incorporates programs that include the visit to schools, which started two years ago, and the three-day home-stay, which has been conducted since the first tour. The tour aims to provide the invitees with opportunities for exchange between Japanese and Chinese children of the same generation and to experience part of the school life and daily life in Japan. It is designed to promote understanding of different cultures through giving Chinese children a chance to come into contact with Japanese culture and the people in Japan. The tour features special programs that ordinary sightseeing trips do not offer.
*Children from three areas are invited alternately each year. The areas are: Beijing and Tianjin City, Shanghai City, and Dongguan and Guiyang City.
Reference: Activities during the last year's visit
Students worked on a programming exercise at Ritsumeikan Junior & Senior High School
With the host families
Participants sang songs at the summer festival at the Sendai Plant in Kagoshima
1. Kyocera Overseas Study Tour
The tour started in 1976, and ended with the 25th tour in 2000 because its objectives were attained. Initially, it started with the dispatch of 20 children of our employees in Japan to the United States. The scope was expanded in the fifth year, 1980, and a total of 40 children, including 20 elementary school and junior high school students who were also invited from the public, traveled overseas each year. The number of participants changed from time to time, but altogether, 860 elementary and junior high school children visited the United States as part of the tour over the past quarter century.
2. Horizon Tour
This tour started in 1978, two years after the Overseas Study Tour started, and ended with the 25th tour in 2002. It initially started out by inviting to Japan eight children of employees of our affiliates in the United States. In line with the expanding scope of participants who joined in the tour from Japan and the number of invitees on the Overseas Study Tour in 1980, calls for participants from the public also started in the United States. Since then, 30 elementary and junior high school children from the United States have been invited to Japan each year. The number of participants changed from time to time, but altogether, 508 children participated in the tour during the 25-year period.
3. The Friendly Exchange Missions of Chinese Children to Japan
The establishment of our affiliated company Dongguan Shilong Kyocera Optics Co., Ltd. in July 1996 served as the starting point for the Japan-China Friendship Tour. The tour has been held on four occasions since 1997. Ten elementary and junior high school children were invited to Japan from Dongguan City in Guangdong Province each year, and the number of participants totaled 40. The area and number of invitees for the tour expanded in 2001, and the tour has been renamed the Friendly Exchange Missions of Chinese Children to Japan. So far, 180 children have participated in the tour.
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