【Voice of Professional】Bringing Japanese History and Culture to the World- PREX Island
Lecturers / Specialists
Rekishi Kaido Promotional Council, Project Promotion Division, Japanese Culture Experience Program, Leader: INENAGA Meiko
I wonder if many of you, participants in the JICA training course held in Japan, remember the ‘Japanese Culture Experience Program’?
The Rekishi Kaido Promotional Council received a commission from PREX, which receives many training courses requests, to present a program of lectures on Japanese history and culture and provide visits to temples and shrines, etc. in Kyoto and Nara as a Japanese culture experience.
By conducting this program soon after your arrival in Japan, we hope it helped to have a deeper understanding of ‘Japan’ and helped you to have an understanding of the background of your training course theme.
We asked Ms. Inenaga who has been this program’s coordinator for many years to tell us about it. She gave us this video letter for training course participants.
This program which has continued for over 10 years began when we received a commission from PREX, and at present is held in many JICA Kansai training programs. We make an effort to brush up the text used in the program on each occasion so that the content contains information that we think participants want to know.
The main message we want to pass on is:
‘Japanization’: By this we mean that present-day Japan is as it is because it has adopted many things from many countries. It is not because ‘this is Japan’. Let’s work together to develop! ‘Scrap and Build’: In Japan, after the War and after disasters, there has been a history of repeated reconstruction. This is also true for other countries, too. This is what we want to pass on.It goes without saying that Japanese culture has these two central points. In order to make someone understand, it is necessary to be able to explain yourself. This is a very important point, I think.
This program which is conducted as a JICA training program has been created by its participants and all those involved.
We are delighted with your (participants) show of intellectual interest. Your questions help us to realize that what we take for granted is not really so. On many occasions, from you we felt, ‘From now on we have to take responsibility for our own country’. This positiveness made us feel very happy.I was delighted to meet you all during this COVID-19 situation, and able to provide you with knowledge and experience through actually seeing and hearing in this experience program.
We ask all participants to look at this video letter together with the PREXNOW August article(s). Written by: YAMAUCHI
Bringing Japanese History and Culture to the World
‘Let’s transmit Japanese history and culture throughout the world.’ In the 1980s, from the painful experience of criticism from abroad that ‘Japanese can’t explain or talk about their own culture’, the “Rekishi Kaido Project” with the goal of getting Japanese people to know their own culture and transmit it overseas was begun. With the cooperation of many organizations and individuals, various activities have continued for over 30 years since then.
The main concept of the Rekishi Kaido Project is ‘Culture in Localism’. By visiting the Kansai region which is rich in historic culture, one can come into contact more with Japanese historic culture. We believe this is an effective method of ‘culture transmission’. With the setting up of a program (Japanese Culture Experience Program) of lectures and visiting local sites Japanese culture could be learned. The program is open to Japanese businesspeople, college students, high school students, participants in programs to learn Japanese skills organized by JICA and overseas students who have come to Japan to study.
In 2020, because of the spread of COVID-19, exchange with the rest of the world stopped. Even in Japan, it became difficult for people to come into contact with each other. Overseas students had to study online and couldn’t go to college. In these circumstances, an invitation was sent to overseas students in the metropolitan area for them to come to Kansai to join local university students in a program to experience Japanese culture. Also, the same program was used for Kansai overseas students to have exchange with local high school students. Although there were restrictions because of COVID-19, we gave it a try. Providing this program to young people was a precious experience to proceed to the next step.
In 2025, the Osaka-Kansai EXPO will be held. Many visitors are expected to come. We hope we can, through continuing our activities and with the historic cultural resources in the Kansai region, transmit Japanese culture to as many people as possible.
Rekishi Kaido Promotional Council, Project Promotion Division, Japanese Culture Experience Program, Leader: INENAGA Meiko
With course participants
[Related link]
Rekishi Kaido Promotional Council, Japanese Culture Experience Program
https://www.rekishikaido.gr.jp/japanese_culture/
Please check the her message.
Video Message from Ms. Inenaga, Rekishi Kaido Promotional Council.
- Date : August 4, 2023
- Name : INENAGA Meiko
