A group of over 200 Chinese high school students were welcomed
Wednesday in Tokyo by Japanese government officials and friendship
organizations, before they begin a week-long exchange tour in
Japan.
Akie Abe, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hoped the
teenagers can freely exchange ideas with the Japanese high school
students during the tour and "find ways to solve problems when they
could not understand each other well."
Tokyo and Beijing have arranged several batches of high school
students to visit each other based on their youth exchange program
started last year. With this group included, some 1,100 Chinese
students have visited Japan and about 200 Japanese students have
come to China for exchange tours.
Japan-China Friendship Center chairman Yoshiro Hayashi said that
this batch of students came at a meaningful time, "at the 35th
anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China diplomatic
relations." He hoped they can make friends with Japanese
students.
"I learned about Japan from animations and some Japanese songs,"
said Fu Shu, a high school student from Jilin Province. "I will bring back my
experience and feelings during the tour to Japan and I also want to
invite young Japanese people to China, to feel our culture and
hospitality."
Masakazu Sekiguchi, vice minister for foreign affairs from the
Japanese Foreign Ministry, said that Japan is mulling to enlarge
youth exchange plans from next year. "We are planning to invite
some 6,000 young people from East Asian countries to Japan every
year," he said, "most of them would be high school students. And we
expect to have more Chinese young visitors."
"It is a valuable chance for the students," Kong Xuanyou,
Minister-Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Japan said, expressing
the hope that the exchanges can boost understandings and
friendship.
The high school students, from various parts of China including
Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Guangxi, Yunnan, Jilin, Anhui and Hainan, arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday. They are
scheduled to visit different parts of Japan such as Ishikawa,
Fukui, Tochigi, Nagasaki, Toyama prefectures and stay with common
Japanese families.
(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)
