An international U-18 friendship match dubbed
JapaFunCup was held at Fukushima’s J-Village
Stadium. Victory went to the Southeast Asian teamcoached by Koga. JFA

Top: Abdul Walid bin Haji Misli today works at the EdTech
Centre in Brunei. He said that he is grateful that people heinteracted with in Japan became interested in his country.
Right: Students from Brunei who participated in theJENESYS program. The group stayed in private homes inHakuba, Nagano Prefecture, where they learned how tomake the local cuisine, and experienced the ski slopes. After
returning home, they shared their experiences, and somehave kept in touch with the Japanese students theybefriended.

SOUTHEAST ASIA AND JAPAN:

LINKED BY TIES OF
CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Japan has long conducted people-to-people exchange programs in a wide range of fields, including culture and sport,
and has been strengthening its close cooperation with member states of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast AsianNations) for the development and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region. Promoting mutual understanding will pave
the way to a new level of partnership between these countries.
Over the 50 years since ASEAN-Japan relations
started in 1973, the two parties have deepened
their ties of friendship not only in the political andeconomic spheres, but also in the fields of culture,arts and sports through people-to-people exchanges.

The “WA Project”: Toward Interactive Asia through“Fusion and Harmony,” announced at the ASEANJapan Commemorative Summit Meeting in Tokyo in2013, is part of that endeavor. The Japan Foundation
Asia Center, set up for this project, has been
implementing two main programs. One is NihongoPartners, which dispatches Japanese language
assistants throughout Asia to support local Japaneselanguage teachers, and the other is Arts and Cultural
Exchange, which conducts artistic and cultural
exchanges. One initiative of the latter is Asian Eleven,a sports exchange carried out in coordination withthe Japan Football Association ( JFA) and the Japan
Professional Football League, which dispatches
coaches and players to ASEAN nations to share theirknowledge and experience of football in Japan. The
goal of the program is for the people of Japan andKOGA Takuma (center) was head coach for two and a half years at an academy
for young athletes in Myanmar. The photo was taken at the JapaFunCup. JFA/AFLO

the countries of ASEAN to foster relationships as
friendly rivals through football, and to take Asianfootball overall to a higher level.
Starting from October 2017, former Japanese pro
football player KOGA Takuma spent roughly two
and a half years as a head coach at the Myanmar
Football Academy in Mandalay, where he trained
young players of the next generation. “Myanmar has
some very highly skilled individual players, and I see
potential there for a big leap forward. They responded
to my coaching by playing more and more proactively,
which I found very gratifying,” Koga recalls.
The event that impressed Koga the most took placein 2019, when he served as head coach for a selectteam of players under 18, chosen from 11 Southeast
Asian countries, who were brought to Japan to playa friendly match with a team selected from theprefectures of Japan’s Tohoku region. “It’s great if wesucceeded in passing along some of our energy to thepeople of Tohoku, who were working really hard toreconstruct after the Great East Japan Earthquake ofMarch 2011,” Koga said. The game was a close battle
that ended with a penalty shootout victory for theAsian Eleven team.
The Japanese government also conducts a program
called JENESYS ( Japan-East Asia Network ofExchange for Students and Youths) as one of Japan’s
Friendship Ties Programs. The program, whichstarted in 2007, invites young people of merit in theAsia-Pacific region to Japan and likewise sends young
Japanese people to this area, the goal being to nurture
future generations with a better understanding ofeach other. By March 2023, 36,000 young people
from ASEAN nations had come to Japan and 3,000
Japanese youths had visited the countries of ASEAN,
each expanding their mutual understanding.
In March 2019, Abdul Walid bin Haji Misli
came to Japan as a leader of 22 university students
participating in JENESYS. “Every step and momentof being in Japan was electrifying and inspiring. Everyvisit and activity in which we participated was funand amazing,” he recalls. The group visited a museumin Tokyo, interacted with Japanese college students,and stayed in Japanese homes. “The participantsfrom Brunei really appreciated the discussions withJapanese students. This is a great program that allows
our students to develop a mutual friendship andunderstanding through people-to-people exchanges,
where we can continue to mature our bilateralrelationship and strengthen our solidarity even at anearly age,” he said.
Abdul Walid currently works at the EdTech
Centre of Brunei’s Ministry of Education. “I reallyadmire Japanese people’s work ethic and dedication.
I determined myself to be as dedicated to my work
after visiting Japan, so that I could contribute to myjob more efficiently. Personally, I would love to go
back to Japan and engage in a professional exchange
to improve my work skills, especially in the areas ofteaching and educational technology,” he adds.
Friendships, forged through interactions between
the young people who hold the future in their hands,
will be the foundation of a stronger partnership
between Japan and the ASEAN nations.