Following his successful dialogue with former JET participants here in London last month, Japan’s Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Yoshitaka Shindo has announced a new scheme to acknowledge the role of the JET Programme in promoting good relations between Japan and participants’ home countries.
The scheme, JET Kizuna (‘bond’) Ambassador, sees this year’s 1,450 departing participants certified as ‘honorary ambassadors’ to perform this new role and cement their attachment to Japan. Mr Shindo said:
“The purpose of the ‘JET Kizuna Ambassador’ scheme is to express our gratitude to JET Programme participants for their effort in the internationalization of Japanese local authorities and also to ask their support in enhancing friendly relations between their own countries and Japan.”
“Also, because JET participants are talented people with great passion and interest in Japan, we are considering helping them find jobs after completing the JET Programme.”
This follows the joint declaration by Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and David Cameron in May on the occasion of Abe’s visit to London, which affirmed the contribution of the JET Programme in actively promoting bilateral ties between the UK and Japan.
JET participants are selected from around 40 countries to fill the post of ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) and SEA (Sports Exchange Advisor) in schools, and CIR (Coordinators for International Relations) for local authorities. The programme’s participants in 2014 – inclusive of new recruits and those extending their contracts – totaled 4,476 hailing from 42 countries.
