Project Report
| Aug 14, 2024
Our Journey with New Youth Venturers Started!
By Chikara Ushiki | Project Leader
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On April 21st, we held the 14th "We are the Change" event, our first in approximately eight months. Main activities there are described as below:
- The event featured a review panel for three Youth Venturer andidates. The panelists included David Green, selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2001, Mieko Takenobu, a journalist and Professor Emeritus at Wako University, and Yasuhiro Mimura, head of the Startup CEO SYSTEM at EggFORWARD Corporation. All candidates successfully passed and officially became members of the Youth Venturers.
- Activity reports were presented by four active Youth Venturers, sharing progress on initiatives addressing peace issues, diversity awareness, creating a book-swapping space, and new approaches to education.
- A discussion session titled "Changemaking" was held to discuss the meaning and skills associated with the term. This session facilitated an exchange of views between participants from different backgrounds, deepening the understanding of common challenges.
- We also heard a speech from special guest, David Green, who talked about his experiences developing systems to provide high-quality medical products and services in developing countries. He shared insights into the importance and challenges of his work. Additionally, a message was delivered to event attendees by Nana Watanabe, the representative of Ashoka Japan.
Besides “We are the Change,” we also hold monthly activity sharing meetings for members of the Youth Venturers program. While our meetings are usually held online, on July 6th, we conducted an in-person meeting in Tokyo. A total of four Youth Venturers, two staff members, and one former Youth Venturers who is now a working professional participated. Over the course of five hours in the afternoon, participants discussed each other's activities and the challenges that emerged during their efforts, spending a fulfilling time together.
On July 24th, we hosted an online talk event to explore the lives and activities of the Youth Venturers who are changing society. The first session of this ongoing series featured a Youth Venturer who is working to create a society that respects diversity. She shared with high school and university students in attendance how she came to focus on this theme, her experiences and thoughts that led her there, what activities she has undertaken, and what she hopes to accomplish in the future.
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Apr 16, 2024
14th "We Are the Change" - Event in Tokyo!
By Chikara Ushiki | Project Manager
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We are excited to announce and preparing for the upcoming our 14th “We are the change” event in Tokyo on April 21st.
The half-day session will feature:
(a) Presentations by three Youth Venturer candidates, respectively working in vital areas such as disaster prevention, revitalization of the local fishery industry, and promoting diversity awareness. These presentations will be reviewed by a panel of three experts to determine the candidates’ eligibility for Youth Venture membership.
(b) A keynote speech by our prominent Ashoka Fellow, David Green, who will share insights into his recent initiatives in the field of public health.
(c) Updates from current Youth Venturers as they share their latest projects and achievements.
YVers are “rare species” who are app.one out of 120,000 high school students in ratio in Japan. The common denominator they have is the broader experiences and wider perspectives than average mono-culture Japanese have and some of them choose to enter US/UK colleges upon graduation. We have addressed the talent of changemaking they manifest being the talent/skills of the new era since 2010 but it still is not broadly understood and accepted in Japan. The core of educational disciplines stresses obedience slighting creativity and independent thinking. We plan to identify high schools in Japan that share similar vision as Ashoka in FY2024 to collaborate with them.
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Dec 19, 2023
FY2023 Ashoka Japan Unleash the Potential of Young Changemakers Project Report
By Nana Watanabe | Founder and Chairperson
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- We are the Change, the first in-person gathering of Youth Venture was held in four years, on August 20th, 2023. App. 50 youth and 30 adults participated. The half-day session included (a) presentation by the 4 YVers who are in action or just finished his/her one-year action period as Yvers, (b) 4 separate sectional discussions facilitated by the YVers involving adult participants on each agenda such as “Young Carers”, under-age youths who are imposed upon taking care of their parents or siblings over school work and missing elements in current Japanese education, (c)Discussions on the current Japanese education facilitated by one of the YVers’parent and Director of Ashoka Japan, involving over 20 adults in business and nonprofit areas.
- During FY2023, we held 3 YV panels and 6 new YVers selected. The newly selected 6 YVers include 16 year-old Hayato who developed delicious allergy-free cookies collaborating with pediatricians, motivated by his experience watching his parents’ struggle with his brother with serious food allergy. Yuna is also a 16 year-old who invented “Myanmar Karuta” board game that enables the players to learn the real life of average people in Myanmar while having fun. Upon returning from Phnom Penh to Japan she witnessed how indifferent her Japanese classmates are to what’s happening outside Japan and that frustration motivated her to invent this board game. Both Hayato’s cookies and Yuna’s board game are spreading throughout Japan.
- YVers are “rare species” who are app.one out of 120,000 high school students in ratio in Japan. The common denominator they have is the broader experiences and wider perspectives than average mono-culture Japanese have and some of them choose to enter US/UK colleges upon graduation. We have addressed the talent of changemaking they manifest being the talent/skills of the new era since 2010 but it still is not broadly accepted in Japan. The core of educational disciplines stresses obedience slighting creativity and independent thinking. We plan to identify high schools in Japan that share similar vision as Ashoka in FY2024 to collaborate with them.
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