Osaka’s Little Goodwill Ambassadors Began Visiting Taiwan 20 years ago
To enhance exchanges between the young generation in Taiwan and in Japan, and to plant seeds for more education exchanges between Taiwan and Japan, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Osaka assists the Osaka Hashiba Kindergarten to organize a goodwill mission to Taiwan each year to visit Lih-Jen International Private School Kindergarten in Taipei.
Osaka Hashiba Kindergarten and Lih-Jen International Private School Kindergarten officially became sister kindergartens on January 15, 2005, and a group of Japanese Little Goodwill Ambassadors has gone to Taiwan to visit Lih-Jen International Private School Kindergarten every year since, except during the pandemic.
Over the past 20 years, more than 200 Japanese children who are graduating from Osaka Hashiba Kindergarten have visited Taiwan for two nights and three days. The visits to Taiwan resumed this year, 2024, with a group visiting Taiwan from September 12 to 14.
The group, led by Mizuhara Hisako, the kindergarten’s director, visited the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Osaka on September 6, before their departure to Taiwan. Hung Ying-Chieh 洪英傑, the Director General of TECO in Osaka, Lin Yu-Jou 林育柔, the Cultural and Educational Affairs Attaché, and their colleagues interacted with the kindergarten children, listening to the details of their itinerary, and enjoying the children's specially practiced Chinese greetings and singing.
Osaka Hashiba Kindergarten attaches great importance to early childhood education and engages in the early cultivation of Japanese children's international perspective. It upholds the good tradition of friendly exchanges with Taiwan and will continue to promote early childhood education exchanges. Director Mizuhara Hisako said that she deeply felt the importance of strengthening exchanges between Taiwan and Japan, and that she would continue promoting the goodwill delegation plan in the future. She hopes that when the little goodwill ambassadors grow up, they will serve as a communication bridge between Taiwan and Japan, making the relationship between Taiwan and Japan more friendly and closer.
