Mr. Liu Chung-Ching, Director General of the Department of Student Affairs and Special Education at the Ministry of Education, led a delegation of 40 high school principals and teachers to participate in the Taiwan and Japan High School Educational Travel Seminar on February 21, in Kyoto, Japan. The seminar was organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Tourism Office in Japan, and 80 representatives of relevant Japanese authorities and schools attended. The participants discussed how to strengthen cooperation regarding educational travel between secondary schools in Taiwan and Japan.

In his opening speech Director General Liu pointed out that educational travel enhances friendly relations between the young people in Japan and those in Taiwan, and lets them understand the cultural similarities and differences they have with each other. This constructs a solid foundation for long-term interaction and collaboration.

The seminar then broke into groups to talk over various problems that have been encountered in educational travel so far and to discuss future exchange programs. Kouyou High School in Kyoto Prefecture is planning to organize an educational trip to Taiwan for the first time in the next year. The principal met with representatives from schools across Taiwan at the seminar and expressed appreciation about becoming aware of potential problems and learning from the successful experiences of other schools. Senri International High School, located in Osaka City, actively promotes international education and plans to undertake exchanges with schools in Taiwan, so its representatives travelled all the way to Kyoto to attend the seminar. They exchanged views with officials from high schools in Taiwan and plan to go to Taiwan in April to visit these schools and discuss future exchanges.

In recent years high school educational travel between Taiwan and Japan has been flourishing. Last year 17,000 Japanese high school students visited Taiwan, and 10,000 high school students in Taiwan visited Japan.