Mr. Huang Guan-Chau, Director of the Education Division of TECRO Japan and Mr. Shuichi Abe, Governor of Nagano Prefecture

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Exchange in Education between Taiwan and Japan and the positive results achieved during the past 20 years, the Ministry of Education held a series of events. Fifty Japanese guests were invited to visit Taiwan to participate in these events in December 2022. They included seven important figures in the field of education who were awarded certificates of appreciation by the Ministry. Among them was Mr. Shuichi Abe, the Governor of Nagano Prefecture. Mr. Abe was unable to attend the presentation ceremony, so the Ministry of Education requested the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Culture Representative Office (TECRO) in Japan to present Mr. Abe’s certificate to him in Japan. 
The Education Division visited the Nagano Prefecture Governor on February 20 and presented the certificate of appreciation along with a number of small gifts as a token of gratitude. Mr. Abe has been dedicated to the intercultural relations between Japanese and Taiwanese education for the past few years. He expressed his apologies that he had been unable to attend the ceremony in Taiwan, and his wishes that Japan and Taiwan would soon be able to extend their fruitful interactions, after the Covid-19 pandemic. 
Nagano Prefecture has been proposing and implementing exchange programs for both Taiwanese and Japanese high schools since 2005, and due to the close relations established, 29 sister school agreements were entered into. What is interesting is that every single agreement has a different story behind it. The first principal of National Miaoli Senior High School in Taiwan, Mr. Masaru Kanai, for example, graduated from Ueda High School in Nagano Prefecture and these two schools were able to sign a sister school agreement in 2016 as a result of his background. The two schools subsequently carried on exchange programs for the two years until they were interrupted by the pandemic.
The Nagano Prefecture Educational Board has said that although such exchange programs had to come to a halt for the past two years because of the pandemic, the Board has strived to maintain the programs by organizing online meetings with almost 30 schools participating. This alternative demonstrated some astonishing results and became a good stepping stone for educational trips for nearly ten schools next year. Prosperous and helpful interactions and the elevation of education quality are expected to be among the many achievements of these exchanges.