Former President's Column Vol.1
The Association for Promotion of International Cooperation (APIC) was founded in September, 1975, and in April 2013 under the Public Interest Corporation Reform became a general incorporated foundation. APIC has since built upon its foundations and is involved in a myriad of projects to further the promotion of international cooperation. This will be the 40th year since the founding of APIC, and to commemorate this date we have renewed our homepage to more easily inform our readers of our activities and programs connecting the world and Japan. We aim to promote the results of international cooperation and the importance those results have on Japan.
I would like to talk about the development of cooperation between Japan and Micronesia, which our foundation has worked many long years to promote.
2014 was a big year for APIC. In the latter half of the year, a cooperative agreement was signed between Sophia University and Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT), which was progressive in that APIC gained a powerful partner to help forward our mission. With this strong base as background, the Sophia University-APIC-Xavier High School Exchange Student Program is moving forward smoothly, and with the reference of APIC, the Federated States of Micronesia President Mori was awarded an honorary doctorate’s degree from Sophia University, and in further progress Sophia University and Sophia University Junior College signed a cooperative agreement with the College of Micronesia.
President Mori gave his deepest thanks for APIC’s efforts with a letter expressing his gratitude. I quote:
Thank you for your hospitality while I was visiting Japan last year. My trip was a success because of you.
(Abbreviated)
Thanks to APIC’s support, an exchange student program between Sophia University and Xavier High School was launched, as well as plans for a new exchange student program between the College of Micronesia and Sophia University. These programs exist because of APIC’s achievements of promoting people-to-people communication. I believe this to be a wonderful thing. A higher level of education plays an important role in the development of Micronesia, thus I believe this partnership with Sophia University will make a large contribution to the development of our country. I ask for the continued support of APIC toward our countries’ economic development.
Emanuel Mori
(Signature)"
Creating a systemized and long-term educational exchange with Japan has been a longstanding challenge for the FSM. The Sophia University-Xavier High School Exchange Student Program is a first step towards achieving this goal, and is also a ground-breaking project for Japan as well. Cooperation and support from Sophia University has allowed APIC to make progress on these challenging issues, and has deepened understanding between Japan and the Micronesian region (Palau, Marshall Islands). I believe that this understanding will fortify the foundation of our relationship.
It is vital to promote the importance of international cooperation in this time of globalization, and by deepening our understanding of each other we will see the fruits of globalization come to fruition.
The Association for Promotion of International Cooperation
President, Peter Yoshiyasu Sato
(Former Japanese Ambassador to the People's Republic of China)