Every year, APIC holds its “Pacific and Caribbean Journalist Invitation Program”. The program invites journalists from the Pacific Island region and the various countries of the Caribbean.

This program aims to have journalists view first-hand Japanese culture and Japanese people’s lifestyles, and transmit what they observe through articles and videos, deepening their understanding of Japan. The theme of the program is ‘the environment and disaster prevention’, where the journalists talk to experts in government and private companies to see what challenges Japan is currently facing. At each place they visit, the journalists learn about evacuation procedures, life-saving policies and measures, and government action.

The 4th program which took place last year gave the opportunity to one of our APIC interns majoring in journalism to take part in the program and gave her experience writing articles on each of the topics.

Additionally, the ‘APIC Journalism Fellowship Award’ is given out each time as a way to contribute to the journalists’ careers and the improvement of journalism in both regions. As of this moment, twenty-one participants have joined the Journalist Program, and every article that was written and published has been archived.

The help of photographer Mr. Floyd Takeuchi and Ms. Don Matus has helped make the program more fulfilling. Both have experience living in Japan and have vast experience in the field of journalism. APIC’s website has more detailed information which I urge you to check.

The world is changing around us every day, and I hope that this program will be of help in this age where diversity and commonalities crisscross the world and are vital to the survival of humankind.