For those wanting to learn more about the participating countries for SWY22, the full list includes:
– Australia
– Kingdom of Bahrain
– Republic of Ecuador
– Arab Republic of Egypt
– Hellenic Republic
– India
– Japan
– Republic of Kenya
– Sultanate of Oman
– Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
– Republic of Turkey
– United Arab Emirates
– Republic of Yemen
Japan’s delegation provides about half of the participants which is about 120-130 people. The other delegations send 10-12 participants to make the ship balanced at roughly 50% Japanese and 50% non-Japanese. Unfortunately, the United States was not invited to send a delegation to take part in SWY22. Hopefully next time. Cross your fingers. Actually since the SWY22 sailing route is west of Japan with official port-of-calls in Chennai, India; Dubai, UAE; and Naha, Japan, most of the participating countries are along the route. When SWY sails east of Japan, more countries from North and South America get invited. A rough breakdown of the countries are listed in the west-bound and east-bound drop down tabs at http://www.swyaa.org/old/index.html
For SWY22, the delegation from Ecuador represents the only country from the Americas. Good luck representing the Americas, Ecuador. Viva Ecuador!!!
And if you are still wondering what’s the purpose of the SWY program, here’s a blurb:
The purpose of the Ship for World Youth program is to broaden the global view of the Japanese youths, to promote mutual understanding and friendship between Japanese and foreign youths as well as to cultivate the spirit of international cooperation and the competence to practice it, and furthermore to foster the youths with capability of showing leadership in various area of international society.
In addition, this program aims at establishing networks and promoting joint activities among youths around the world through providing, as the concrete and practical opportunity, the cohabitation and the joint activity on the board of the “Ship for World Youth,” which is the epitome of international society with wide variety of cultures and ideas, to make a visible international contribution from the perspective of human resource development.
In this program, about 120 youth from Japan and 140 youth from various areas of the world live together on board the ship and engage in various multilateral exchange activities such as studying and discussing common issues from a global viewpoint on board and in the countries visited.
And for a bit of history of the SWY program, here’s some background:
The international youth exchange program of the Cabinet Office originally started in 1959 when it implemented the “Japanese Youth Goodwill Mission Program” which the then Prime Minister Kishi had proposed personally in order to commemorate the marriage of H.M. the Emperor, who was at that time the Crown Prince.
In 1967, the “Japanese Youth Goodwill Cruise Program” started as one of the projects to commemorate the Centennial of the Meiji Restoration. Both the “Japanese Youth Goodwill Mission Program” and the “Japanese Youth Goodwill Cruise Program” gave a big dream and hope to the youth of Japan since the government would take the initiative to send the youth overseas at the time when it was still very difficult for them to go aboard on their own.
Due to the recent expansion of the international role of Japan and the remarkable advancement in internationalization in various fields all over the world, the improvement of the contents of international youth exchange programs of the Cabinet Office has been found necessary in order to cope with such a changing social environment. Firstly, therefore, the “Japanese Youth Goodwill Cruise Program” was reorganized and upgraded to the “Ship for World Youth Program” in 1988. The main objective of the former program, which was sending Japanese youth overseas, was changed, so that the exchange between Japanese and foreign youth became one of the main activities. The contents also became more academic through the introduction of activities such as discussions and seminars.
News from SWY USA 