International Exchange Events in Japan at the Grassroots Level Requires a Complete Rethink

The term "international exchange" can be ambiguous and all-encompassing. Everything from having foreigners presenting the basics of foreign foods and customs to kids in elementary schools to much more serious seminars in which businessmen get together to discuss how to market their products in foreign lands can be defined under the umbrella of international exchange. In between these two extremes lie a plethora of community events, supposedly held by people with the casual, non-monetarily incentivized hobby of knowing about what's outside Japan.

But for many places without a ready supply of foreigners (which is, in the case of Japan, most places outside its biggest cities), these hobby-like international exchange events can quickly become an extension of real-life replays of stereotypes of foreigners generated on TV shows or condescending conversations about how the foreigners should be thankful that they are in Japan. These events either do not include foreigners or include them only to put them on the periphery, not as participants of discussions but as "things" to be observed or talked about, making it exceedingly difficult to gauge their real thinking.

A recent event I attended at the semi-official international cultural exchange association here in Chiba serves as a good example of not putting foreigners front and center in international exchange events. While the event billed itself as cultural communication, it was essentially a speech contest, in which foreigners from local Japanese language schools gave minutes-long talks about their (largely positive) experience in Japan and their personal dreams about the stereotypical narrative of building bridges between Japan and their home countries. 

With a dozen contestants giving speeches sequentially and some breaks in the middle, the event easily lasted hours despite having no discussion or question-and-answer component. The audience, a few dozen mostly exceedingly elderly Japanese residents of the city, seemed quite content with the slow pace of the speeches and the event in general, concentrating during the talks while chatting away with their friends during the breaks. Ultimately, the event ended with prizes given, some closing remarks from the association's managers, and a round of applause for all contestants.

Cordial as the entire event seemed, the content is neither conducive to expanding general interest in international communications nor, to be completely frank, conducting international communications at all. Granted, the Japanese language school students' Japanese language abilities are certainly not sufficient enough to hold in-depth conversations with audience members largely incapable of speaking any other language aside from Japanese, but at least some effort might be given to encourage more interaction between those who presented and those who listened.

Moreover, the ambiguity with which the event was marketed to the general public and, if I had to guess, the participants themselves, make it unattractive to those who would like to participate in international exchanges with explicit purposes in mind. I, for instance, saw the advertisement for the event in the local government newsletter but had no idea that the event was a speech contest before I actually arrived at the event. Those who excitedly showed up only to be disappointed with what actually took place are unlikely to go back for future iterations of the same event.

All the downsides of how the event was organized are particularly significant given that such international exchanges are already worryingly old in terms of people involved. While the speech-givers were mostly in their teens and twenties, those listening are mostly retirees with too much free time on their hands. With all due respect to their past career successes, these audience members, at their current stage of life, have little they can realistically contribute to future directions of how the city and the country at large handle delicate issues surrounding the relationship with a growing number of foreign residents.

As such, a complete rethink of how international exchanges are conducted should take place. More interactive features, with spontaneous chats among attendees, should be added. Event organizers can dictate topics and groupings to prod the shy into speaking. And more concrete purposes and details should be added to marketing toward youngsters to encourage them to go. Without concrete incentives, whether it be school credit, business networking, romantic possibilities, and wholesome entertainment, it will be difficult to get young people to sacrifice their precious off-work hours to talk with strangers.