500 Japanese, Chinese university students take part in exchange event
Some 300 Japanese students got together in the Chinese capital to interact with about 200 Chinese students after visiting areas such as Shanghai and the provinces of Shanxi, Jiangxi and Yunnan in several groups since Saturday.
Chikara Oe, a 21-year-old student from Tohoku University in Japan, said he joined the exchange program and visited China for the first time as he was interested in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence in the country.
"I only had information (on China) from social media, so I wanted to see the country with my own eyes," Oe said. "Shanghai was like a future city and I thought it was more developed than Japan. After I return home, I will recommend my friends to visit China and have first-hand experiences."
Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi said in his speech at the event that it is "the will of the two countries' leaders to further promote personal and cultural exchanges," stressing the importance of deepening mutual understanding among younger generations who will be responsible for future bilateral ties.
The envoy called for more people-to-people exchanges, saying negative public sentiment toward each other remains a challenge. An annual survey showed last year that nearly 90 percent of respondents in each of the neighboring Asian countries had an unfavorable impression of the other.
© KYODO
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Mainichi
40 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
US, S. Korea reaffirm commitment to N. Korean denuclearization
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday reaffirmed with his South Korean counterpart Cho Hyun their countries' "resolute commitment" to the complete denuclearization of North Korea. During a meeting in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the top diplomats also voiced "serious" concern about North Korea's deepening military cooperation with Russia, while welcoming a trade agreement between Washington and Seoul. The meeting, the first between them since the launch of the new South Korean administration in June, took place just a day after the longtime allies announced the deal. U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will travel to the White House for a meeting within the next two weeks. The last-minute trade agreement before Friday's expiration of a monthslong pause on Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs included a lowered 15 percent tariff on cars and other goods from South Korea in exchange for its promise to import more American products and invest heavily in the United States. Rubio and Cho discussed efforts to advance the shared prosperity of the two countries, including by "strengthening supply chains and collaborating on critical and emerging technologies," in addition to underscoring the unwavering strength of the alliance that has a history of more than 70 years, Bruce said in a statement. They also stressed that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is an essential element of security and prosperity for the international community and discussed the importance of continuing to strengthen the countries' trilateral cooperation with Japan, she said.
Nikkei Asia
an hour ago
- Nikkei Asia
Video: Unpacking Sanseito and the 'Japanese First' movement
TOKYO -- In this video, Tokyo correspondent Shotaro Tani sits down with Romeo Marcantuoni, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University, to discuss the history and rise of the right-wing Sanseito party, and what its recent electoral gains mean for Japanese politics. Marcantuoni's research focuses on contemporary Japanese opposition politics. He has co-authored a forthcoming paper on Sanseito and its ideology.
The Mainichi
an hour ago
- The Mainichi
Japan to invite nuclear disarmament confab chair for A-Bomb anniv.
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government plans to invite Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations Do Hung Viet, who will chair next year's major nuclear disarmament conference, to attend the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima in early August, government sources said Thursday. It will be the first time a chair of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, which is held every five years in principle, attends the memorial ceremony, the Foreign Ministry said, citing data since 2000. The move signals Japan's desire to use his presence to help build momentum toward disarmament. The Japanese government also expects Robert Floyd, head of the body overseeing an international nuclear test-ban treaty, to attend the Aug. 6 ceremony in Hiroshima and the Aug. 9 ceremony in Nagasaki, the other city hit by an atomic bomb. Floyd has served as executive secretary of the preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization since 2021 and previously attended the ceremony in Hiroshima in 2023 at the invitation of the Japanese government led by then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The CTBT, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1996, prohibits countries from carrying out all types of nuclear explosive tests but has yet to enter into force as nuclear powers like the United States and China have not ratified it. The Japanese government sees the treaty as "a key norm that does not allow nuclear testing and plays an important role in nuclear nonproliferation," according to a senior Foreign Ministry official. A total of 178 countries, including Japan, have ratified the CTBT, but for it to take effect, it must be signed and ratified by 44 treaty-defined nuclear technology holder states. Nine of these, including China, North Korea and the United States, have yet to sign or ratify. While advocating for a world without nuclear weapons, Japan has not joined the U.N. nuclear ban treaty, as a complete prohibition conflicts with its policy of relying on U.S. nuclear deterrence for protection against potential threats. The Japanese government has called for maintaining and strengthening the NPT regime, which includes both nuclear and non-nuclear states. Amid deep divisions between nuclear-armed and non-nuclear states, the NPT review conference has failed to adopt a final document for two consecutive meetings. The most recent gathering in 2022 flopped due to opposition from Russia. The chair of next year's NPT review conference is expected to be invited to Japan for a four-day visit starting Monday, the sources said.
