BEIJING (Kyodo) -- At a time when bilateral relations between China and Japan remain fraught, personal relationships established by Chinese alumni of a Japanese government-backed exchange program have helped create ties that would not otherwise exist.
As the two nations celebrated the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties, former participants of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program from China, who once worked as coordinators for international relations at municipalities in Japan, fondly recalled their "life-changing" experiences.
Although the program is not widely known in China, JET has a 30-year history in the country.
Chinese who have taken part were employed primarily as local government coordinators rather than assistant language teachers, who account for some 90 percent of total participants in the program. This reflects the fact that Chinese is not a subject covered by compulsory education in Japan, while English, an official language of nations where most of the program's participants come from, is.
So far, about 1,500 Chinese JETs have worked in Japan, accounting for only 2 percent of the participants who have hailed from around 75 countries, according to data from the program organizer, the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations.
About 90 percent of Chinese JETs are recruited through recommendations from their workplace -- usually, Chinese local governments -- and the rest are selected through open recruitment. According to the CLAIR Beijing office, many are sent to Japanese municipalities that are sister cities of their hometowns.
To work as a coordinator, Chinese JET applicants must have a Japanese proficiency equivalent of "N1," the highest level under the five-category Japanese-Language Proficiency Test. Hence, many major in the Japanese language at university.
Demand from municipalities for Chinese coordinators was strong before the global health crisis, as regions competed to attract Chinese tourists and promote their products for export, CLAIR officials said
Li Di, who now works at trading house Mitsui & Co.'s Beijing office, said she developed a teamwork ethic at Kirishima city hall in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, where she worked as a coordinator between 2017 and 2019 alongside JETs from South Korea and the United States, as well as local government officials.
"I learned how to work toward a common goal with people from different backgrounds and developed skills to plan exchange events. That experience helps me in my current job" in corporate planning and administration, said Li, now in her late 20s.
As a JET coordinator, the Xian native provided Chinese translation for the city's website and pamphlets, welcomed guests from China, communicated with Chinese-speaking residents and tourists, and introduced Chinese culture at workshops for locals, including children.