A group of 20 Japanese students visited the Honda Heritage Museum this week. The group also toured the Marysville Auto Plant and the Performance Manufacturing Center. They are attending Dublin Coffman High School and will return to Japan next week. The students are part of the TOMODACHI Honda Global Leadership Program. Above, students laughed and smiled as they each took turns riding Honda’s UNI-CUB, a type of mobile stool.
(Marysville Journal-Tribune photo by Mac Cordell)
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Kotomi Ikeda, a shy 17-year-old from Nagasaki, Japan, has some advice for American teens.
“Join a program like this,” Ikeda said. “It will give you broader perspectives.”
The “program” she is talking about is the TOMODACHI Honda Global Leadership Program.
This week, 20 students from Japan are in Union County as part of the program. The students are staying with families in Dublin and will be visiting Dublin Coffman High School. Tuesday the students toured Honda’s Marysville Auto Plant, the Honda Heritage Museum and the Performance Manufacturing Center where Acura’s supercar, the NSX, is made.
Irene Hirano Inouye, president of the U.S.-Japan Council was with the students. She explained that Honda is one of many corporate partners that make the program possible. She said students in the Honda experience focus on manufacturing while groups focus on arts, culture, disabilities, sciences and other areas.
“It is a variety of programs, all geared toward providing opportunities for students,” Inouye said.
She said regardless of the focus, the program emphasizes leadership and creativity.
The TOMODACHI initiative started in April 2014 as a way to help students from areas impacted by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Erik Wedin, manager of corporate relations for American Honda said the U.S. Government lent support to the area. He said many Americans on the ground developed relationships with the Japanese.
“The response was effective and got people thinking, ‘How do we make sure these bonds of friendship keep going?’” Wedin said.
The result was a public-private partnership to offer the visitation opportunity for students. Wedin said it was a natural fit for Honda.
For the first three years of Honda’s involvement, students went to the Rose Parade. Honda is a title sponsor of the annual New Year’s Day parade. Wedin said students enjoyed the event, but Honda wanted to give them other experiences as well.
Honda officials said they wanted to be able to provide experiential learning and leadership development opportunities that could also serve as a bit of workforce development.
“We thought, ‘How can we bring it even closer to Honda and allow them to see more of Honda and of the U.S.?’” Wedin said.
The answer was Marysville.
Ikeda said she knew she wants to work in the automotive industry in some way. She said that “after experiencing Honda for a little bit” she wants to work as a designer, possibly for the company.
Tetsushi Fuchikawa said he wants to be a journalist, but acknowledged, “nobody knows the future.”
He said new experiences and widening his perspective can only help, regardless of what the future holds.
Fuchikawa said that while there are differences, “some things are universal.” He said the people of the area have been “very welcoming.”
Ikeda said she knew America was big, but didn’t understand how big. She said the country is “more diverse, more dynamic” than she imagined.
The Japanese students are seeing how big and diverse the country is. They arrived in California last week, and then came to Ohio. At the end of the week, they will return to California for several more days.
Inouye said program organizers want students to experience, “America from a variety of perspective.”
She said Ohio offers that different perspective.
“Here I think you get more of a sense of openness and certainly the people of the Midwest are very open and friendly,” she said.
Inouye said students, regardless of where they are from, tend to focus on their own part of the world, She said exchange programs bring people together and allow students to gain perspective.
“We are encouraging more young Americans to look at coming to Japan to visit or to study,” she said. “We are encouraging much more of that exchange.”
She said the program has taken Honda’s slogan, “The Power of Dreams” to heart. She said each student will make a presentation about their dreams at the end of their stay in America.
“We want them thinking about that all along,” she said.
Fuchikawa said sometimes an increased understanding of the world “brings clarity” to dreams and sometimes it expands them, but it most definitely changes them.