The Taiwan-Japan Friendship Exchange Foundation in Tainan City held a signing ceremony with the Shikoku Regional Tourism Promotion Council on the 16th to promote educational travel exchanges among youth from both regions. The foundation's executive director, Yin Shih-Hsi, and Shikoku representative, Izumi Masakazu, signed the cooperation agreement, aiming to deepen cultural, historical, and local lifestyle exchanges between Taiwanese and Japanese youth, infusing new energy into Taiwan-Japan relations.

Since last year, the foundation has been fostering tangible exchanges with Shikoku, assisting local youth to visit Tainan for cultural experiences. They also arranged for Tainan students to visit Shikoku for cultural learning interactions, promoting programs that highlight the similarities in historical backgrounds and cultural characteristics between the two regions, laying a foundation for future collaborations.

Additionally, the foundation awarded the title of “Special Envoy for Education Travel Support for Shikoku Exchange” to Tsutomu Matsuura, an advisor at the International Marketing Association for the Tourism Industry of the Republic of China, hoping to encourage more Shikoku youth to visit Tainan.

Yin Shih-Hsi expressed hopes for expanding cooperation across cultural, tourism, educational, and sports fields, while Izumi Masakazu expressed that both youth groups should visit each other to experience local cultures firsthand. The foundation aims to build a bridge for youth exchange between Taiwan and Japan through educational travel, injecting more vitality and hope into both cities.