Mayor welcomes 5 Japanese exchange students

Saipan Mayor Ramon “RB” Blas Camacho welomed five Japanese exchange students during a courtesy visit Wednesday afternoon at his office in Susupe.

The five students, Gempei Ojima, 14; Yamato Maie, 14; Akifumi Shibata, 14; China Kawasaki, 10; and Sara Kurauchi, 9; along with their chaperone, Minoru Taniguchi, arrived on Saipan early Wednesday morning.

They expressed their excitement to be on the island, and through an interpreter shared a little about themselves to Camacho and his staff.

After the meeting, the students sang a Japanese song and Taniguchi gave some gifts to Camacho.

Camacho shared with the media that he’s not only happy that this exchange program has continued, but he seeks to further its reach in order to get more Japanese tourists to visit to the island.

“Probably by Feb. I might go to another city in Japan to open up another program and a sister city… [I’m] looking forward to expand this so we can… continue the relationship with the Japanese community in helping each other. Especially since we highly need tourists to revive our economy, so at least through this program and as we continue this relationship we hope to entice and bring Japanese tourists to come here. We’re going to continue this program because I see that it’s very beneficial either way… in exchanging culture you know it’s so important,” he said.

Taniguchi applauded Camacho and shared that one of the students present, Kurauchi, was not only the youngest student visiting Saipan during this exchange, but her mother had also been an exchange student who visited Saipan years back. Taniguchi said it was like a legacy has continued.

Kurauchi told Camacho and the gathered media that she’s personally looking forward to swim in Saipan waters herself.

The students will be on Saipan until Jan. 1 and during that time they will be touring both historical sites as well as experiencing local culture and food.

The exchange program had been a collaborative effort between the Kokusai Seiyounen Kensyuu Kyokai exchange program and the Saipan Mayor’s Office.