Shams El-Mutwalli Dubai

Community organization, Enka, launched in 2017 and has been organizing various cultural activities that promote a positive exchange between the United Arab Emirates and Japan since.

The organization is currently working on several projects including a language exchange program and has worked on projects in the past like their homestay program for Japanese students.

Enka has also collaborated with schools, universities as well as businesses like restaurants and cafes to carry out informative events.

The organization is comprised of seventeen members including both Japanese and Arab participants who are brought together to fulfil the organization’s vision.

One member, Razan AlHaddad, shared how there are many Japanese people in the UAE but they are not well informed about Emirati culture and traditions.

“They don’t have these interfaces where they can properly get involved with our culture” which prevents them from having an “authentic experience,” she told Arab News Japan.

While Enka intends to fill that gap, the organization’s mission stems deeper than that intending to also offer an educational give and take between people of both cultural backgrounds.

“I think our lifestyle in the GCC is somehow very similar yet so different from Japanese lifestyle,” Founder Amna AlDarmaki shared, offering clarity as to why the Enka initiative is important as it sheds light on those similarities allowing for fortified relations between people.

Despite the similarities, AlDarmaki pointed out how we “don’t understand each other” as “we have stereotypes about Japanese people, and at the same time they have a lot of stereotypes about us in the Middle East,” she said.

Intending to remedy that she chose to learn Japanese to be able to converse with people from Japan and enable mutual understanding.

This is the purpose of the language exchange program offered that involves meetups to facilitate language learning as well as online meetings for self-study of the Japanese language.

Enka has also collaborated with Genki restaurant to host a Sakura event where attendees were encouraged to make a Sakura flower using origami flowers and were rewarded with a 15 percent discount.

Tchaba Tea and Enka carried out a similar collaboration where a matcha masterclass was held, and the tea was promoted to Enka’s followers.

Other projects include Enka’s participation in the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair in collaboration with the Japanese Embassy and the Japan Foundation to manage a booth offering Japanese cultural activities.

The impacts of Enka’s efforts are made evident by the Japanese members who remain dedicated to the cause. The Enka team has also received feedback from participants whose perspective shifted regarding the UAE as result of the initiative’s activities.

Enka’s far-reaching achievements in the Middle East also resulted in their appearance on popular Japanese news channel TV Asahi to share information  with a Japanese audience.

Illustrating the influence of Japanese culture in the Middle East AlDarmaki outlined how early in our childhood “we were exposed to the Japanese content a lot” like “Japanese cartoons, video games” equating Japanese products with higher quality.

AlHaddad added how Japanese culture is unique and unfamiliar, its “like a treasure box and you keep digging for more,” because its so “thrilling,” she said.

Regular updates on projects and events are posted on their Instagram @enka.ae.