Amin Abbas

DUBAI: The UAE-Japan Cultural Centre held a New Year’s event on Jan. 8 in Sharjah’s Art for All Centre in the UAE.

Naoko Kishida, founder and director of the UAE-Japan culture center greeted everyone at the event and made an opening speech, in which she spoke about the center’s history in the UAE.

About the challenges for organizing the new year event, Kishida said: “It was the first big event after long absence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  To re-start any kind of activity after 3 years, you need a lot of effort to come back to the same level.  The members of Japanese community are moving every 2 or 3 years, so we did not have many people who knew about the event.  We had several meetings to explain to the new staff the ways of entertaining the guests and how to make an enjoyable event.”

About the feedback of the visitors who came to the new year event, Kishida said: “We got a lot of positive feedback.  Especially from our students who had learnt Japanese in my center for 3 years only by online. They really enjoyed the experience of Demo-classes of Japanese Language. Other new visitors responded that they enjoyed new experience of Japanese Calligraphy, cosplay, Japanese Paper-wrapping workshop, and first-time challenges on Japanese traditional toys.”

Regarding UAE-Japan Cultural Centre upcoming activities, Kishida said: “Japan Center will continue teaching Japanese Language. We are trying to make a Hybrid Course from this year where there will be a face-to-face class once a month, so that the students who live closely can meet the teacher and classmates in school. The students who live far away can put the effort to come to the school once a month, otherwise they can take class online. The reason for starting this system is that we believe the language should always be taught in society through communication. Online courses tend to be less communication and less attention, so the class in the classroom will be more effective.”

“Regarding the other events, we consider making a Japanese Summer Camp for adult and for children separately.  It is to encourage the variety of hobby for local community and children,” she added.

The center is a non-profit organization that was established on the purpose of building a mutually beneficial relationship between UAE Communities and Japanese residents.

The center continuously hosts Japanese language courses & community activities.