Our current projects

The following is an overview of the projects we conduct at present.

1.Promotion of people-to-people exchanges between Japan and Asian countries

Exchange program for Young Asian Parliamentarians

With the aim of deepening understanding of Japan and promoting bilateral relations, SPAF invites to Japan parliamentarians from Asian countries who would otherwise have little chance to visit the country. During their time in Japan, the visitors exchange opinions with experts in politics, finance and government, and take part in a program specially tailored to the situation of the visitors' home country. To date, we have welcomed parliamentarians from Cambodia and Mongolia.

Exchange program of Myanmar Parliamentarians

Making use of relations developed during past projects in Myanmar, SPF began a project in 2012 to invite parliamentarians from Myanmar to Japan. Through this project, SPF hopes to strengthen bilateral relationships and promote mutual understanding between Myanmar and Japan, and thereby to contribute to the stability and development of the country's parliamentary politics.

2. Promotion of regional collaboration

Strengthening Regional Integration in ASEAN through multi-channel Dialogue

SPAF supports the Malaysian Foreign Policy Study Group (FPSG), an organization which conducts activities to strengthen the function of ASEAN countries. FPSG hosts international conferences where diplomacy specialists, media personnel, business figures and NGO representatives from principal ASEAN countries can share information and discuss common problems such as diplomacy and security.

3. Support to prioritized countries

Prehospital Care System Development in Cambodia

This project will take place as a follow up to the single-year project conducted in FY2011 entitled “Prehospital Infrastructure Development in Cambodia”. As a means to facilitate the organization of emergency medical care in urban and suburban areas of Cambodia, SPF contributes to the Cambodian government's activities in line with its policy of building life-saving infrastructure. Specifically, the Foundation aims to train emergency medical teams and personnel involved in emergency rescue and transportation.

Capacity Enhancement of Myanmar Diplomats toward ASEAN Chairmanship

Myanmar is expected to be appointed to chair ASEAN in 2014. The task of fulfilling its responsibilities as ASEAN chair will act as a touchstone for Myanmar in building its position in the international community. In this project, SPF aims to increase the capacity of Myanmarese political staff who are relatively inexperienced in hosting international conferences, by providing training in all aspects of conference hosting, from planning to management, in Japan and other ASEAN countries.

Capacity Enhancement of Organizational Management in Myanmar

From FY2009 to 2012, SPF conducted a program to raise the capacity of Myanmarese civil servants as part of its human resource development initiatives. From 2012, training will be provided in Japan and other Asian countries to raise the organizational management skills of executives in administrative agencies in Myanmar.

Visit to Japan by Chief Ministers of Indian States

Through the auspices of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), a delegation headed by the Chief Minister of the Indian state government will visit Japan to conduct exchange in political and business circles at the local level. In addition to promoting mutual understanding between Japan and India in the fields of politics, economy and culture, the project aims to build international networks through local level exchanges.