This year, guests from three countries took part in this visit-exchange program. A group of four visitors from Laos, led by the deputy director-general of the Lao Customs Department, studied up-to-date customs procedures by observing operations at the Osaka and Kyoto customhouses and meeting with Japanese customs officials. From Vietnam, a group of three officials led by the head of the Central Committee Office of the Communist Party of Vietnam made an observation tour of Japan to gather information on the system of party politics, Japan's education policies and its technical development in the agricultural sector. This year's program was also the first to include participants from Myanmar, who made observations at research institutes in Malaysia and Singapore and also visited private research institutes and think tanks in Japan.