12 Ukrainians to take part in Japan's government program for young leaders

"The program "Ship for world youth leaders" has a long history - it was founded in 1958. This time, Ukraine is taking part in this program and 12 young Ukrainians will be able to travel to Japan and see it with their own eyes. There are many reasons why Ukraine has been chosen to participate in this program this year. One of the reasons is that this year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Ukraine [...] These people from different spheres of activity were selected in an open competition," Sumi said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. According to the ambassador, the participants of the program will stay in Japan for ten days, where they will visit the lectures on history, Japanese art and Japanese language. They will reside in families that will help to better understand the Japanese way of life. The second half of the program will be the ship voyage along the Pacific Ocean during the month. "I hope that this program will be an excellent opportunity for participants to discuss and discover new ideas and approaches to the development of the future and get a lot of impressions and prospects of its development," the diplomat said. According to Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Oleksandr Yarema, the participants represent different spheres of social and political life. "We've had a lot of stages of selection, a lot of initiatives, many of those who want to participate. As a result of all the stages of selection, interviews and testing, a delegation of 12 people was formed: six boys and six girls," the deputy minister said. The "Ship for world youth leaders" program will be held from January 16 until March 4, 2017 in Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Fiji. As reported, on January 11, 2017 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on celebrating the Year of Japan in Ukraine.