News

The Western Japan Study Tour (WJST) has provided ARI participants with valuable experiences in community engagement and cultural exchange. On our first day, we visited the Theological Seminary for Rural Mission (Noden), where we received a warm welcome from the staff. In a special gesture of hospitality, they served homemade curry, a delightful change from the usual bento lunches. We were also given a brief tour of the campus grounds and had the chance to experience a short Zazen meditation, which provided a moment of reflection in a tranquil environment. … Read more

Director’s Report:We welcomed Ms. Keiko Holmes, a British resident who has worked for reconciliation between Japanese people and British POWs (prisoners of war) and their families by the former Japanese army. We heard about her 30-year journey of reconciliation. This was Keiko’s third visit to ARI. Her testimony of how many people’s hearts that had been closed tightly and wounded by the war were healed by Keiko’s who has walked with God side by side, and their lives were transformed by being set free from hatred and enmity, shows us … Read more

On October 28 and 29, the Asian Rural Institute hosted a biogas workshop led by Mr. Kuwabara, an engineer and organic farmer from Ogawa Town, Saitama. This session was a follow-up to the participants’ visit to Mr. Kuwabara’s farm in June, where they first explored biogas technology. During the workshop, participants learned how livestock manure could be processed to generate renewable energy, offering a sustainable alternative for energy production. Mr. Kuwabara demonstrated the use of a plastic biogas chamber, explaining how the process also produces an organic liquid fertilizer, enhancing … Read more

Director’s Report:I contribute an essay titled “Where God, Soil, and People Cross” in the quarterly review of “Worship and Music” No. 203 (published in October 2024 by United Church of Christ in Japan Publishing Section). This issue is a special issue on “Creation and Environment,” and I was asked to write an essay from the “site”. I introduced ARI as the one and only “environment” where God, soil, and people cross, and concluded by saying that in this unique environment, “we should spare no effort to “live together with other … Read more