News

This week, ARI and American Friends of ARI are fundraising for rural leaders to travel to ARI, with our Little by Little fundraising matching campaign on GlobalGiving. Read our story and consider supporting them with a donation. Spring marks a new class of participants at ARI. Rural leaders are preparing for their journey to Japan.  For some ARI participants, this is their first time on a plane. Others travel more than a thousand miles to attend the Rural Leaders Training Program in Tochigi, Japan, leaving their families and community work behind … Read more

This week, ARI and American Friends of ARI are fundraising for rural leaders to travel to ARI, with our Little by Little fundraising matching campaign on GlobalGiving. Read our story and consider supporting them with a donation. Spring marks a new class of participants at ARI. Rural leaders are preparing for their journey to Japan.  For some ARI participants, this is their first time on a plane. Others travel more than a thousand miles to attend the Rural Leaders Training Program in Tochigi, Japan, leaving their families and community work … Read more

The first group of 2024 rural leaders arrived on campus this week!

Tomoko Arakawa, our Director, has joined the writing team of a local newspaper, Shimotsuke Shimbun Sunday Editorial Board for the six months from this February. The first time she wrote an editorial titled “Toward a Society Where Foreigners and Japanese Can Live Together in Harmony.” The subject of this time’s issue was “Thinking about Japan’s Food Self-Sufficiency. Food is life. Why don’t you first calculate your own food self-sufficiency ratio today? You will discover many things by knowing the security of your own life. – Excerpt from “Considering Japan’s Food … Read more

2024.2.11. (Sun)

ARI Director Tomoko Arakawa starts writing her article on Shimotsuke Shinbun from Sunday, February 11

Merry Christmas! How are your holidays this year?ARI hosted a Christmas party for our community members. We played bingo, exchanged gifts, and had a pageant, ARI style. We have only a few more days left in 2023.For our 50th anniversary, we held a commemorative ceremony and fundraising. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many people who supported us and helped us celebrate our 50th anniversary.We were also able to enjoy a vibrant communal life, with conversations without masks and a fully open dining hall.As we approach the end of the year 2023, a new year is … Read more

On December 7, before the participants go back to their community, after their final presentations, all community members including ARI staff and volunteers went to Mt.Chausu in Nasu to see the snow.Many participants came from tropical countries, and some were playing in the snow for the first time! They had a great time throwing snow each other, lying on the fluffy snow, building snowmen, and so on!Now that this year’s participants have graduated, they are ready to work on to their own communities. Please remember them in your prayers this … Read more

Your Seeds of Hope empower the dreams of rural leaders worldwide. ARI participants in the class of 2023 celebrated their graduation ceremony on Saturday, December 9, and returned to their home countries with their dreams in their hearts. Your support will become Seeds of Hope that will be carried with the graduates to the rural areas in each country, and their work will create hope for more and more people. As Christmas approaches, we invite you to entrust your Seeds of Hope with ARI’s enthusiastic participants. Your donation will be … Read more