News

Director’s Report:A research project team on Dignity Education led by Associate Professor and Chaplain Jeffrey Mensendiak of Oberlin University visited ARI for three days from September 9. (Dr. Emi Hasegawa, Dr. Akiko Asai, and Dr. Misako Takizawa are the other team members.)Rev. Mensendiak, who translated a book on dignity (Dr. Donna Hicks’ book “Leading with Dignity”) into Japanese, developed his own dignity workshop, and has been conducting the workshop for ARI participants for the past 4 years. This year, in addition to the workshop to the ARI participants, a workshop … Read more

On 26 – 31 August, participants went on a study tour around Yamagata, where they split into two groups and visited JA, city halls, farmers and schools in two areas, Okitama and Shonai. These regions have a long history of local leadership and government involvement in promoting producer- and consumer-friendly organic farming. Participants learned various things, from predecessors’ philosophy to systems of JA to protect farmers, as well as gender issues for women in agriculture. In between observations and sharing sessions, participants helped each other  to cook and clean, and … Read more

From 1-26 August, two ARI staff members travelled to Zambia and Malawi to visit a total of 23 graduates. At the end of the trip, they attended an ECHO conference in Malawi. ECHO is an organization that works in South-East Asia and East and West Africa to tackle hunger by helping small-scale farmers become self-sufficient by providing training opportunities in sustainable farming methods that are adapted to local conditions. In connection with ECHO, AFARI (American Friends of ARI) organized and sponsored a gathering of ARI graduates at the conference, where … Read more

Director’s Report:An article about ARI was featured in the Japan Times on September 2.It is titled “Over half a century, seeds of change grow at a Tochigi farm”https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2024/09/02/our-lives/asian-rural-insititute-tochigi-namibia-cambodia-germany/The article describes what this year’s participant from Namibia (pictured) is learning, how the lives of the German volunteers of 2003 and the Cambodian graduates of 2010 have been changed by coming to ARI, and the significance of ARI’s training programs.Medeleine Cuckson, the author of the article, is a British national who stayed at ARI for a three-week Christian group leadership training in … Read more