Since our last year-end update received so many “Likes,” we decided to add a special alternative version! 🎥 Year-End Update (1): “Gift of Hope” Reel + This Year’s ARI Song! We have uploaded a new version of the “Gift of
Since our last year-end update received so many “Likes,” we decided to add a special alternative version!
🎥 Year-End Update (1): “Gift of Hope” Reel + This Year’s ARI Song!
We have uploaded a new version of the “Gift of Hope to Bring Back to the Community” Reel to Instagram and Facebook, now featuring a special soundtrack. The song is “Monene,” an African Gospel song that became the “Song of the Year” for ARI. The participants sang it during their Study Trip and at the commencemnet ceremony to share with supporters. Please check it out on our Reels!
💻 Year-End Update (2): Messages from Graduates + New Year Illustration
On our Winter Donation Campaign page, in addition to the messages of gratitude from our graduates, we have updated the main illustration from the Christmas to a New Year version!
Both of these heartwarming illustrations were created by Ms. Kasumi Kataoka. She has been a long-time supporter of ARI, and we were so moved by the warmth of the Christmas cards she sends us every year that we asked her to create the main art for this campaign.
👇 Read the graduates’ messages and see Ms. Kataoka’s art here: https://ari.ac.jp/en/donate/winter2025?ari=news
Once again, thank you for walking alongside ARI throughout this past year! May the coming year be a wonderful one for all of you. 🥰
Thank you so much for supporting the Asian Rural Institute throughout this year!
For our final post of the year, we have two special updates for you.
🎥 End-of-Year Update (1) New Reels on Instagram and Facebook! We have posted a special compilation of the daily Stories we shared throughout December. This video brings together all the smiles of our 2025 graduates as they share “the gift of hope they want to take back to their communities.” Please don’t miss it on our reel!
💻 End-of-Year Update (2) Christmas & Winter Donation Campaign Page Updated! Our landing page now features messages of gratitude from our graduates to everyone who has supported them.
👇 Read their messages here: https://ari.ac.jp/en/donate/winter2025
May the coming year be a wonderful one for all of you🥰
On December 24, the online news site Catholic Japan News published an article titled “A Community that Cultivates the Soil and Shares the Table: Asian Rural Institute – Training Servant Leaders for Rural Communities.”
The piece warmly and carefully portrays the daily life of participants nearing graduation, their classes, and the final presentations at ARI, accompanied by photographs. It is written in a way that is accessible even to readers learning about ARI for the first time.
We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the journalist who created such a wonderful article.
The full article is available on the Catholic Japan News website: https://cj-news.org/domestic/coexistence/4977/
The series we’ve been sharing every day on Facebook and Instagram Stories—featuring our graduates’ brightest smiles and the “gift of hope” they wish to bring back to their communities—comes to an end today.
We’ve also started releasing a reel that includes all of their messages, so please take a look at that as well.
After the graduates had left, the now smaller ARI community held its traditional Christmas celebration.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in His favor!”
Luke 2:14
On Tuesday, December 16, an interview with Osamu Arakawa, Director of ARI, and Debora, a graduate from Indonesia who now serves as a volunteer, was published in the morning edition of Shimotsuke Shimbun. The article appeared as the seventh and final installment of the series “Forms of Peace: Tochigi 80 Years After the War – Lingering Scars, Inherited Pain.”
We deeply appreciate that the newspaper chose to focus not only on Japanese perspectives but also on the voices of people from countries once invaded by Japan, and that they selected ARI in Tochigi Prefecture as a place worthy of coverage.
This year, on the occasion of our Foundation Day in September, ARI issued its own Peace Declaration and centered the theme of peace in the latest issue of our newsletter “Ajia no Tsuchi”.
“I wish to oppose war itself from the standpoint of protecting life and dignity, against the prevailing atmosphere of war and arguments justifying nuclear deterrence. Peace is not merely the absence of conflict; we must face each other’s differences and pain, and build relationships with sincerity. I believe this attitude is the basis for a society where may we live together.” (Osamu Arakawa)
As we enter a new year, we remain committed to engaging with these issues with sincerity and resolve.
Shimotsuke Shimbun digital article: https://www.shimotsuke.co.jp/articles/-/1249037
Article on the Peace Declaration (posted September 19, 2025): https://ari.ac.jp/en/foundation-day-20250916/
Full text of the ARI Peace Declaration: https://ari.ac.jp/en/asian-rural-institute-peace-declaration/
Want to take a break from your daily work or studies for a while?
Thinking about how you want to live your life?
Want to encounter things you’ve never experienced before?
Volunteering at ARI is a perfect opportunity for you!
Why not take part in our work while living an agriculture-centered life in a multicultural community?
There are many ways to get involved, including farm work, cooking, office work, and more!
Duration: 2 months to 1 year (preference given to those who can stay 9 months or longer)
Start period: Late March is recommended (applications are accepted year-round)
Application deadline: One month before your desired start date
For details and how to apply: Please see the link below.
With hearts full of memories,we saw the graduates off at the airport.
Days spent laughing, learning, praying, and working together.
As the time to say goodbye drew near,words could not express the emotions that quietly overflowed.
The day before departure, one graduate said:
“It’s okay. We’re all under the same sky.”
Though countries and distances separate us,
we remain connected under the same sky.
Graduates returning to their respective places.
May the encounters and learning nurtured here continue to illuminate your paths ahead.
See you again someday.
Last week’s community event brought us up to the Nasu mountains, where we enjoyed snow-viewing. For many of our participants, it is the first time to experience snow and being in such cold temperatures – the second the less pleasant one. All community members enjoyed playing in the snow, building snow-people and some snowball fights. In the view of the white environment suddenly the joy of playing like a child gets reawakened in everyone. This was rewarded with hot chocolate and the great view.
To warm ourselves up we gathered in the nearby community center to eat delicious Adobo, prepared by Sarah, a now graduate, from the Philippines.
In the afternoon we split up in groups for various adventures, such as exploring the mysteries of the nine-tailed fox and a murderous stone, learning about the history of the Main Onsen Shrine, soaking our feet in the soothing and rich Onsen water and visiting the traditional Shikanoyu Hot Spring.
All in all it was a very successful day as proven by the quiet and sleepy ride back to our campus.
Watch all our online events again!
Join the ARI life with family and friends!
We're looking for on-campus volunteers
Tsukinukizawa 442-1
Tochigi, Nasushiobara
329-2703 JAPAN
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