On 5 to 6 Oct, representatives from all JETAA chapters in the Oceania region assembled in Sydney to attend the Oceania Conference, hosted by JETAANSW this year. The conference is held annually for all JETAA chapters in Oceania to update one another on their chapter’s recent activities, and to share ideas and discuss issues they may have.
This year, in addition to JETAA chapters in Australia and New Zealand, the Country Representative for Singapore was also in attendance for the first time. Mr ISOBE Hiroaki, the Executive Consultant of CLAIR’s Tokyo Headquarters also attended the conference, making this year’s conference more internationalised than before.
Being the 30th anniversary of the founding of JETAA, the theme of this year’s conference was ‘2020 Vision – Looking Clearly to the Future’, and representatives from each chapter made a presentation on their recent activities and plans for the future, while reflecting on their past. Mr Isobe also made a presentation, in which he spoke about the history and prospects of the JET Programme. The presentation was informative and got participants involved in lively discussions.
Through the discussions that took place during the conference, the Oceania JETAA chapters strengthened their ties, and each chapter was able to gain new insight and ideas to enrich their future activities. We believe JETAA will play an increasingly important role as bridges between Japan and the rest of the world on a grassroots level.