Japan - East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths

First Batch oｆ Students from Brunei Darussalam

Implementation Report (13th October – 22nd October, 2009)

November, 2009

Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE)

Outline of the First Batch of Students from Brunei Darussalam in 2009

25 delegates were selected for this batch to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between Brunei and Japan. The students study Japanese as a selective subject while majoring in each field of specialization, such as linguistics, sociology, history, biology, mathematics, computer, physics, economy, and business administration. 1. Duration of visit in Japan From 13th to 22nd October, 2009

2. Total number of Bruneian delegation 25 delegates

Students： 24 (Male 9, Female 15) Chaperon： 1 (Teacher：1)

3. Location of the school and Number of students

1 Administrative District Names of Districts Number of Students

Brunei-Muara 24 students 4. Programme schedule in Japan Please refer to the following page 5. Visited prefectures in Japan

Tokyo, Chiba, Shiga and Kyoto 6. Total number of schools participated in the exchange programs

Tokyo: Soka University

Bandar Seri Begawan 19:00 →　Singapore 21:05 (BI423)Singapore　23：25 →　Narita　07：25　（NH902）

Hotel Check-in

PM Programme Orientation

AM Lecture：About Japan

Toyota Mega WebTokyo　Tower

Courtesy call on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Dinner at Ambassador's Residence

AM Edo-Tokyo Museum 【History】

PM TOKYO GAS (Sodegaura plant) 【Environmental Concern】

AM

Welcome party with Soka university students

AM

PM

AM Move to Kyoto by Sinkansen

PM Lake BIWA Museum 【Ecology】

AM Yuzen Dyeing 【Japanese Cultural Experience】

PM Visiting historical sights with Ritsumeikan Univ. students

AM Workshop

Move to Tokyo by Shinkan-sen

Panasonic center 【Cutting Edge Technology】

AM Explore a city (Asakusa)

Briefing for Departure

Workshop presentationFarewell Dinner

AM

PM

2 Coordinators

PM

Hotel in Tokyo

Date

3

Oct. 14

Oct. 15

1 Oct. 13

Inter-University Seminar House

Hotel in Tokyo

Hotel in Kyoto

Tue.AM

Thu.

PM

5

2

4

Mt. Takao : Autumn Festival, hiking with Japanesestudents

School Visit: SOKA UniversityOct. 16 Fri.

Oct. 17 Sat.

Wed.

Narita　11:05 →　Singapore　17:15　（NH111）Singapore 21:45 →　Bandar Seri Begawan 23:50 (Bi424)

Move to Narita Airport

Hotel in Tokyo

Hotel in Tokyo

Hotel in Kyoto

Hotel in Tokyo

Hotel in Tokyo

10 Oct. 22

Mon.Oct. 197

Thu.

9PM

6 Oct. 18 Sun.

Oct. 208 Tue.

Oct. 21 Wed.

PM

Programme for Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths1st Batch of Students from Brunei Darussalam

Group Color

Group Name TOKYO Group

Yellow24 Students(9 male/15female）

1 Supervisor

JENESYS Programme

2009 Brunei Darussalam 1st Batch

～Photo Book ～

Programme Orientation: Nervous or excited? Lecture on Japan: Japanese economy is amazing!

Toyota Mega Web: I will buy one some day… Tokyo Tower: This is how Tokyo Tower looks!

Brunei Embassy: After dinner with Ambassador Edo Tokyo Museum: Enchanted by Edo culture

Tokyo Gas Sodegaura Terminal: Experiment with Bruneian LNG

Umihotaru (Aqua Line): Feeling goooood!

Interaction with Soka University students: Please call me….

Hachioji Seminar House: Singing “One of a kind” with Soka University Students

Hiking at Mt. Takao: It’s a piece of cake! At the mountaintop: Delicious boxed lunch!

Lake Biwa Museum: Let me see… Lake Biwa: Collecting water for plankton

observation

Japanese style restaurant: Japanese food is “Oishii!”

Kodai Yuzen-En: Hands-on experience of Yuzen stencil dyeing

Kiyomizu Temple: A tour around Kyoto with Ritsumeikan University students

Otowa no taki: Which water to drink?

Workshop: What did you find about Japan? Panasonic Center: Welcomed by the huge full-color

electronic signboard

Panasonic Center: Strike a pose Sensoji Temple: Blending in

Sensoji Temple: Five-storied pagoda Farewell Dinner: Performing together

Workshop

24 Bruneian students with various hopes and feelings participated in the

JENESYS Programme, which was held in Japan for ten days. The programme

provided a school visit, other interaction with Japanese students, and

observation visits, in which the Bruneian students learned traditional Japanese

culture and environmental efforts in Japan. To wrap up the programme, on the

20th October, a session entitled “Workshop” was held.

The Workshop was designed to achieve the following points.

① To make visiting students realize their findings（knowledge/awareness） by

putting their impressions at a level beneath their awareness into words

② To facilitate the visiting students retaining their acquired findings

（ knowledge/awareness ） and keeping the motivation for mutual

understandings

③ To intensify their findings （knowledge/awareness） individually by sharing

and exchanging findings with others

④ Finally, to create a message from discussed findings in the group, with which

they will be able to contribute to deepening mutual understandings between

Brunei Darussalam and Japan in the future

The students split up into three subgroups and vigorously exchanged their

frank opinions in the Workshop, which provided opportunities for the visiting

students to intensify mutual understandings between Brunei Darussalam and

Japan.

Workshop Report Presentation Draft and Subgroup reports are on the

following pages.

Workshop Report Presentation Draft

We discussed about our findings during our stay in Japan in the workshop

yesterday, and picked up four topics to talk about today.

They are People, Culture, Technology, and Environment.

We believe that Culture and People, Technology, and Environmental Issue are

interrelated to form the society and contribute to the development of the country.

Technology  Environmental 

Issue 

 

Development

 

People and 

Culture 

First presenter takes charge of People and Culture.

The population pyramid of Japan shapes like a vase and that of Brunei has a

pyramid shape. It means Japanese population is aging and Bruneian population

is still in growing stage. The demographic gap between Japan and Brunei is

quite big.

People in Japan respect teamwork and hard work. Their team spirit dates back

to Edo period. Help comes when needed. Bruneian people are also raised to

help others.

In Japan students have to work part time jobs to live a comfortable life (to live

independently).

While in Brunei, students do not have to work part time jobs because they get

allowances and the cost of living is low. And most cases they live with their

parents.

As for discipline and manners, in both countries, people respect to the others

and they are polite, kind and honest.

However the lifestyle in Japan and the lifestyle in Brunei are quite different.

Japan has higher standard of living and Brunei has lower standard of living

compared to Japan. Japanese life is independent and Bruneian life is less

independent due to large family groups.

We found out that Japanese people still wear traditional clothing occasionally

such as festivals and ceremonies. And we understand that they wear it to

preserve culture, identity and heritage. While in Brunei, traditional clothing is

seen in educational institutions and government sector. People wear it for

festivals and religious occasions. And girls may wear it daily.

We were impressed by Japanese modern fashion, too. Teenagers and adults are

the trend-setters for the fashion trends. In Brunei teenagers and adults are also

fashionable due to mass media.

We learned in the lecture by Mr. Kimura that Japan has unique corporate culture.

Priority is given to economy, a lot of workers do overtime, bottom to top

endorsement, and students do part time jobs. However in Brunei, we have

bureaucratic management (top to bottom), follow the working hours and only

some students do part-time jobs.

Japan promotes its culture by tourism to gain profit and to maintain traditions. In

Brunei traditional music and dance could only be witnessed or heard during

certain occasions such as festivals; Hari Gawai, His Majesty's Birthday etc.

We reviewed our findings and considered the backgrounds and causes

comparing the facts in our country.

Then let me hand over to the next presenter.

I would like to touch upon technology first.

All of us were astonished by the technology used in daily life in Japan. That is

“automation” technology. Many things are automated, such as toilets, taxi doors,

vending machines, and railways. Many cars are equipped with GPS navigation

systems. We observed other technologies in transportation, environmentally

friendly fuels, modern architectures. In Brunei we do not have railway

transportation and we do not have much green technology available.

About the environment. We found out that Japan is very much environment

conscious. The government of Japan promotes 3R (Recycle, Reuse and

Reduce). Most people follow the concept of 3R such as segregation of waste

materials in combustibles and non-combustibles. While in Brunei, The concept

of 3R is not adapted fully. Segregated rubbish bins are only found in certain

places.

In Japan LNG is promoted as a fuel for automobiles because it is more

environmental friendly as it emits less carbon dioxide and cleaner emissions

than petrol. In Kyoto, bus drivers switch off their bus engine while not moving in

order to save energy. In Brunei petrol is still used as a fuel for transportation.

LNG is used as house gas and also to generate electricity. So far, we don't have

such initiative to stop engine while idling because we have less traffic.

We also noticed that despite limited space people in Japan still make an effort to

recover the lack of greeneries in the cities and even promote greeneries on the

top of the buildings. In Brunei we still have rich greeneries as we promote

eco-tourism especially in Temburong.

When technology and environmental concern are combined the hybrid cars are

produced and land reclamation is achieved. We enjoyed staying in this hotel in

Odaiba which is a huge reclaimed area.

In conclusion, we observed with our own eyes that tradition and modern coexist

harmoniously in development. Conclusion 

Thank you very much.

Tradition

Co‐exist

Modern 

Subgroup Workshop Reports

Subgroup A

Findings

① Culture and Lifestyle

Japanese men shape their

eyebrows because they are

fashionable and are conscious

about their looks. Follow famous

actors. Not common in Brunei or

other countries. Muslim women in

Brunei that are not married

cannot shape their eyebrows.

Japanese people are very fashionable. Fashion changes according to

the seasons. Everyone styles and dyes their hair.

Japanese work overtime often, because they want to earn money and

stay on top of the corporate ladder (self actualization). According to the

Maslow theory of self-actualization, people want to reach their full

potential of motivation. Standard of living is high. Do not want to go home

before their boss. Working overtime in Brunei is not common because

people want to go home early and spend time with their family. Also

because they need to pray. People in Brunei have to divide their time

among work and family.

Courtesy is prevalent in all aspects of Japanese life. E.g. in escalators,

people stand only on the left or right(depending on prefecture) to give

way to people that are in a hurry. There is no differentiation in Brunei .

In Japan, most of the population use public transport like bus in trains

because oil price is high. In Brunei, people use their own cars because

oil is subsidized.

② Technology

High tech toilet. Brunei toilets use water hose, but Japan toilets do not.

Toilets in Japan are all automated and very clean. It is rude to make the

toilet wet because water does not dry easily.

Vending machines selling drinks, cigarettes, instant noodles etc are all

over the place. Some restaurants allow you to order in advance using a

vending machine.

Bruneians use a lot of mobile devices, same as Japanese.

③ Environment

People during the Edo period already started to recycle because at that

time they were already aware they were destroying the environment.

In Edo Tokyo, fire-fighters fight fires by destroying the affected buildings

to prevent the spread of fire. This is also partly due to the scarcity of

water.

④ History

In ancient times, the main mode of transportation in Japan was water

transport. This was also the case in Brunei. Both Brunei and Japan are

surrounded by sea .

In Edo period, water character on the roof because all the buildings are

made of wood and as a result people are afraid of fire.

Brunei is a monarchy but Japan is a democracy.

Lake Biwa used to be the main route for transportation. At that time the

land routes were not that developed.

Kyoto is colder than Tokyo at night because It is surrounded by

mountains.

Subgroup B

Findings

① Culture and Lifestyle

Traditional with modern culture

Daily routine

Interesting

Wear traditional clothes around

Shrines & temples

Independence

Respect

Polite

Belief/ superstitious

Hardworking/ working ethics

Education

Life style

Punctuality

② Technology

Car

Subway

Toilet

Lift

③ Environment

Eco-friendly

Fuel concerning

Recycling

Reclaimed land

Summary of the Discussion

② Technology

Car : modern automated vehicle

more fuel efficient

GPS

Subway : Automated driving

Adjust speeding

Reduce risk of accident

Toilet : western style flush ( automated)

heat-up seat

Lift : heat sensor

③ Environment

Technologically eco-friendly

Fuel concerning: e.g. LNG – using methane

Separation of combustible and non-combustible solid waste

New land: e.g. Odaiba (man-made island)

Subgroup C

Findings

① Culture and Lifestyle

tourism

national identity

② Technology

hardworking

resourcefulness

creativity

friendly competition

③ Environment

reduce pollution

lack of resource

limited space

energy efficiency

Summary of the Discussion

Technology, environmental awareness and culture relate to the development

of Japan that leads to its advancing era.

Brunei Students’ Comments

I was so amazed by the development,

the science and technology that have

been developed by Japan. I understand

that Japan is scarce with resources but

the Japanese are able to build up so

many buildings and be ahead of any

other countries.

I enjoyed participating in this programme. It had opened my eyes

towards Japan of their environment and culture. The programme had

definitely contributed towards my personal growth and thinking of Japan.

I hope I would be able to join the proogramme more if I had the chance.

This programme is an eye-opening for me. It shows me how Japan is

different from my own country and how I can learn to improve my country.

For e.g., environment issue such

as recycling cans and papers. The

people concerned are very friendly

and helpful. I believe we all

definitely learned a lot about Japan

and its culture, technology and

history.

I really appreciate this programme which allows me to learn a lot about

Japan. I hope there will be more similar programme introduced to the

people of Brunei to build the relations between Japan and Brunei.

All the staff concerned were very kind and helpful; through them we can

actually see how kind, generous and helpful Japanese people really are.

I was able to confirm my views on Japan and about the economic status

of Japan. I made some new Japanese friends, too!

The cultures and technologies are really amazing. The people we met

have been really kind to us. The transportations and shops are very

convenient.

I learned and experienced lots of Japanese lifestyle and culture. The

programme went very smoothly even though the programme schedule is

a little tight and tiring but everything I observed is very new experience to

me. And I hope I will get another chance to participate in such a

programme.

A brilliant programme! I had memorable experiences throughout the

programme. All study tours, exchange programmes and lectures as well

as hands on experience would be wisely used. Brunei could make

good use of Japan’s eco-friendly and environment preservation ideas

such as gas as fuel and technologies that conserve water and energy. I

would like to take the opportunity to thank all the staff concerned for their

hard-work and care during our stay in Japan. They have made our group

JENESYS Brunei like one big family.

It was really an exciting and good experience that I ever had in my life.

The programme was running smoothly and arigato gozaimasu for

everything. I wish this programme will keep going in the near future and

hope that relationship between Brunei and Japan will maintain and

improve.

I had a wonderful experiences in Japan. I

like the cool weather as it is greatly

different from Brunei. The most

memorable experiences are meeting with

the Soka and Ritsumeikan University

students, as we became friends with

them. I would like to come to Japan to

study as an exchange student.

I am fortunate to be able to participate for this JENESYS programme.

The places we visited are interesting and it exceeds my expectations.

Comments from Japanese Students

（The following is the extract of comments from Japanese students.）

No Border –Youths will change the world-

Soka University student (male)

I had the great privilege of sharing two days with Bruneian youths of JENESYS Programme. I feel happy and lucky that our Soka University was selected as one of the universities in their interaction programme.I was deeply impressed by the attitude of the youths who were eager to learn and make new friends. At the moment we met and greet each other I felt it, and also through our conversation in Inter-University Seminar House I was moved by their passion. I myself have intercommunicated with youths from eight countries. I reconfirmed what I learned through my experience. That is to say, the friendship between the youths will change the world of the next generation.

When there are friendship between the youths, attitude to learn each others’ culture, and continuous interaction, the strong ties between the

youths will be created. Hoping that our friendship will establish better world without any conflict of arms, I would like to promote the friendship with my new Bruneian friends as well as the friends around me.

After JENESYS Programme

Soka University student (female)

I truly appreciate the opportunity given this time to talk with Bruneian students. Thanks to it, I could gain a great memory which I shall never forget in my life. In spite of the differences of customs and culture, we could establish warm friendship with each one of the participating members through our conversation about Japan and Brunei. The biggest benefit of the programme to me is that I was very much attracted by the country Brunei and the language Malay. In near future I will definitely visit Brunei and meet the

friends I made in this programme. Furthermore, I had another big surprise. My friend in Soka University is currently studying at the graduate school of University of Brunei Darussalam. So I introduced her my new Bruneian friend whom I met in this programme. Then I received a very nice message that they became friends in Brunei! I am very happy that in such a way we can develop friendship with many people.

Although it was only two-day and one-night programme we shared, I am

sure that the experience would be unforgettable for the students from

both countries.

Interaction with Bruneian students

Ritsumeikan University student (female)

I learned a lot about the culture, way of thinking, and manners as well,

through the interaction programme with the students from the country

which I had not known well. Many of the

students visited Japan for the first time,

and they were very much interested in

Japanese temples, good-luck charms,

omikuji (fortune drawn) which represent

Japanese culture. It made me happy.

And I myself could observe ‘Japan’

objectively.

Interaction with Bruneian students

Ritsumeikan University student (female)

I could communicate with Bruneian students in English and Japanese. It

was fun. I felt happy to have more friends from other countries. However,

we could have visited more places together If we had more free time.