Freedom to be Better
My name is Kant Koga, an education coordinator and political activist. I was born in Anesaki, Ichihara in 1987. I had two dreams when I was a small kid. The first was to be a pilot and the second was to be a politician. Both of these roles would help to build bridges between Japan and the rest of the world. My ambition has not changed. Due to the fact that we live in a world where there is so much misunderstanding between countries and people of differing nationalities, I feel compelled to take up politics in order to improve the situation in of all. I have long been thinking about how Japan should take more of an active role to help try and solve global issues. I resolved to move to a town called Wake, Okayama (which is the east of Hiroshima) in order to facilitate intercultural communication between Japanese locals and foreigners. The town has embarked on several initiatives in order to enhance the town’s education system.
I work as an education coordinator at Shizutani high school which originates in Japan’s oldest school that bases its philosophy which offered a universal education for people regardless of their social status. I have been assigned the following three missions in Wake.
1. to invigorate Japan’s aging society through facilitating international education in the area
2. to offer opportunities for local residents to interact with people around the world
3. to help Japan’s education reforms towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics
Japan needs to grapple the challenges of its aging society. In particular, local municipalities face severe conditions. Wake is no exception. Young people under 30 years old head to the city for work. In some places, one in every four people is over 60. Japan’s population has already declined. To make matters worse, some local people with little or no experience in the world lose their flexibility to understand and accept those who are racially different from them. Those inexperienced local residents are the core of Japan’s conservative mindset and often tend to create discrimination against certain nationalities such as Chinese and Koreans. We live in a culture ruled by social media, one in which most people are skeptical about what they see and read in the mainstream media. Local residents have few ways to grasp the realities of the world. I want to help to guide them to discover what is happening in the world.
To achieve these goals, I also need your passion and experience! Anyone who is interested in helping to achieve these goals, please share your ideas with your friends and families.
Kant Koga