Interview with the Internship Program Coordinator
We spoke with Fujioka Kenji, Secretary General of the Ibara City International Exchange Association, who oversees the internship program, about how it came about and the 2025 program.
Could you tell us how the internship program came about?
Fujioka (titles omitted)
The program began through an introduction by Professor Idehara of Tama University, who is from Ibara City.
I first met Professor Idehara when I was introduced to him during a business trip to Tokyo as an Ibara City employee, where I was working on tourism promotion and other initiatives. We exchanged views with Professor Idehara, an information technology researcher, on whether Ibara City could use VR (virtual reality) to promote tourism centered on the starry skies of Bisei.
In the course of those discussions, I learned that Tama University had partnered with ESIEA, a French engineering university, more than 10 years earlier and was conducting reciprocal student exchanges.
Professor Idehara proposed a program in which international students would stay for two months during the summer vacation and share information about Japanese culture and other topics. Ibara City thought it was an interesting idea, and the plan began to take shape around 2019.
We had hoped to host the first interns in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it from happening.
After that, as the pandemic began to subside and travel to and from overseas gradually recovered, we hosted two interns for the first time in fiscal 2023. This fiscal year (2025) marks our third time hosting interns.
Could you tell us about the schedule during the internship?
Fujioka
During the approximately two-month internship, the students stay with several host families and take part in a variety of activities and experiences.
On weekdays, their activities mainly include Japanese cultural experiences in Ibara City and excursions (experiential visits) within and outside the city. They spend weekends and public holidays with their host families.
Could you tell us about the new programs introduced this year?
Fujioka
This year, as a new program, we visited denim-related companies in Ibara City.
Generally, people associate Kojima with denim and jeans production, right?
While Kojima is centered on sewing, Ibara City is a little-known denim town where material industries, including denim fabric manufacturing, have flourished for a long time.
Companies across the city handle every stage of production, from denim dye (Kamiyo Chijiki Co., Ltd.), to yarn dyeing and denim fabric manufacturing (Kuroki Co., Ltd. and NIHONMENPU TEXTILE CO., LTD.), and sewing denim products, which we visited today (July 18) at Aoki Hifuku Co., Ltd.
A famous French brand uses Ibara denim, and we planned this program to help people learn about the technical capabilities of Ibara City's denim industry.
We are also planning a visit to Okayama Robo Care Center, a facility in Kurashiki City that provides rehabilitation using the wearable cyborg HAL.
It is an affiliated company of Ibara Seiki Co., Ltd., which manufactures automotive parts in Ibara City, and we hope to introduce participants to Japanese robotics technology.
What do you hope the internship program will achieve?
Fujioka
I hope the interns will share information about Ibara City with people living in France. During their stay, they post photos and information in French about their experiences on Instagram.
I would also be happy if, after returning home, they share their memories and experiences in Ibara with friends and teachers, encouraging more students to want to participate in the internship in future years.
I hope their activities will convey firsthand that, although Japan's rural areas are not famous tourist destinations, they are home to wonderful places.
I also hope this will give Ibara City residents an opportunity to experience international exchange close to home, through hosting interns with their families and taking part in various activities.
Host families seem to feel anxious at first, but once they have hosted a student, many say they would like to do it again. In fact, two families have hosted interns for three consecutive years.
The local Japanese confectionery shops and members of the Ibara Kyudo Association who provide experience programs for the interns are also building up their experience with each session.
We hope to build on these experiences and, in the future, tap into demand for inbound tourism—not just from France. We also hope that the interns and Ibara City residents will benefit from a variety of positive synergies.
From the Writer
This article began when I visited the Ibara City booth at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, where the city was exhibiting at an event.
At the time, Professor Idehara, who had introduced us to the previous year's interns, shared some words with our media outlet that left a strong impression on me, and I would like to share them here.
I was impressed by the effort to convey not only “things” and “events,” but also the “people” behind them. I believe this is the most important thing in the age of information technology and AI (artificial intelligence).
The same is true of Ibara City's internship program: it is international exchange across national borders, sparked by connections between people. Through this reporting, I felt that those connections grow deeper with each passing year.
Coincidentally, one of the themes of the France Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, was “The Legend of the Red Thread.”
I hope the bond of the “red thread” connecting Ibara City and France across national borders through the interns will grow even stronger in the future.
French University Student Internship Program (Ibara City International Exchange Association) Information
| Name | French University Student Internship Program (Ibara City International Exchange Association) |
|---|---|
| Address | Ibara City International Exchange Association |
| Contact | 0866-62-8850 |
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