The Latest

ARI Director Tomoko Arakawa will be writing for the “Sunday Editorial” section of the regional newspaper Shimotsuke Shimbun

The Shimotsuke Shimbun, a local Japanese newspaper, publishes a “Sunday Editorial” every Sunday on its General and Editorial pages.
Tomoko Arakawa, the director of ARI, will join the writing team half a year0.
The first issue will be on Sunday, February 11.

This year she also write a book about ARI in Japanese.

ARI Director Tomoko Arakawa’s book “Seeking Knowledge for Living Together – From ARI’s Window” is now available for order.
The book is available at the following special price if you order it from ARI.
Please contact ARI to place your order.
(+81) 0287-36-3111
Regular price 1,200 yen (tax not included), but only for the year 2023
50th anniversary price 1,000 yen (tax included, shipping not included)

Biography of Tomoko Arakawa
Born in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture.
Graduated from International Christian University with a B.A. in Liberal Arts and M.A. from Michigan State University.
After working as a junior high and high school teacher, she joined ARI in 1995.
She has been ARI Director since 2015.

Thank you for your support in 2023🎊

Merry Christmas! How are your holidays this year?
ARI hosted a Christmas party for our community members. We played bingo, exchanged gifts, and had a pageant, ARI style.

We have only a few more days left in 2023.
For our 50th anniversary, we held a commemorative ceremony and fundraising. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many people who supported us and helped us celebrate our 50th anniversary.
We were also able to enjoy a vibrant communal life, with conversations without masks and a fully open dining hall.
As we approach the end of the year 2023, a new year is upon us.
We hope that you will continue to support us as we share this graceful learning place with more people and continue to sow seeds of peace in the world.
We wish you a very happy New Year!

Community event -snow viewing-

On December 7, before the participants go back to their community, after their final presentations, all community members including ARI staff and volunteers went to Mt.Chausu in Nasu to see the snow.
Many participants came from tropical countries, and some were playing in the snow for the first time! They had a great time throwing snow each other, lying on the fluffy snow, building snowmen, and so on!
Now that this year’s participants have graduated, they are ready to work on to their own communities. Please remember them in your prayers this Christmas season. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Request for 2023 Christmas Special Donations

Your Seeds of Hope empower the dreams of rural leaders worldwide.

ARI participants in the class of 2023 celebrated their graduation ceremony on Saturday, December 9, and returned to their home countries with their dreams in their hearts. Your support will become Seeds of Hope that will be carried with the graduates to the rural areas in each country, and their work will create hope for more and more people.

As Christmas approaches, we invite you to entrust your Seeds of Hope with ARI’s enthusiastic participants.

Your donation will be used to help ARI participants from Asia, Africa, and other countries pay their travel and tuition fees, as well as monthly living expenses such as dormitory fees and food. We ask for your support for ARI’s work to develop grassroots rural development servant leaders, creating broad impact around the world.

Donations can be made by individuals, churches, or schools.

Please donate via the Christmas Special Donation page:

ari.ac.jp/en/christmas-donation

The 51st Commencement Service was held

On Saturday, December 9, we held the 51st commencement service in unseasonably warm weather. 26 participants are now “graduates”!
Thank you to all those who attended the ceremony and those who remembered us from afar.

On December 12, we sent off 4 graduates with a lot of tears, hugs, songs and prayers. All the remaining graduates will leave on Friday.
Director Tomoko Arakawa described seedlings uprooted from their respective places to be transplanted and grown in the ARI community. These seedlings, our newest graduates, will be uprooted again from here to grow new roots in their original places and serve the people.

Please continue to remember our new graduates in their journey as rural leaders!

Closing Wounds, Making Peace

We have had the honor of inviting Ms. Keiko Holmes from Agape World to our campus at Tochigi to present her message on peace and reconciliation to the ARI community. As the Japanese coordinator for Agape World which is an organization dedicated to promote reconciliation between Japan and her former World War II prisoners of war (POWs), Ms. Keiko is no doubt a well-fitted speaker for this topic.

Her presentation to the ARI community was full of personal stories which touched the hearts of all who listened. We marveled at how her own personal tragic story led to a mission of touching great grief and trauma in the lives of those who experienced the horrors of war. Yet, the story does not end there; with boldness she pushed forward to encourage people on both sides of war to meet each other, find space for an apology, and reconcile with one another, finding friendship blossom from the seeds of forgiveness.

At the end of her presentation, she and her team, joined by ARI Director Tomoko-san, issued a deep apology for the mistakes and crimes that Japan had committed in World War II to the ARI community, wherein many Asian countries were represented. Her humble posture was deeply moving to everyone present, and in that moment the community realized that they were not just listeners, but direct participants of a peacemaking process. This further drove home the point that anyone and everyone can be agents of peace, when we are willing to apologize and accept one’s apology humbly and gracefully.

Ms. Keiko’s stories convey to us a sense of hope, that evil and suffering will not be the end, but that peace and love can have the final say.

Western Japan Study Tour 2023 (Part 2)

Participants of ARI successfully completed their study tour around Western Japan, where they break out of their usual classroom setting and come face-to-face with real persons and communities.

5: Minamata

After a short midway break in Osaka, Participants took a ferry to Minamata and visited multiple sites to learn about the history of the Minamata Disease and its painful impact on the people in the community. They visited Minamata Disease Museum, the former Chisso company, the Hyakken Drainage site, and the eco-park made on the landfill (reclaimed land) area where the cenotaph for victims of Minamata Disease now stands.

On the next day, they visited the place where the first official Minamata patient was found, and heard the story of man named Karatachi, a patient of Minamata disease who does his best to carry on working and living in the community by growing oysters and oranges. The former city councilor of Minamata shared about how Minamata city changed their path of development and acted as a mediator between perpetrators and victims. The then-Mayor Mr. Yoshii was one of the few government officials who took initiative to acknowledge Minamata patients and apologize to them. This was the first time ARI heard about the recovery process of the division in Minamata city, inspiring both staff and Participants.

Later, Participants visited Kibou Mirai (Hope Future) Minamata – a social welfare home for patients of congenital Minamata Disease. They had the great privilege to hear directly from patients themselves and their stories. Everyone was moved by their determination and warm heart towards the community, and their hope for a future where all people can live in peace without killing one another. They got to meet Karatachi and another organic orange farmer, and heard about a family’s endeavor to connect people to the story and people of Minamata.

During the stay at Minamata, Participants resided with 15 host families, and on the last night they had a beautiful party with all host family members. They feasted on amazing vegan food made from local Minamata ingredients that everyone could enjoy, and ended the night with singing, dancing, and a wonderful closing speech from one of the Participants.

6: Hiroshima

Over a long drive to Hiroshima, Participants were introduced to the three forms of violence as theorized by Johan Galtung, and were encouraged to reflect on the issues that they had seen and heard through this framework.

At the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum, Participants heard from a legacy speaker about the impact the bomb had on Hiroshima and its people. Through walks around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the hypocenter, the peace bell, the cenotaph and more, each contemplated the meaning of peace. At each place, Participants also offered prayers in their own language. A common sentiment was palpable among the Participants, “We want to try to take this message back to our communities, we need to work for peace.”

With this lingering feeling, everyone said goodbye to Western Japan and packed to return to the ARI campus back in Tochigi. We see that not only did Participants thoroughly enjoy the off-campus learning experience, but also receive inspiration from various people and stories in Japan to make changes in their own community.

To our many partners from all over Western Japan who made this tour possible, our staff members, volunteers, and especially our responsible drivers who drove tirelessly from destination to destination throughout the twelve-day period, we are incredibly grateful.