The Lincoln Log

The annual Japanese Exchange Program has been cancelled this year due to a change of sponsors. Hino Motors, the previous financial sponsor for the Japanese Exchange left the program, and the remaining sponsor, Sankei News that deals with public relations, still remains. The program is in the process of finding a new financial sponsor, but it is unlikely they will find one to replace Hino Motors this year. Therefore, the program is cancelled for the 2006-2007 school year.

The Japanese Exchange Program provided a bridge between the United States and Japan, allowing students to travel to different countries and get a feel of different cultures and new environments.

In the past years, two students from Abraham Lincoln High School were selected to travel to Japan. The application was opened to juniors, seniors and students currently taking Japanese as a language. They were required to write an essay. If their essay was selected, they would move on to the next round and be interviewed by a panel of teachers and principal Ronald Pang. Then from there, the two are selected.

Students were disappointed to hear that the program was cancelled.

“It came as a surprise and a disappointment because I not only wanted to be a potential participant in going to Japan, but I was also looking forward to meeting the students that come from Japan and hosting one of the kids,” senior Lisa Mizuiri said, who has been taking Japanese as a foreign language for four years.

Japanese teacher and foreign language department head, Koichi Sano, is one of the six to seven members of the Hino Motors Committee at this school.

“It doesn’t look like the program will come back this year, but hopefully next year,” Sano said.

Perhaps next year a sponsor will be found and the program will continue to link a bridge between the two different countries, two different cultures, and two different nationalities.