Mitsubishi Motors Corporation established the Mitsubishi Motors-YFU United States Scholarship Program at the YFU (Youth for Understanding) International Center in Washington D.C. in 1979 as part of the company's activities to promote cultural exchange between Japan and the United States. Since then, over 200 American high school students have visited Japan under the program. In this the 20th year of the program, 12 scholarship students arrived in Japan on June 23 and will do their part in furthering cultural exchange between the two countries during their six-week stay until the beginning of August. YFU is the world's largest international exchange organization for young people.

The 12 scholarship students are selected from children of employees at Mitsubishi Motors affiliates in North America, from students at high schools in the Maclean County district of Bloomington Normal, Illinois where the company's U.S. manufacturing arm Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, Inc. (MMMA) is headquartered, and from students at high schools in the Orange County district of California where the company's U.S. sales arm Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America, Inc. is headquartered. Four boy and eight girl students are selected by YFU on the basis of their academic performance, extracurricular activities and ability to adapt to different cultures.

Mitsubishi Motors established the Mitsubishi Motors-YFU Holland Scholarship Program at YFU Benelux as an expression of the company's gratitude for the support and cooperation its affiliate Netherlands Car B.V. (NedCar) has received from the local community. A joint venture enterprise with Volvo Car of Sweden and the Dutch government, NedCar is headquartered in Born, Limburg, Holland and started production in May 1995. YFU Benelux is the YFU affiliate for Holland and Belgium. Under the Mitsubishi Motors-YFU Holland Scholarship Program inaugurated in 1996, five Dutch high school students visit Japan for some five weeks in the summer. In this the third year of the program, five Dutch students arrived in Japan on July 8 for a stay of around five weeks and are promoting international exchange between Japan and Holland. The two boy and three girl high school students were selected by YFU Benelux from applicants across the whole of Holland. One of the students is the child of a NedCar employee.

The American and Dutch scholarship students live with typical Japanese families during their stay in Japan while studying and learning about Japanese culture and customs. The two groups come together for the three-day Mitsubishi Motors Summer Tour, starting July 20, on which the students are accompanied by their host brothers and sisters.

On the first day of the tour, the party visits the Mitsubishi Motors head office in Tokyo. After meeting company president Mr Katsuhiko Kawasoe, other members of senior management Public Relations Department personnel in the Head Office Showroom at 10:00, the party heads down to Nagoya to tour the company's Nagoya Motor Vehicle Works Okazaki Plant. The party then moves to Kyoto for some sightseeing and the opportunity to experience Japanese culture at first hand: visiting a tea ceremony, a koto performance and also trying their hand at Zen meditation. The summer tour provides an ideal opportunity for young people of three different cultures to meet and promote international exchange.

Mitsubishi Motors is the first, and currently the only, Japanese company to have established a YFU scholarship fund in Europe and everyone involved is happy and well satisfied with the way the program is contributing to better understanding and relations between the two countries.

Mitsubishi Motors also promotes mutual understanding between Japan and the United States at the grass root level by supporting the Asahikawa-Bloomington Normal Junior High School Exchange Program, established by the city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido to promote exchange with its sister city of Bloomington Normal in Illinois. Mitsubishi Motors provides assistance to the party of junior high school students when it visits Tokyo each summer.

Photos : At the Showroom in Tokyo Japan
July 20, 1998 AM