“Sekai Fureai Hiroba (World Festival Plaza) 2024” ~ 20 year old event for citizens~.

2025.01.23

サムネイル
Hiroyuki Abe, Director General, JICA Hokkaido (Sapporo)

 JICA Hokkaido (Sapporo) and the Sapporo Kokusai Koryu-Kan(Sapporo International Exchange Center) jointly hosted "Sekai Fureai Hiroba," an annual event to connect local people with the world and to think about international cooperation and cross-cultural understanding. Here we report on the behind-the-scenes activities leading up to and on the day of the event.

“We don't want to cancel this important event.”

 The event is usually held in August~ September, but this year the Sapporo Center is undergoing a major renovation. We had a hard time deciding on the date of the event, and even worried about whether or not to hold the event in the first place. The Sapporo Center has spaces that can be easily used by the general public, such as the "Hokkaido Chikyu Hiroba (Global Plaza)" and a restaurant, and many people became aware of the Center through this event, so we could not easily make the decision to cancel the event. In the end, the Sapporo Center could not be used as the venue due to the construction process being pushed back, but we managed to hold the event at the Sapporo Kokusai Koryu-Kan and the Sapporo Center's restaurant/cafe, "Chikyu Kosaten".
 On the other hand, in Sapporo, the December event itself was a challenge. Specifically, (1) a possibility of snow and blizzard conditions, (2) the difficulty to attract visitors with children due to lack of the parking lot despite the venue not necessarily conveniently located, and (3) a possibility of competition with other events during the Christmas season.... We discussed how we could dispel these concerns within the Center, and we continued to promote the event by emphasizing that it was a "unique event held at JICA that cannot be experienced at other events," and by asking for the cooperation of Influencers in addition to flyers and our website. As a result, we were very happy that so many people came to the event.
 Let us show you what "only JICA can do" on the day of the event.

Events that leverage JICA's strengths

The quiz rally
The quiz will give you a chance to win souvenirs from around the world! This is a very popular event where visitors who answer quiz questions at all checkpoints in the building will receive souvenirs donated by the participants from various countries to JICA programs.

Experience Mongolia through "Matouqin(Horse harp)" performance and "Shagai"!
The Sapporo Center staff from Mongolia organized this event. The event featured "Shagai", a game played with sheep's ankle bones, and a performance of the Matouqin, a traditional Mongolian musical instrument. The Shagai game was enjoyed by parents and children alike, and the venue was very lively. The Matouqin performance featured a professional performer from Mongolia, whose beautiful authentic sound echoed in the hall.

Little children also enjoyed playing the matouqin!

Live quizzes from around the world
A quiz competition connecting Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) working in Bhutan and the event venue online. There were many participants who were surprised to learn information that is not readily available in the news, such as "Bhutan doesn't have an address? "

Everyone is curious about the surprising information about Bhutan.

Experience floor curling!
This was a collaborative event with the Sapporo Deaf Floor Curling Association, which was realized with the cooperation of a teacher from a school for the deaf who participated in JICA Development Education Program. Sports Floor Curling, originally started in Shintoku-cho Town, was conducted based on the concept of universal sports ‘all the people in a given place enjoy together’. JICA is also working on disability mainstreaming based on the SDGs principle of "no one is left behind". In this event, the participants of JICA programs also joined us and enjoyed not only the games but also exchanges in international sign language.

Exchange program through soccer with Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo
JICA Hokkaido (Sapporo) has been cooperating with Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo in various ways, such as donating uniforms for the participants of JICA programs and exhibiting a JICA booth at the game. In this event, OB Sakaki serves as a lecturer! Visitors and JICA trainees enjoyed playing soccer together. Dore-kun, the mascot character of the Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, also paraded around the venue to enliven the various events.

Thank you very much, Consadole and Dore-kun!

Enjoy the booths of cooperating organizations!
12(twelve) NGOs and other organizations cooperated with us to set up booths selling goods and fair trade products from developing countries, panel displays, art and games for children to enjoy, and much more. Many exchanges were made and the venue was filled with smiles.

Lots of sundries that are unfamiliar to us in Japan were lined up!

Extra: Surveys are moving from paper to QR codes. And updating to a format that makes people want to answer!

Many visitors responded.

Paper surveys were scrapped from last year's event; QR codes were posted at each venue and in the program listings, but response rates were not very high. We had the idea of "If you fill out the survey, you get a present!" However, this idea would have increased the use of paper resources and would have been a waste of time and money. So, this year, we introduced a new type of questionnaire: a posted questionnaire. We narrowed down the questionnaire to two questions that we particularly wanted to ask visitors: "What did you see that brought you to this event?” and “How did you like this event?” The result was, as we had hoped, a significant increase in the response rate. We will incorporate this into next year's event as well as incorporate your feedback into our planning.

The “Sekai Fureai Hiroba” will be powered up every year!

The “Sekai Fureai Hiroba” was a great success, with over 500 people attending in the end. At the end of the event, one of the visitors approached the staff and said, "This year was also very good! I really look forward to it every year.” . We were glad we had not canceled the event.
We have been able to continue this event for 20 times because of the support of the local community. We hope to continue to fulfill our role as the Sapporo Center loved by the community.

Sns share!

  • X (Twitter)
  • linkedIn