Twenty-four Indian youths have been selected to join the 2006 Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme.

    The JET Programme seeks to help enhance internationalization in Japan, by promoting mutual understanding between Japan and other nations. The Programme aims to enhance foreign language education in Japan, and to promote international exchange at the local level through fostering ties between Japanese youth and foreign youth. The objectives of the Programme are being achieved by offering JET Programme participants the opportunity to serve in local authorities as Coordinators for International Relations (CIR), as well as in public and private junior and senior high schools as Assistant Language Teachers (ALT). The Programme started in 1987 with the cooperation of the participating country governments. In FY 2005, there are 5,853 participants in the Programme from 44 countries. The JET Programme has achieved an excellent reputation over the last 19 years.

    The JET Programme started to invite Indian youth in 1998 and one CIR went to Japan as the first JET from India. In 2001, two Indian young ladies participated in the JET Programme as the first ALTs from India, in addition to one CIR. However, there were only a few Indian participants in the JET Programme at this early stage.

    During his visit to India in April 2005, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to strengthen the Japan-India Global Partnership through an Eight-fold Initiative. In this Eight-fold Initiative, the two leaders shared the view that greater interaction between the two peoples, particularly among the youth, provides a stronger basis for the relationship between the two countries.

    In order to encourage people-to-people exchanges, especially among the younger generation, the Government of Japan significantly expanded the JET Programme in India this year, and selected twenty-four qualified Indian youths (2 CIRs and 22 ALTs). The Indian JET participants will leave India for Japan early in August to join the 2006 JET Programme and will be assigned to local governments and public and private junior and senior high schools all over Japan.

    In order to encourage the JET participants from India and give these young explorers a warm send-off, the Ambassador of Japan and Mrs. Yasukuni Enoki will host a reception on Friday, 21^st July 2006, at the newly-opened Japan Information Centre of the Embassy of Japan, New Delhi.