Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival to be held in Brazil in July

Worldwide Youth <em>Uchinanchu</em> Festival to be held in Brazil in July

On June 25, in the briefing room in the Okinawa Prefectural Government Office, the WYUC announced the program of the 1st Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival.


June 26, 2012

On June 25, at a press conference held at the Okinawa Prefectural Government Office, the World Youth Uchinanchu Association (WYUA) released the program of the 1st Worldwide Youth Uchinanchu Festival, which will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil from July 25 to 29.

It is expected that about 150 Okinawans from eight countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, the United States, Germany, China, Japan and Okinawa will participate in the festival.

On the first day, the festival will feature an opening ceremony and dinner party, and on the second day, an exchange program is planned in which participants from each country will divide into 41 groups according to their municipalities of origin, to carry out workshops to study the history of immigrants. In addition, there will be tours to see factories and companies run by Okinawans, and an international conference to discuss how to make use of a sustainable Uchinanchu network. In addition, the Ryukyu Stomp, a dance group formed by the members of the association will perform at a local festival held by the Brazil Okinawa Kenjin-Kai.

Minami Tamamoto, the chairperson of the festival, and also the chairperson of the WYUA in Okinawa, looked back upon the difficulties that she faced when she raised funds for the festival. “Okinawans overseas have the hearts and minds of Uchinanchu, something that the people living in Okinawa do not have. I thought that we must share this, and that drove me into action.”

Sho Miyagi, the public relations manager of the association, commented that there were many Okinawans in Brazil who couldn’t take part in the 5th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival because they are so far from Okinawa. He therefore thought that it was our turn to visit them. “If this festival succeeds, I believe that we can do well the next time too. I would like to work towards the 6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival with Okinawans in all countries.” For further details, call the WYUA at 098-863-2673, or refer to the official website. The website:
http://yuao.org/

(English translation by T&CT, Lima Tokumori and Mark Ealey)

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