Essendon Football Club is currently playing host to AFL Japan’s Michito Sakaki and Yosuke Kuno who are in Australia for two weeks as part of the Watashi Wa Footy (Hello my name is Footy) Program, which aims to strengthen Australia-Japan relations through sport and recreation, specifically Australian football.
The program, run in partnership with the Australia-Japan Foundation, focuses on increasing awareness and understanding of Australian football in Japan and to strengthen cross-cultural ties by offering positive and active engagement experiences for communities in Japan and Australia.
Essendon community manager Russell James believes Australian Football has a valuable role to play in further developing relations between the two countries.
“Australian Football is something iconically Australian and is ingrained in the culture and history of this country and the role it can play in strengthening relationships between different cultures can not be underestimated,” James said.
“The Watashi Wa Footy Program is the first of a three year development and engagement program with AFL Japan. Essendon Football Club is proud to be part of this initiative in conjunction with the Australia-Japan Foundation.”
The current visit focuses on the development of Sakaki and Kuno, providing them with opportunities to learn from key AFL representatives about structures relating to the delivery of school and other community programs and activities that can be replicated back in Japan.
Sakaki, who is familiar to Windy Hill after spending a pre-season at the club in 2006, said his visit was important to help AFL Japan grow the game in his country.
“From our visit we hope to learn more about how we can improve the development of AFL in Japan in areas including the national team structures, school-based activities and availability of Japanese language resources,” Sakaki said.
