Kids Meet the World

Yokohama hosted this year's Tokyo International Conference on African Development, providing local kids with a chance to interact with guests and introduce the exchange of paintings they have with kids in Botswana. Meanwhile, Japanese musician and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador MIYAVI and journalist Shin Nimura report on the plight of African refugees. We'll also be attending a jam session between kids from Japan and Guinea. All this and more in this special meeting of kids in Japan and Africa.

Karate will be making its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. In August 2019, Hungary's karate team visited Tomigusuku in Okinawa Prefecture to undergo training and to foster an exchange between the kids of Hungary and Okinawa. The kids discover that karate was first developed in Okinawa as a means of self-defense without the use of weapons, and that it was introduced to Hungary after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Through their research, the kids discover the true meaning of karate and its message for peace.

Athletes worldwide are gearing up for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Brazil's Paralympic team of 400 will be setting up base in Hamamatsu, a city with the largest Brazilian community in Japan. Besides having a thriving automobile industry, it's the birthplace of world-famous piano makers Yamaha and Kawai, and is a UNESCO city of music. Kids in Hamamatsu reach out to the kids in Rio, famous for its carnival and samba parade, to develop a friendship based on their love of music.

Serbia boasts the world's top team in 3x3 basketball, prompting high school fans in Saga Prefecture, southern Japan to get in touch with kids in Serbia. Through interviews with journalists and former athletes, they learn how a sport that was once the symbol of unity was responsible for deepening the ethnic divide that led to war and the dissolution of Yugoslavia. 30 years later, however, teams from the former Yugoslavian states have formed a basketball league which is helping to promote reconciliation.