On 29 September 2023, Mr. Wattanawit Gajaseni, Deputy Director-General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA) met and discussed with Mr. Eiji KAMIMURA, Mayor of Hokuto City about the TICA’s cooperation and preparation of dispatching volunteers under Friends from Thailand (FFT) programme to work as International Tourism Promotion volunteer in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture in November 2023 and took the opportunity to survey the facilitation such as workplace, office allocation, and accommodation provided by Japanese side for Thai volunteer who will be dispatched to work at Hokuto City. During the discussion, the volunteer is expected to work closely with the Japanese counterpart, design tourism activities, interview the people in community and promote Hokuto City’s attraction to be more popular for Thai people to visit. Both sides also reiterated the importance of the partnership between Thailand and Japan on volunteer cooperation which will help to increase the number of Thai people to visit Hokuto City as tourism destination on the future.

TICA dispatched the first batch of FFT volunteer to Japan in 2022. Based on the success case of 2022 and the request of Japanase side for the next batch, TICA is about to dispatch 3 volunteers under FFT programme to work as International Tourism Promotion volunteer at Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, in 2023. For 2024, TICA plan to dispatch volunteers to work at Kushiro City, Hokkaido Prefecture, and Kuma District, Kumamoto Prefecture. The dispatching of first batch of Thai volunteer under FFT programme to Japan in 2022 is the joint initiative and the mark of the 135th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations of both countries in 2022, and the symbolic of partnership cooperation and contribution between Thailand and Japan which both sides jointly developed for FFT programme at present and onwards.