Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on December 17 the launch of partnership to co-create a future with the next generation: WA Project 2.0, a comprehensive people-to-people exchange program, at the Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of Asean-Japan Friendship and Cooperation. The Prime Minister concurred with Asean leaders to work together to further promote people-to-people exchanges in this region.

This program will be intensively implemented over the next 10 years with two-pillar projects, the Two-Way Intellectual and Cultural Exchange and Nihongo Partners by the Japan Foundation as the successor of the WA Project, and it will benefit more than 10 million people, especially the next-generation leaders of Japan and Asean.