Interesting, I agree on Education is the key.....

Japan mayor to Pinoys: Preserve culture by educating younger generations

By GMA News Online / Pinoy Abroad, on October 17th, 2012

SAKAI CITY, Japan – What can Filipinos learn from one of Japan's oldest cities?
Sakai City mayor Osami Takeyama told GMA News Online that it was important for Filipinos to value the preservation of one's cultural traditions.
"The most important thing about the preservation of traditional culture is to provide good education to younger generations," Takeyama said.
"I believe that by doing it (educating the younger generation), people will become more aware of their traditional culture," he added.
Sakai may be a little less popular to tourists than its neighboring Osaka (both cities are inside the Osaka Prefecture) but Sakai boasts of centuries of Japanese traditions successfully interwoven with modernization.
Over the past few decades, the city of Sakai has well embraced industrialization but without sacrificing its cultural traditions.
The city has long been home to sprawling industrial factories and commercial complexes, but at the same continues to preserve age-old traditions like its famous tea ceremonies as well as its blade and bike industries.
Addressing Southeast Asian journalists visiting this city, Takeyama said he was open to possible "interchanges" with any city in the Philippines, in an effort to bring back the once lively relations between the two Asian countries.
"But first, we"d like to start with grassroots or person-to-person interchanges. After that, there could be some sort of opportunities then we can do some formal relationships with other cities in the Philippines and probably we can work on issues on manufacturing things and also environmental issues which Sakai is very much caring for," Takeyama stressed.
Historic relationship to PHL
Sakai's rich historic relationship with Southeast Asian nations especially to the Philippines date back to the 16th century when Sakai's revered merchant Naya traveled to Luzon in search of trade opportunities.
Story has it that the merchant was so enamored by the Philippine Island he named himself after it, and since adopted the name "Luzon Sukezaemon."
Sakai also was once home to one of the most important seaports in the whole of Japan, accomodating trade ships from neighboring countries and the Southeast Asian region.
It was also this openness to foreign products and cultures among Sakai residents that allowed the city to blossom into a melting pot of modernity and tradition.
"Luzon Sukezaemon had a very good and successful career as a businessman. So his courage and awareness to these different cultures  from different places was very important," said Takeyama.
The mayor added that they continue to pass on to the next generation this attitude in welcoming diversity.
"It is important to tell kids here in Sakai about the stroies of our ancestors like Ruson Sukezaemon," Takeyama said.
Katanas to kitchen knives
Sakai is renowned for manufacturing the best blades in Japan (from weapons called katanas to plain kitchen knives).
The city, situated southwest of Tokyo and is only around 20 minutes away from Osaka City by train, is also home to the biggest "tumulus" in the world, a type of an expansive royal burial site shaped like a key hole when viewed from the air.
The Nintoku tumulus is one of more than a hundred tumuli in Sakai City which could rival burial sites such as Egypt's pyramids or India's Taj Mahal.
The city takes pride also in its tradional hand-made knives even as the local government put priority in supporting local craftsmen, by providing them subsidiary and helping them expand their network of market.
"In the age of mass production, it is still important to preserve hand crafted products because these convey the heart of the people," emphasizing further the importance of preserving tradition in a sea of modernity, and at the same time being open to foreign cultures.
The city government of Sakai has for the fourth time invited Southeast Asian students and members of the media from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia for a two-week cultural exchange program this October.
The foreign college students – all taking formal studies of the Japanese language – made the rounds in elementary schools in Sakai, sharing their respective cultural traditions with an end goal of strengthening ties between Sakai and the Southeast Asian countries.
MARK MERUEÑAS, GMA NEWS, VVP, GMA News