HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) A meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum for teens will be held in Hiroshima in February, coinciding with the actual working-level APEC meeting, organizers said Tuesday.
The junior meeting on peace and environmental issues and the future of the region was first proposed by junior writers of the Chugoku Shimbun at a meeting of lower house speakers from the Group of Eight nations in the city in September 2008.
The speakers, including then Speaker Yohei Kono, supported the idea, and the dates were set for Feb. 20 to 24, the organizers said. The working-level meeting begins Feb. 22.
Participants in the junior meeting will visit the Hiroshima Peace Site and meet with atomic bomb survivors to learn about their experiences. They will hold a workshop and compile their input into a message or a declaration and deliver it to the APEC meeting.
The city of Hiroshima is asking some 20 APEC nations to field two representatives for the occasion and is publicly seeking four Japanese participants.
The Japanese members must be aged 15 to 18 and have practical English proficiency at or above the Pre-1st level of the Eiken, the test held by the Society for Testing English Proficiency, and two of them must be from Hiroshima, they said. Applications are available at the city's Web site and will be accepted by ordinary mail or e-mail until Nov. 10.