American and Japanese middle-schoolers put the finishing touches on their projects during the Student Educational Exchange and Dialogue, or SEED, event at Ryukyu Middle School on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Sept. 27, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — American and Japanese middle-schoolers overcame language barriers at this key air base over the weekend as they brainstormed ideas to bring their communities together.
Approximately 25 Department of Defense Education Activity students from Ryukyu, Kadena and Lester middle schools participated Saturday in the second of seven events planned this year in the Student Educational Exchange and Dialogue, or SEED.
SEED, now in its fifth year, is sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DODEA and encourages teenagers from both nations to learn about each other’s cultures and languages.
Ryukyu Middle School seventh-grader Nadia Barnes, left, leads her group presentation in Japanese during the Student Educational Exchange and Dialogue, or SEED, event at the chool on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Sept. 27, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
The students worked in 10 groups alongside about 25 Japanese junior high school students from Chatan and Kadena towns and Ginowan and Okinawa cities to create an imagined cultural exchange event using local places and resources. Ideas included an overnight camp at Araha Beach, a get-together at an A&W burger restaurant and an island cleanup.
“They’re building bridges, they’re building connections and they’re building cultural awareness of each other,” emcee Stephen Siegel, an American facilitator with education organization LBE Japan, which helped create the content for the event, told Stars and Stripes after the group presentations. “They’re really beginning to build friendships and collaborations, learning how to work in a group, learning how to communicate and also learning some dynamics of public speaking.”
Students rehearse their presentation during the Student Educational Exchange and Dialogue, or SEED, event at Ryukyu Middle School on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Sept. 27, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
Groups numbering between four and six were evenly mixed between American and Japanese students. Many presented in each other’s languages.
Ryukyu seventh-grader Nadia Barnes, presenting the island cleanup idea with Group B, spoke nearly fluent Japanese. A fan of Japanese anime series such as “Fairy Tail” and “Hunter x Hunter,” she began teaching herself the language about five years ago, she said after the presentations.
“It was a little hard because I don’t know everything in the language, but I was able to get the basic idea out,” she said. “And my peers, I’m pretty sure they had a good time and that they were able to connect pretty well.”
Col. Robert Arnett, the 18th Wing’s deputy commander, presents the best group presentation award to Ryukyu Middle School seventh-grader Nadia Barnes during the SEED event at the school on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Sept. 27, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
Students then received awards for best overall presentation, best group presentation, best poster and other categories.
Many of the students spent the night together at a lock-in at the Kadena Teen Center, where they continued to participate in activities, Sotaro Sasaki, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, said before the event.
“You are, in fact, the future of the U.S.-Japan alliance,” Col. Robert Arnett, deputy commander of the 18th Wing at Kadena, said during the event’s closing ceremony. “It is my sincere hope that mutual understanding and new friendships will be forged this weekend, and that this experience is one that you will carry with you long after the event ends.”
AloJapan.com