Prince Akishino and his wife visit Paraguay and inspect IKOI, a local women's independence support center

Prince Akishino and his wife will visit Paraguay from the 18th to the 26th to mark the 90th anniversary of Japanese immigration. On the 22nd local time, we will visit IKOI, a tourist information center in La Colmena where women from rural areas work. In Paraguay, there is a large disparity between urban and rural areas, and women's social advancement and economic independence are issues.Yokohama National University has been playing a central role in providing support from Japan, imparting cooking techniques and sales know-how, and the couple has also shown interest.

IKOI will open in front of City Hall in September 2024, and in addition to providing information about the city, it will sell traditional foods such as cheese bread and sopa, jams and juices made with local fruits, sushi rolls, and anpan (red bean paste). It was established as the culmination of the ``Rural Women's Livelihood Improvement Project'' and ``Agritourism Project,'' which Yokohama National University conducted in local farming villages for about 10 years until 2025, as a grassroots technical cooperation project of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Yoko Fujikake, a professor at the same university (Paraguayan area studies), who led the project, toured local farming villages as a JICA Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer in 1993 and worked with local government officials to devise ways to generate income for women. Through repeated conversations with the women about how to cook vegetables and nutritional guidance, they gained confidence and saw their personalities and mindsets change.

After returning to Japan, Fujikake launched the NGO Mitai Fund (renamed the NPO Mitai Mitakunyai Children's Fund in 2014) to support local women, and continued to visit the area almost every year to conduct research and practice. The project focuses on the city of La Colmena and teaches women not only cooking techniques, but also practical know-how for sales, such as hygiene management and cost control, in collaboration with professors from the same university and universities in Paraguay. Approximately 10,000 women participated in the event, selling the sweets and jams they had made at morning markets and events, increasing their income, gaining self-confidence, and giving them an opportunity to enter the workforce.

Mirian Ihara (64), a third-generation Japanese-American who will be welcoming the couple at the center, is one of the participants in the project and says, ``I've learned how to cook and speak in front of people, and my world has expanded as I've been able to dream a lot.''

Ms. Fujikake was invited by Prince and Mrs. Akishino in July to explain the project and the activities of local women. The couple listened intently while taking notes, and Princess Noriko seemed interested in the process by which women learn.

Fujikake hopes that ``through the couple's visit, we will be able to spread the word about how women in the area are working independently.''