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Sandyka Kurniawan, a master student of International Relations at the University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta participated in student exchange program organized by Yamanashi Prefectural University, or 山 梨 県 立 大学 (read Yamanashi Kenritsu Daigaku) from September to February 2019. This program is one of the implementations of four main points of cooperation between DI Yogyakarta and Yamanashi prefecture in education. Yamanashi is one of Yogyakarta’s sister city.
According to Sandyka, this program is very great for those who want to conduct research on Japan. Halal tourism has become the new trend in Japanese business, and it can be an interesting topic to be observed. Japanese tourism, previously, did not pay much attention to Muslims needs; such as prayer rooms, halal foods. Nowadays, halal products have become very popular.
Data shows that the number of ASEAN tourists has increased in the last few years, particularly Malaysian and Indonesian visitors. Thus, halal tourism became a promising business for Japan. According to JNTO 2017, Yamanashi is the most visited prefecture by Indonesian visitors.
Sandyka mentions that he is really grateful to meet new friends from various countries, such as China, Korea, and Thailand. However, all the participants do not communicate with English, they rather using Japanese to speak and communicate with each other.
“For everyone who wants to join Yamanashi student exchange, write your research design as well as possible! Don’t forget, improve your Japanese language skills. Believe me, English will be very, very rarely spoken in Japan, if you still have plenty of time, you should explore other prefectures in Japan! “Sandyka adds.