Foreign Participants in the Akita Kanto Festival

Abstract

The Kanto Team of Akita International University (AIU), founded in 2005, is a student body that includes exchange students who have continuously participated in the Akita Kanto Festival. Since some professors and foreign students from the Minnesota State University-Akita campus (MSUA) have participated in the Kanto festival in the past, it can be said that Kanto is a traditional event that has accepted participants from foreign countries for over twenty years. By analyzing the AIU Kanto team, this study aims to investigate how the exchange students of AIU joined the Akita Kanto Festival. First, we discuss the relationship between the AIU Kanto Team and external organizations based on interviews with the Junior Chamber International Japan (Akita) and the Kanto Society of Kami-kamenocho. Second, we analyze the exchange students’ participation forms as well as their social interaction through the results of a questionnaire survey among degree-seeking students and interviews with exchange students. Finally, we discuss the future prospects of foreign participants in the Akita Kanto Festival.