{"id":29544,"date":"2026-10-20T17:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summerinjapan.com\/?p=29544"},"modified":"2026-10-20T17:41:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:41:26","slug":"empowering-future-leaders-sij-founder-guests-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summerinjapan.com\/en\/archives\/29544","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Future Leaders &#8211; SIJ Founder &amp; Guests Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Powerful words for the leaders of tomorrow! \u2728<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SIJ2026 successfully brought together leaders, educators, and young changemakers from across communities and cultures! \ud83c\udf0f\u2728<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the SIJ Opening Ceremony, we were honored to welcome inspiring speeches from Oita Governor Sato, Deputy Mayor Matsuda, APU President Yoneyama, AIU President Cassim, Mayor of Ashiya City Takashima, IPUT President Murakami, and Team Harvard representative Sean, following opening remarks from SIJ President Mari Hirotsuru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ceremony concluded with words from our co-founder, Sumire Hirotsuru, setting an inspiring tone for the journey ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See you again soon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"2160\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 3840 \/ 2160;\" width=\"3840\" controls src=\"https:\/\/summerinjapan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Video-SIJ-Opening-Speeches.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Powerful words for the leaders of tomorrow! \u2728 SIJ2026 successfully brought together leaders, educators, and yo [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/summerinjapan.com\/en\/archives\/29544\">Read More&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> from Empowering Future Leaders &#8211; SIJ Founder &amp; Guests Highlights<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/summerinjapan.com\/?p=29544","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-sij-2016","category-news","en-US"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Empowering Future Leaders - SIJ Founder &amp; Guests Highlights - Summer in JAPAN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/summerinjapan.com\/en\/archives\/29544\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Empowering Future Leaders - SIJ Founder &amp; 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