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Kenton X. Chance, executive editor of iWitness News, is photographed along with Dawn Matus, assistant programme co-ordinator, after donning their kimono. (Photos: Floyd K. Takeuchi/Waka Photos, and   Ongerung Kambes Kesolei)
Kenton X. Chance, executive editor of iWitness News, is photographed along with Dawn Matus, assistant programme co-ordinator, after donning their kimono. (Photos: Floyd K. Takeuchi/Waka Photos, and Ongerung Kambes Kesolei)

Executive Editor of iWitness News, Kenton X. Chance, was among five journalists from the Caribbean and the Pacific regions who participated in the 2018 Pacific-Caribbean Journalists Program in Japan in October.

They were joined by two Japanese journalism seniors who will take up media jobs when they graduate next march.

The journalists were introduced to a number of issues during the 10-day visit, which took participants to two islands and several cities in the Japanese archipelago.

These issues included Japan’s earthquake and tsunami warning system and how public schools have incorporated into their curricula lessons learned from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Soaking it up
Chance, left, and other programme participants, relax by soaking their feet in hot water at a public facility during a tour of Higashimatsushima, one of the areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. (Photo:

The programme included site visits to areas in the Tohoku region that were devastated in 2011 and how they are recovering, and how regional news media covered the disaster and the lessons they learned from that tragedy.

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The programme ended with participants participating in a Kimono-wearing and Japanese tea ceremony.

In the coming days, Chance will share his experiences and insights in a series of articles and videos.

On Monday, Nov. 5, World Tsunami Awareness Day, we will publish two articles, one focussing on lessons for St. Vincent and the Grenadines from Japan’s experience with earthquakes and tsunami (a Japanese word) and a tour guide whose trip around the city begins at a monument where the names of the tsunami and earthquake dead includes her father’s.

Participants at FPCJ Dinner
Participants, as well as officials of the Association for Promotion of International Cooperation (APIC) and the Foreign Press Center Japan, pose for a photo after a dinner hosted by APIC in Tokyo on Oct. 24.

Also, in the series, you will find out which part of Japan is reminiscent of the Grenadines and what is transported via a US$2 billion four-mile-long underground tunnel. (It’s not people, produce, nor vehicles). And, “Kawasaki!” What comes to mind when you hear that word?

All of the articles, in addition to some focusing on policy issues that have already been published, will be available here.

The programme was sponsored by the Tokyo-based foundation the Association for Promotion of International Cooperation (APIC) and the private Foreign Press Center Japan.

11 replies on “Kenton in Kimono”

  1. I hope you have something to write about the geisha girls who “entertained” you. LOL.

    Japan doesn’t have a lot of resources but is richer than many countries that do. Please tell us why.

  2. Would be quite interested to learn with high anticipation what else could it be besides people, produce and vehicles that is being transported via that four mile long tunnel. Anxiously waiting the publication of the series of articles, Kenton.

    1. I want to know something far more important: why is a resource-poor country like Japan so rich and so law-abiding while we are a country with more unexploited resources yet so poorer and lawless.

      My answer is a single word — “culture” — because Japan Is a country integrated by a single, respected, and harmony-loving way of life based on near universal respect for law and order.

      In short, the opposite of us in every way.

      Please, Mr. Chance, enlighten we masses about this.

  3. What a wonderful experience and an honor for you Kenton, thank you for being a wonderful representative of SVG’s journalism and more so a representative and ambassador for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

    Thank you

    1. A media house is not lying if it reports a person’s lies to the court. We didn’t make up the story about your penis being slashed. We reported on what came out in court.

      1. I am still waiting to hear from Adrian Da Silva about whether the scar tissue that resulted from this injury, which is surely now healed, is a turn on for dem young gel in de same way a rough rider condom makes de ole skettel an dem ball for joy.

    2. You should be grateful to Mr. Chance for ensuring that your name will live for posterity as the man with the 16-stitch tone.

      1. Lmao! C-ben, you just made two grains of the peleau rice I had yesterday for lunch flew through my nostrils.

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