Guangdong People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (GDPAFFC) and Japan Keizai Koho Center (KKC) jointly organized the 2025 Guangdong Province University Students' Exchange Program to Japan from July 14 to July 18, 2025.
The Guangdong Province University Students' Exchange Program to Japan was initiated by GDPAFFC and KKC in 2015. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the program. The theme for this year is "Coping with Common Problems Faced by China and Japan—The Low Fertility and Aging Society," aiming to understand the current situation and development trends of Japan's low birth rate and aging population, and to discuss corresponding issues with various enterprises, universities, and government agencies.
The students engaged in in-depth exchanges with the Japanese side on relevant measures and experiences from both sides, promoting friendly exchanges between the two peoples and demonstrating the scientific understanding and innovative measures each side is taking to address low birth rates and an aging population.
They included student representatives from Sun Yat-sen University, Jinan University, and South China Normal University.
The students participated in briefing sessions organized by Benesse Style Care, Meiji, Panasonic, Dai-ichi Life, Gakken, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Liaison Office for Child-Oriented Policies. They attended a keynote lecture by Professor Futoshi Ishii from Keio University and conducted field visits to Benesse's Aria Care centers, Panasonic's Life Care Housing Pro Studio, and Gakken's Tokyo Global Gateway.
Through these experiences, they gained valuable insights into Japanese enterprises' advanced practices and notable achievements in addressing the challenges of declining birth rates and an aging population. At the same time, this also provided practical experience and inspiration for promoting China-Japan friendly exchanges.
Deng Bin, a student from Sun Yat-sen University, stated that the exchange offered critical insights into Japan’s demographic challenges.
Deng emphasized that declining birth rates and an aging population cannot be understood through statistics alone but must be examined within their social context. The program allowed the delegation to study Japan’s demographic trends firsthand and observe how government, businesses, and academic institutions are responding to the pressures of an aging society.
Huang Zhuoming from Jinan University noted that addressing these demographic shifts requires a whole-of-society approach.
Huang highlighted how Japanese companies have implemented people-focused solutions—from smart care technologies and innovative health products to childcare support systems—that improve the quality of life for seniors and children while promoting sustainable growth.
By contrast, Huang observed that China still has significant room to expand professional elderly care, develop age-friendly products, and strengthen workplace parenting support. Lessons from Japan, Huang added, could help shape policies that better meet public needs while deepening China-Japan cooperation on shared social challenges.
Lin Huiling from South China Normal University said the exchange underscored Japan’s coordinated, multi-level strategy to address its demographic crisis.
Unlike isolated initiatives, Japan’s approach links corporate practices, academic research, and government policy under a “life cycle” framework, aligning support for childcare, workforce participation, and elder care.
Lin noted that this integrated model offers valuable insights for China, where demographic pressures are rising. The visit, she said, provided participants with practical perspectives they can bring back to inform local research and policy discussions, fostering deeper cooperation between China and Japan on shared population challenges.
The Guangdong Province University Student Delegation's visit to Japan for the exchange program has built an efficient and pragmatic communication bridge for the two countries to learn from each other's experiences in related fields.
Through in-depth visits across the entire spectrum of government, academia, enterprises, and society, the delegation not only gained an intuitive understanding of Japan's systematic approach to addressing the aging population and low birth rates but also provided diverse examples for China, particularly for populous provinces such as Guangdong, to reference and learn from.
At the same time, the delegation actively shared China's exploration achievements in this field during the exchange, promoting mutual inspiration between China and Japan on specific solutions, and transforming "joint response to challenges" from a consensus into concrete experiential exchanges.
As a brand event jointly created by GDPAFFC and KKC over a decade ago, this project focuses on youth exchange and injects fresh energy into the friendship between China and Japan.
This exchange, based on common topics, lays the seeds of friendship for the two countries to pursue long-term cooperation in more fields, making people-to-people exchanges a stable force for promoting the healthy development of China-Japan relations.
Reporter | Liu Xiaodi
Correspondent | Zhou Wei, Deng Bin, Huang Zhuoming, Lin Huiling
Editor | Yuan Zixiang James, Shen He
