ジャパンタイムス　2002年7月10日

The Japan Times
Wednesday,July 10, 2002

『Agency's “alternativetours”
shoot for grassroots-level exchanges』

By ASAKOMURAKAMl　Staff Writer

OSAKA一For Kazuo Yamada，running a travel agency is a means of promoting world wide grassroots relations.
Yamada,48,used to work at a medical clinic in Osaka's Kamagasaki district,where many day-laborers live,before he and some friends set up My Ticket Inc.in 1981.
Yamada said he wanted to change tourism by getting more people out of the millions of Japanese who travel abroad to opt for“alternativetours,”which he said are geared toward raising awareness of social issues throughencounters with people in other cultures,often those in disadvantaged positions in society.
But he is not yet satisfied.“Although we have been showing other ways to trave1（for the last 21years）by offering altenlative tours,this is not enough.The industry still caters to mass tourism,which only satisfies shallow 1evels of demand,”Yamada said in his office in Yodogawa Ward.
He initially had three criteria for alternative tours:“sustainability,”meaning small-scale tours that have little impact on the place visited;“mutually exchange ability,”which requires inviting to Japan people from overseas who have taken in alternative tourists;and“Continuousness,”or creating a pattern of repeating the same tours frequently.
But as travel has diversified,the agency has become more flexible by defining alternative tours,as those that challenge the values of mass tours,which only offer entertainment such as shopping,dinning and sightseeing.
My Ticket first drew attention in 1985 when it became the first Japanese travel agency to organize a tour to Nicaragua,which had undergone a revolution in 1979.
“We had expected war to be raging all over the country,but actually it was limited to a specifc front,and elsewhere,everyday life went on as usual,”Yamada said.“By visiting a country and meeting its people,participants in our tours are often surprised to find their preconceptions have been shattered.
”My Ticket also arranged a tour to a Thai village,where the participants
helped local people engage in traditional agriculture.
Participants in anothertour,to Hawaii,met with local nonprofit organizations working to block overdevelopment by Japanese real estate companies.
Others visited Benposta children's Republic in Spain,a community in the outskirts of the city of Orense in north western Spain where children manage their ow community.
The company also sponsors seminars in Japan,inviting people and groups from overseas that have welcomed alternative tourists from Japan.It has created a fund for supporting the revitalization of sericulture,or silkworm farming,in Cambodia and has issued passport jackets that bear the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.
“All of our activities serve our original aim of promoting international exchanges,so it is only natural for us to do them,”Yamada said.
My Ticket may have a clear aim,but the people who take in the tours do so for various reasons.A survey last year indicated that the main purpose people joined the trips was to“discover themselves.”
“It shows that many people are searching for a meaning in life.Putting themselves in different situations may help them find something,”Yamada said.“Although the participants'purposes are different from our aims,many seemed to acquire something meaningful from the trips,which is also one of our goals.”
Grassroots exchanges with people who are disadvantaged in society in different countries have made Yamada realize that people share com mon problems caused by globalization,including environmental destruction,the demise of traditions and communities,and the widening disparity between rich and poor.
“We have a wide network of people who share common concerns and work hard to realize the same purpose（of making a better global society）,”Yamada said.“ln that sense,l am optimistic despite the worsening situation in the world.”
Yamada said,however,that people in Japan should exercise great imagination when meeting with people in developing countries because the economic disparity is so large.“It goes beyond one's imagination,but we must at least recognize that it is beyond our imgination in order to meet with them on equal terms.”
My Ticket is now offering tours including a visit to Koreans in Yanbian in northeastern China,where Korean autonomy exists;participating in a traditional Korean mask festival in Andong near Pusan,South Korea;and a visit to a children's home in Cambodia that provides education.

For more infomation,visit My Ticket's web site www.myticket.jp