Visit South Sulawesi & Jakarta, 9-15 Sep 2018

In 9-15 September 2018, I visited South Sulawesi (Wajo, Pinrang & Makassar) and Jakarta with the delegation of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, to survey about direct seeding of rice in South Sulawesi.

Ishikawa Prefecture and South Sulawesi Province are now facing the same serious challenge of labor shortage in agriculture and both of them think that direct seeding of rice may be the key technology to overcome it.

The delegation directly made field observation, discussed about farming with rice farmers, and got fruitful information from the field. I hope we will have next step for good opportunity to deeply exchange farmer’s knowledge and experience between Ishikawa Prefecture and South Sulawesi Province.

Meeting with IKAPEKSI South Sulawesi

After arriving at Makassar at noon in January 13, I met members of IKAPEKSI South Sulawesi. IKAPEKSI is Ikatan Pengusaha Kenshusei Indonesia, Indonesian ex-Japan-Trainee Businessmen’s League.

They were ex-Trainee in Japan for three years. Mainly worked in small and medium enterprises in Japan to officially learn know-how and technique/technology to be applied in Indonesia in the future. However, some Japanese companies regarded them as cheap labors because of serious shortage of labors in industrial sector.

Officially, government of Japan does not permit immigrant labors in Japan but in fact those trainee are used to fill the labor shortage.

IKAPEKSI was established spontaneously by ex-trainee themselves without any support of government of Japan and Indonesia. Most of members of IKAPEKSI manage their own companies, work in companies, and start their own small business. The ex-training program has contribute to create new entrepreneurs and skilled labors in Indonesia.

I have been an advisor to IKAPEKSI since 2015. I am happy to meet the South Sulawesi part members this time and want to support them.