What we can do now for the sake of a child’s smile.
What must be done now.

he Mitsubishi Asian Children's Enikki Festa has invited children in Asia to create Enikki, illustrated diaries that portray daily events and thoughts in the form of a picture and a short essay, in the hope that Enikki can be a very effective means of cross-cultural understanding of each other’s lives and cultures and that this Festa eventually would work for promotion of cultural exchange among the children in Asia.
      The Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee launched the event in 1990 together with the Asian Federation of UNESCO Clubs and Associations and the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan. Giving its support to “the Year of International Literacy” proclaimed by the United Nations in 1990 for the purpose of “creating a world in which all people are able to read and write,” the Committee started the event as the “Mitsubishi Impression-Gallery- Festival of Asian Children's Art” in the hope that creating and reading Enikki would work for literacy education for the children of Asia. While retaining its original aim, the event was subsequently renamed the “Mitsubishi Asian Children's Enikki Festa” to highlight a greater emphasis on international exchange in the hope that Asian children would, through the Enikki, one of Japan’s unique cultural features, understand and respect each other’s cultures and would work together towards building a better future. In June, 2010 the Committee began inviting entries of Enikki for the 10th Festa.
      Starting in 1990 with eight Asian countries, the Festa has grown with each edition and with the participation of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the first time the 9th Festa received entries from 24 countries and regions, or practically the whole of Asia. Since the inception, the total number of entries has amounted to more than 480,000.
The Enikki’s theme is “Here is my life.” Children are invited to paint and write anything in their daily lives that they have “done, seen or felt” , such as festivals, favorite pastimes, family and friends or something that happened at school, in order to introduce their daily lives and cultures to their Asian friends.
      All the entries first go to the national screening process in each country or region, and eight selected entries of each would proceed to the international screening in Tokyo for the selection of the Grand Prix Award, the Organizer’s awards and the Excellence awards.
      All the members of the International Screening Committee have been well-known persons in the respective fields and have actively supported the Festa. Among them, Mr. Ikuo Hirayama, Japanese-style painter, a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and former president of Tokyo University of the Arts, serving as Head of the Jury from the beginning up to the 9th Festa, made a tremendous contribution to its growth and development of this Festa. Unfortunately, Mr. Hirayama passed away at the end of 2009.
      For the 10th Festa, Mr. Teruo Onuma, who had served as Assistant Head of the Jury from the 1st Festa, assumed the post of Head of the Jury, and Mr. Ichiro Sato, a Western-style painter and professor of the Tokyo University of the Arts, joined the jury for the first time and took over the position of Assistant Head of the Jury from Mr. Onuma.
      All the award winners chosen by the International Screening Committee receive certificates and supplementary prizes. In addition, the eight award winners from Japan together with all the Gran Prix winners from each country and region are invited to Asia Study Tour. The Asia Study Tour visits a different country each time: for the 8th Festa it was Bangkok in Thailand; for the 9th Festa Hanoi in Vietnam, but the Tour was cancelled because of the swine flu scare; and for the 10th Festa the Tour will be held in Seoul in South Korea in 2011.
      In the Asia Study Tour, children have award-giving ceremony, jointly create an artwork in commemoration, meet schoolchildren of local schools and visit some historical sites and popular venues including the ones on the UNESCO World Heritage list, which may promote international exchange beyond the barriers of languages of participating children.
      The exhibitions of award-winning artworks are held in Japan and overseas. Those artworks are also displayed at the head office or branch offices of member companies of the Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee and lent out to the events planned and held by public or other organizations to give as many people as possible the opportunity to see the children’s work.
      In addition, Collections of award-winning artworks with essays translated into both Japanese and English are published and distributed to all those connected with the Festa in Japan and overseas and are also donated to elementary schools and libraries throughout Japan.
      The Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee also subsidizes the cost of producing literacy education materials that use prize-winning artworks in an effort to contribute to further raising literacy levels.
      As the organizer of this Festa, the Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee is very happy to see the Enikki , a cultural feature unique to Japan, spreading over to the countries and regions of Asia, as a result, the literacy levels rising and small artists enjoying cultural exchanges through Enikki.