Participant's Speech at Course Closing Ceremony

Quality and Productivity Improvement for Enterprise Competitiveness (Basic Kaizen) new!


Thanks speech at closing ceremony

Nov.20‚ 2024 Closing Ceremony

Participant：Ms. RAMOS NOGUEIRA Luiza (from Brazil)

Total 7 trainees from 5 countries (Brazil‚ Ecuador‚ Libya‚ Tajikistan‚ and Uzbekistan) began remote training using Zoom on October 8th‚ and then they gathered at JICA Kyushu in Kitakyushu City for one month from October 20th to November‚ and held technical training on improving quality and productivity.

Thanks speech by Luiza-san


Photo after the closing ceremony
Good afternoon‚
My name is Luiza Nogueira‚ and it is a great pleasure with a bit of nervousness that I speak today on behalf of the Basic Kaizen 2024 class. I would like to thank the presence of Mr. YAMAGUCHI‚ Deputy Director General of JICA Kyushu Center‚ and Mr. ODAWARA‚ Senior Managing Director and Secretary General of KITA.

Well‚ what can I say about our course and our learning journey? Our first big challenge was preparing our job report‚ and we quickly realized how difficult it is to define an issue. After all‚ what is an issue‚ right? On the day of the presentation‚ everyone was quite nervous‚ and the class met the night before to practice the presentation. In the end‚ I believe we managed to make our sensei‚ Tori-San‚ proud and impressed with our presentations. After the job report‚ our class became a big team‚ where everyone helped and supported each other.


Training Site Visit 1
With each new lecture and technical visit‚ our knowledge evolved‚ and we understood more and more about Japanese culture. One moment I will never forget was our visit to the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima. Experiencing the destruction and pain caused by the atomic bomb made us realize how it marked a turning point in Japanese society. What was most impressive was seeing that‚ instead of harboring resentment‚ society became better‚ nurturing a deep respect for humanity‚ nature‚ and all things.

By the end of this journey‚ without even realizing it‚ we were no longer the same people we were 30 days ago. We understood the concept of "mottainai" and how Kaizen has become an intrinsic part of Japanese society. We were charmed by the warmth and politeness of the Japanese people‚ with their always clean streets‚ the punctuality of their transportation and meetings‚ and their deep kindness. If you ask me what words I used the most and heard the most in Japan‚ without a doubt‚ they were "arigatō gozaimasu" and what a powerful word‚ right? And is there a better word to define gratitude?


Training Site Visit 2
My thanks to our course teachers‚ especially Tori San and Yamamoto San for their patience in teaching and guiding us on this journey. Thank you to Kato San‚ who was responsible for the implementation of this course‚ and our deep gratitude to Hatano San‚ who with her dedication‚ education and patience opened the doors of knowledge by translating our course into English.

Eleanor Roosevelt said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Our home is waiting for us… We will return to our countries not knowing if we will be able to change society‚ but with the conviction that we will do our best to make a difference in this world.
Thank you