For the third year running, Peace Boat is partnering with Korean NPO Green Foundation to organize the Peace and Green Boat: a cooperative voyage which aims to bring together Korean and Japanese people and tackle the issue of regional environmental sustainability and security as a shared resource and responsibility of all people in the North-East Asia region.

Programs planned for the Peace and Green Boat voyage include the Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant, operated by the Japanese government despite wide protest about serious environmental and regional security concerns; cultural exchange programs with the Ainu indigenous people in Hokkaido; eco-tourism and environmental sustainability in Kamchatka; energy resources and the plight of ethnic Koreans who were forcibly removed to Sakhalin by the Japanese government after WWII and are still unable to return in Sakhalin; cultural exchange and examination of modern Russia in Vladivostok; and reflecting on the joint history, and future, shared by Korean and Japanese people while visiting the port city of Busan. The visit will also include an exchange program with Korean Hibakusha (victims of atomic bombings).

The goal of the Peace and Green Boat project is to facilitate cross-border grassroots communication and cooperation, looking at both past and future not as distinct experiences, but shared heritage and responsibility to build a more secure and sustainable East Asian region that can only be accomplished by working