Ambassador’s Youth Council tours Yokota

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Joshua Edwards
  • 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

The Ambassador’s Youth Council of Kansai visited Yokota Air Base on April 22 as part of a larger study tour to learn more about U.S.-Japan relations.

The program, run by the American Consulate General Osaka-Kobe, came to the base to see how Yokota operates in Japan and how it partners with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

Col. Julie Gaulin, 374th Airlift Wing vice commander, welcomed the guests and provided an overview on the base’s impact in the region.

“I’m really excited to be able to offer this opportunity to you,” said Gaulin. “We need to invest in our future and education is important. A lot of what we do day-today are really military focused, so it’s good to take a step back and think of things from an academic perspective. We also know that when looking at big alliance management or local relations it really comes down to people meeting people. I’m super happy that we are able to do that again.”

While at Yokota, the AYC members received an unclassified intelligence brief, toured aircraft assigned to the base and ate lunch with Airmen.

“We have students here from international relations program, which I am studying, we have politics, history, chemistry, biology and engineering, all of us just trying to understand the complexity of U.S.-Japan relations,” said Mizuki Brent, AYC member. “Coming here, it’s been nice to talk to people here individually. They are very excited to talk about their jobs with me and what they do here, but I’m also interested in hearing about them and their lives as people.”

The tour wrapped up with briefings on the JASDF, the Civilian Personal Office and YokoWerx’s Airmen innovation program.