The exchange programmes of the Japanese-German Centre Berlin focus on young potential leaders for German-Japanese relations. The JDZB’s programmes are particularly addressed to target groups that include young employees, future senior managers or young academics.

The German-Japanese Exchange Programme for Young Employees seeks to give young employees and trainees aged between 18 and 30 years the opportunity to visit the other country.

The German-Japanese Study Programme for Youth Work Specialists is aimed at specialists that are employed in the field of youth work. Every year two delegations of experts in various youth work fields are invited to visit Japan or Germany. These multipliers are then introduced to the frameworks of youth work in the other country. Participants visit youth work institutions and centres; they meet the youth of the other country and learn more about their problems, and thus have an opportunity to acquire knowledge for their own work and to develop further their own country’s national youth work agenda.

The Exchange Program for Young Experts targets young potential managers from public research institutions or – future executives from private companies in Germany and Japan. Through visits to the other country the program seeks to promote mutual understanding as well as foster lively academic exchange and discussions.

The Japanese-German Centre Berlin together with the Robert Bosch Foundation are organising a Young Leaders Forum with a Summer School for young high potentials from Germany and Japan. The 10 days summer school programme includes a workshop on a socio-political topic relevant to both countries and a round trip to institutions and companies. The programme takes place annually alternating between Germany and Japan. English will be the spoken language during the summer school. Participants are recruited by recommendations of key persons from private companies or institutions in the fields of politics, business, research, media or administration. They should be aged between 25 and 35 years and speak English fluently.

In order to promote a more complete and balanced coverage of Germany and Europe in the Japanese media, the Robert Bosch Foundation set up a Visiting Program for Japanese journalists to Germany and the European Union in 2008.
The program is aimed at journalists in all Japanese media outlets. Up to 12 participants are invited to Germany and to other EU countries to spend six days discussing a current issue. As is the case in its other programs, the foundation also wants to support junior journalists. For that reason, a few of the vacancies are given to journalism students from the Okuma School of Public Management, a graduate school of Waseda University, Tokyo. Cooperation partners of the programme are the Japanese-German Center Berlin and Waseda University, Tokyo.