Hungarian Japanese Student Friendship Association

The Hungarian Japanese Student Friendship Association ( in Hungarian: Magyar Japán Diák Barátság Egyesület, MaJa) was founded in June of 2009 with the purpose of creating community that will develop and strengthen friendship between students and people in Hungary who are studying Japanese or are interested in Japan. In Hungary many up to par programs are available, but unfortunately the flow of information is not adequate reaching people who may want to visit these events. Since our main aim is to organize events and bring as many interested people as possible, we will create a webpage that disseminates information about events as well as many other topics relating to Japan.
The Association has members from six universities (BBS-College of International Management and Business, BBS-College of Catering and Tourism, Károli Gáspár Reformed University, Eötvös Lóránd University of Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Dharma Gate Budapest Buddhist University) and from one high school (Babits Mihály High School). In the near future, we are hoping to include other high schools and universities in our nonprofit educational organization.
The members participate actively in the association, building cultural and personal bridges between Hungary and Japan. These bridges, based on personal knowledge of the two countries can play a significant role in the students’ communication. Such bridges could catalyze an even wider range of possibilities within the association such as.: organizing mutual Home-Stay programs, building a co-association in Japan that would help promote Hungary, or even lending help to Japanese students who would like to visit Hungary  and vice-versa.
We believe that a well-organized association will create communication and exchange of ideas, thus fostering friendships and understanding which would increase good relations between Japan and Hungary. Many of our members have connections in Japan via students, families and friends. We could exercise a personal level of diplomacy by which we can reach people who are not met by the actions of the embassy and other organizations.
This motivated the establishment of the Hungarian Japanese Friendship Association.