At 18, Peace For Me Is ...

Miki Kawamura, founder and director of the Youth Peace Ambassadors program, learned something significant at the rural Japanese school she attended until 2025. Seeing two students from completely different political backgrounds brought together by working on a single multilingual art installation about peace, she realized that while our differences may sometimes divide us, a shared desire for peace can make conflicts part of the path toward something rather than the end of the road. When YPA launched a global video collection campaign for Expo 2025 in Osaka and 1,200 video messages about ‘what peace means’ arrived from 70 countries within two weeks, she realized that young people had answers -- they just lacked a platform. “I want my work to help people transform inwardly, connect outwardly, and co-create a world where the leading question isn't 'How do we win?' but 'How do we belong to each other?'” It starts with two people sitting side by side, looking at something beautiful they built together, she says.