NPO法人 日本・ネパール相互協力隊 · Yokosuka — Bharatpur
Japan and Nepal, joined person to person.
Japan Nepal Forever is a certified non-profit based in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. We support the visits between Yokosuka and Bharatpur, Nepal; we prepare young Nepalis to work in Japan; and we help children in Nepal. We exist to make the ties stronger, between people and between the two cities’ governments alike. Those three have been our work since we were founded in 2016.
- Founded
- 3 August 2016 certified by Kanagawa Prefecture
- Office
- Wakamatsu-chō 2-1-3, Yokosuka
- Chairman
- Loknath Wosti
- Fields
- International cooperation · children’s development · coordination and advice
What we do
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Make the visits happen
In October 2019 Yokosuka’s mayor, Katsuaki Kamiji, visited Bharatpur and the two cities signed a memorandum on mutual support, including the sending of workers. In March 2023 Bharatpur’s mayor, Renu Dahal, came to Yokosuka and the memorandum was renewed at City Hall. In March 2025 the mayor’s delegation went to Nepal again, with our officers in it. We take part in hosting and accompanying these visits.
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Prepare people to work in Yokosuka
Young Nepalis who want to work in Japan learn Japanese, and Japan’s customs, at home first, and then find work with companies in Yokosuka. The memorandum’s aim is to bring more Nepalis to work in Yokosuka’s companies as trainees and in similar programmes; we support that from both the Nepal side and the Yokosuka side.
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Stand beside the children
Our charter names two purposes: support for Nepal’s children, and exchange with Japan, mainly in the mountain regions. With visitors from Japan we have gone to schools and spent time with the children there.
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Share the culture
On 25 November 2023, Soleil no Oka park in Yokosuka held the “Yokosuka Bharatpur Friendship Day Nepal Festival”: hosted by the City of Yokosuka, co-hosted by the Embassy of Nepal and this NPO. Masked dances, panche baja music and spice-grinding gave Yokosuka a day of Nepal.
Two shores, crossed again and again
Japan and Nepal established diplomatic relations on 1 September 1956. The crossings are older than that, and they continue. The Yokosuka–Bharatpur exchange is the newest bridge on that route.
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1899 Japan → Nepal
The monk Ekai Kawaguchi reaches Nepal
The first Japanese to enter Nepal. On his way to Tibet, and gathering Sanskrit Buddhist texts, he came to Kathmandu four times by 1913.
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1902 Nepal → Japan
Eight Nepali students go to Japan
Sent by Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher, Nepal’s first state-funded students abroad. They studied military science, mineralogy, engineering, ceramics, chemistry and agriculture.
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1956 Japan ⇄ Nepal
Diplomatic relations
On 1 September, Japan and the Kingdom of Nepal established diplomatic relations. 2026 is the 70th year.
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2019 Japan → Nepal
Yokosuka’s mayor in Bharatpur
In October, Mayor Katsuaki Kamiji visited Bharatpur and signed the memorandum on mutual support in human resources.
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2023 Nepal → Japan
Bharatpur’s mayor in Yokosuka
On 9 March, Mayor Renu Dahal and Mayor Kamiji renewed the memorandum at Yokosuka City Hall.
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2025 Japan → Nepal
From Yokosuka to Nepal again
From 26 to 30 March the mayor’s delegation visited Bharatpur, Lumbini and Kathmandu, with our officers in it.
The line draws the crossings between Japan and Nepal, year by year. Sources: Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Japan in Nepal and the City of Yokosuka.
What we have done
The photographs are from our own record; dates are when they were taken.
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We take members of a Yokosuka business association (a hōjinkai) to Nepal and show them the country. The work begins here.
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Certified by Kanagawa Prefecture: Japan Nepal Forever (日本・ネパール相互協力隊) is founded as a non-profit corporation.
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To a village in Nepal with friends from Japan.
In a village in Nepal, December 2016 -
Members of Rotary and the Rinri Hojinkai business association travel to Nepal with us.
In Nepal, March 2017 
With former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, March 2017 -
At the Embassy of Nepal’s Constitution Day reception in Tokyo.
Constitution Day reception, Embassy of Nepal, 21 September 2018 -
A group from Japan visits schools and partner offices in Nepal.
With schoolchildren, January 2019 
In Nepal, January 2019 -
Mayor Katsuaki Kamiji of Yokosuka visits Bharatpur and signs the memorandum on mutual support, including the sending of workers (15–19 October).
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Our chairman speaks at Yokosuka’s seminar on living together across cultures.
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In Yokosuka.
With Mayor Katsuaki Kamiji, November 2022 -
Mayor Renu Dahal of Bharatpur visits Yokosuka. On 9 March the memorandum on mutual cooperation between Bharatpur City and Yokosuka City is signed at City Hall; the naval-port cruise, Yokosuka Arts Theatre, and a welcome by the Nepali community in Tokyo follow.
Mayor Renu Dahal and Mayor Katsuaki Kamiji with the signed memorandum. Yokosuka City Hall, 9 March 2023 
Exchanging gifts at the signing ceremony, 9 March 2023 
At the Yokosuka naval-port cruise terminal, 9 March 2023 
On the stage of Yokosuka Arts Theatre, 9 March 2023 
A welcome by the Nepali community in Tokyo, March 2023 
Tokyo, 11 March 2023 
A dhaka scarf for the farewell, 12 March 2023 
Seeing the delegation off at Narita, 13 March 2023 -
The Nepal Festival at Soleil no Oka: hosted by the City of Yokosuka, co-hosted by the Embassy of Nepal and this NPO.
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The mayor’s planned visit to Nepal is called off when the flight is cancelled. It takes place the following spring.
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Mayor Kamiji’s delegation visits Bharatpur, Lumbini and Kathmandu (26–30 March), with our officers in it.
From the record
In Yokosuka
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At a summer festival with Shinjirō Koizumi, Yokosuka’s Member of the House of Representatives -
With Shinjirō Koizumi -
With officers of the US Navy -
On the Yokosuka shore, November 2022 -
With friends from the Kanagawa Nepalese Community, November 2022 -
At a gathering of the Yokosuka Rinri Hojinkai -
At a beach clean-up -
At a television recording -
Yokosuka, October 2018 -
Tome, Miyagi: Nepalis in Japan around a banner reading “Ganbarō Tōhoku!”
In Nepal
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At a welcome, January 2019 -
In Nepal, January 2019 -
In Nepal, March 2018 -
December 2018 -
Cutting the ribbon, March 2017 -
Cutting the ribbon -
July 2026
Japan Nepal Forever
- Name
- Japan Nepal Forever; in Japanese, NPO法人 日本・ネパール相互協力隊 (a certified non-profit corporation; the Japanese name reads “Japan-Nepal Mutual Cooperation Corps”)
- Office
- Wakamatsu-chō 2-1-3, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
- Founded
- 3 August 2016 (certified by Kanagawa Prefecture)
- Representatives
- Loknath Wosti (chairman), Takahiro Suzuki
- Fields
- International cooperation; children’s healthy development; coordination, advice and assistance
- Purpose (charter)
- To work, in mutual understanding, for the people of Japan and the people of Nepal, mainly of its mountain regions: to support Nepal’s children and to run exchange with Japan, so as to improve the environment and advance the economy in Nepal, deepen the friendship of the two countries, and contribute to the international community.
- Corporate number
- 3021005010723
Write to us
To take part, to work with us, or to ask about hiring from Nepal, send us an email.
- info@japanepalforever.org
- Office
- Wakamatsu-chō 2-1-3, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 238-0007, Japan