The Kid Witness News (KWN) Global Summit 2023 Was Held

Osaka, Japan – Panasonic Holdings Corporation (hereafter referred to as “Panasonic”) hosted the Kid Witness News (KWN) Global Summit 2023 online on Saturday, October 21, 2023. A total of approximately 150 students from 18 schools in 9 countries, along with teachers and other related staff members, participated in the event.

KWN is part of Panasonic’s next-generation development support activities, in which Panasonic lends its professional video equipment to support filmmaking by children. Through filmmaking, the children work to enhance their creativity and communication skills and foster teamwork. Over the 34 years since the program began in the United States in 1989, it has had a cumulative total of more than 180,000 participants, including teachers. With these productions, created with themes like communication, sports, the environment, and the SDGs, this program has been delivering messages from children’s perspectives to help solve problems.

For the 2023 event, over 3,000 children from 200 teams from 11 countries around the world, including Brazil, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the United States, and Vietnam, took part in the video production project.
This year’s Global Summit was held as “KWN Day,” and an exchange event planned by each of countries was held, 100 minutes of which was streamed to a studio in Tokyo and the world via the Internet as a “place to deepen exchanges by learning about different cultures” and “a place to deepen people’s awareness of global social issues.” Two schools were selected for the KWN Kids Award, for which the children themselves voted for the best works from among the representative entries from each country.

The KWN Fans Award, which people from all over the world can vote on, was held via Facebook. 4,165 people voted, and as a result, Indonesia was chosen as the winner in the Primary and Secondary Category. (Received 1.2 million video views)
In addition, the Panasonic Award, which is voted upon by Panasonic Group employees, was also awarded to Xu Jiang Experimental School from China in the Primary Category and Takada Junior High School from Japan in the Secondary Category.

It was also live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube.

Primary category (12 and under)

Country: Brazil
School: Thinking School
Title: Beyond the gaze

Secondary category (13 to 18)

Country: USA
School: Ocean Township Intermediate School
Title: Refilling Station to Combat Water Pollution

The two winning schools above each received a LUMIX GH5MII as a supplementary prize.

Primary category (12 and under)

Country: China
School: Xu Jiang Experimental School
Title: Bamboo Language & Childlike Innocence

Secondary category (13 to 18)

Country: Japan
School: Takada Junior High School
Title: Peeking Though Rice Straw

The two winning schools above each received a LUMIX G100 as a supplementary prize.

Primary category (12 and under)

Country: Indonesia
School: Regina Pacis Bogor Elementary School
Title: Rain in July

Secondary category (13 to 18)

Country: Indonesia
School: Labschool Kebayoran Junior High School
Title: SANGHARA

The two winning schools above each received an HC-V495M-K Panasonic digital video camera as a supplementary prize.

The KWN Kids Award videos and other winning videos, along with additional detailed information, can be found at the websites linked below.

KWN Global Summit 2023 [in English]
https://holdings.panasonic/global/corporate/sustainability/citizenship/kwn/summit2023.html

KWN Global Summit 2023 [in Japanese]
https://holdings.panasonic/jp/corporate/sustainability/citizenship/kwn/global_summit2023.html

KWN Global Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/PanasonicKWN.Global/

Organizer: Panasonic Holdings Corporation
Main venue: Ariake Studio, Panasonic Center Tokyo, 3-5-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0063
Date: 9:00 p.m. to 10:40 p.m., Saturday, October 21, 2023 (Japan Standard Time, GMT+9)
Participating countries (9 countries): Brazil, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, the United States, Vietnam

*Presented in alphabetical order
*The Summit was conducted over Zoom, connecting Panasonic Group sites and other venues in Brazil, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, the United States, and Vietnam

Primary category participants (12 and under): 72 children, 11 schools, and seven countries

• Brazil: Thinking School
• Cambodia: Singapore (Cambodia) International Academy
• China: Xu Jiang Experimental School
• Indonesia: Regina Pacis Bogor Elementary School
• Japan: Morimura Gakuen Elementary School
• Japan: Sakurai Elementary School
• United States: Unity Charter School
• Vietnam: Vinschool The Harmony Secondary & High School, Edison School, Archimedes School, Ngo Si Lien Secondary School

Secondary category participants (13 to 18): 75 children, 7 schools, and six countries

• Brazil: Notre Dame
• Cambodia: Pannasastra International School
• Indonesia: Labschool Kebayoran Junior High School
• Japan: Takada Junior High School
• Japan: Aichi Prefectural Oobu Special needs education School
• United States: Ocean Township Intermediate School
• Vietnam: Pascal Secondary

*Presented in alphabetical order
*Students from the Philippines and India, who are scheduled to participate in the event next year, also took part as observers.

1. Icebreakers—Greetings in their local languages and self-introductions
2. IOC Young Leader’s Olympic Seminar
3. Adoption of KWN Global Summit SDGs joint declaration by each country
4. Presentation of the KWN Kids Award, the KWN Fans Award, and the Panasonic Award

Panasonic’s Corporate Citizenship Activities [in English]
https://holdings.panasonic/global/corporate/sustainability/citizenship.html

Corporate Citizenship Department, Panasonic Operational Excellence Co., Ltd.
Email: kid_witness_news@gg.jp.panasonic.com