Yokohama Editathon presented at ESEAP 2026, and Pitabangan Kaohsiung

This was my third time contributing in an event hosted by ESEAP, a collaborative organization for East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific region. At ESEAP 2024 Kota Kinabalu, I presented my personal experiences, but this time I was glad to be able to talk about collaboration. And what was most wonderful was that 13 people from Japan contributed this time, and both young and veteran contributors were able to share their experiences with Wikimedians from other countries. I truly feel that accumulation is important in everything.

Internatiolan Collaboration for the Yokohama Editathon

On the afternoon of May 15th, the first day of ESEAP 2026 held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I gave a presentation about the Yokohama Editathon together with three other young Wikimedians. The Yokohama Editathon is an editathon where contributors upload articles related to Yokohama, a port city in Japan, to Wikimedia Projects, and it was held in Yokohama last autumn. At the Kaohsiung session, I gave an overview first, and then the three Wikimedians spoke about their respective involvement.

From left to right: Aspere, Wadakuramon, and Tofeiku (Rulwarih, CC0)

The first young Wikimedian to speak was Aspere from South Korea. He studied in Japan until this spring, speaks excellent Japanese, and we quickly became close friends. For the editathon, he edited the list of recommended articles and created the Korean version of the event page. The second was Tofeiku from Malaysia, whom we became friends with after meeting at ESEAP 2024 Kota Kinabalu. He created the Malay version of the event page and the Malay version of the poster. And the third was Ernest from the Philippines. He loves Japan, and we became good friends after meeting at ESEAP 2025 Summit Manila. He created the Tagalog version of the event page. Ernest was the only one who couldn’t attend in person because he was under 18, and participated online, but the session was wonderfully run in a way that made the geographical gap completely unnoticeable.

At the ESEAP Summit 2025, Ernest (left) and the Japanese Wikimedians (Exec8, CC BY 4.0)

In this way, the Yokohama Editathon was a great success, with contribution from many people, including three young Wikimedians. I learned that using Wikimedia’s system makes it easy to collaborate with a wide range of Wikimedians around the world. I was able to make full use of that experience at the Japan-Korea Editathon held this spring, and I also explained that this experience is leading up to the Bolivia-Japan Editathon scheduled for June.

Pitabangan Kaohsiung

Since last year, whenever there is an international Wikimedia event, the Pitabangan initiative has been launched to enrich the Wikimedia articles about the host city. This event is organized by a Malaysian user group, and Pitabangan is a Malay word meaning to work together for a common goal. I have contributed in Pitabangan events in Manila and Nairobi in the past, and this time announced Pitabangan Kaohsiung, so I immediately submitted my entry.

The new Wikipedia articles I’ve added are about “Jokaisen Kidan (女誡扇綺譚),” a novel by Japanese novelist Haruo Sato based on his travels in Taiwan, and about Koichi Niigaki (新垣宏一), a Japanese teacher born in Kaohsiung and raised in Taiwan. I learned about these from a book I read before going to Taiwan, “The History and Culture of Taiwan” by Kazushige Ōhigashi (Chuko Shinsho, 2020). While researching sources for the articles, I was able to deepen my knowledge of Taiwan’s modern history in various ways. This time, I traveled round trip from Taipei to Kaohsiung by high-speed rail, and from the train window, I was able to see the appearance of the cities and the beautiful rural landscapes, which allowed me to reflect on the world of the novel and Taiwanese society.

A photo posted to Pitabangan Kaohsiung shows Wikimedians heading towards the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center (front view), the venue for ESEAP（Wadakuramon, CC0)

I uploaded some photos I took to Commons in Pitabangan. I’d like to continue contributing as much as possible.