Kids' Activities 04-2

Kids Make Two Million Paper Cranes

	Actress Manami Honjo with kids involved in the "Wings of a Dream" project. (Kanagawa Shimbun)

At the closing ceremony for the 2002 World Cup at International Stadium Yokohama following the World Cup final on June 30, approximately two million origami cranes folded by elementary- and middle-school students all across Japan will be released in the sky and float to the ground in the stadium. This performance, which is being coordinated by JAWOC, the Japanese organizing committee, is called the "Wings of a Dream" project.

The cranes will be made using a special kind of colored paper that bears the World Cup emblem and will allow the cranes to stay in the air longer than regular paper. They will be folded by students at approximately 3,000 elementary and middle schools across Japan. The cranes will be dropped from the sky above the winning team as part of the closing celebrations, but people will have to wait until that day to see how.

In addition to the students, ordinary people can take part as well; there are 10 official shops around Japan in places like Yokohama where the special paper has been prepared and can be folded. People can also send by mail cranes they have folded with regular origami paper. A spokesperson for JAWOC said, "The crane is a symbol of long life. We hope that cranes made using the traditional Japanese art of origami will convey a message that we hope for peace and long life in the world." (Kanagawa Shimbun)