Moments from the voyage.
Peace Boat · Yokohama, 2026
Phase V · Bridges for Dialogue · 2026
This is not a stage. It is a moving space of encounter — across cultures, across oceans.
April 7–17, 2026 · Yokohama → Singapore · 800+ participants · 30+ nationalities
What Happens Onboard
Artists, researchers, and participants from different countries share space, time, and experience — not as audience and performer, but as co-presence.
The Peace Boat has been making voyages as an act of peace since 1983. In April 2026, Bridges for Dialogue boards for the first time — not as guests, but as practitioners. The movement, the enclosure, the shared horizon, the encounter with difference: these are the medium.
What begins here continues on land — in Imabari, in 2027, and beyond.
Moments from the voyage.
Peace Boat · Yokohama, 2026
A Living Bridge
I · The Captain
The captain of the Peace Boat vessel is Captain Bolívar — Panamanian. In a voyage designed for intercultural encounter, the ship is commanded by a man from the same country as the artists aboard. This is not a coincidence arranged by the program. It is the kind of detail the world offers when you are paying attention.
"A Panamanian at the helm of a Japanese-built vessel — sailing between the two countries that Bridges for Dialogue has spent twenty years connecting."
II · The Vessel
The ship was built in Imabari, Japan — a coastal city in Ehime Prefecture, known for its shipyards and its deep connection to Panama City. In 1977, Panama City and Imabari became sister cities. In 2027 — next year — that relationship turns fifty.
Imabari is the destination of Sea Bridges 2027: a two-week bilateral residency marking that anniversary, bringing Panamanian and Japanese artists together with local youth for concerts, co-creation, and a documentary. The voyage aboard this ship is, in that sense, already the beginning of what arrives on land.
III · The Recognition
A Panamanian captain. A ship built in Imabari. An artistic platform connecting Panama and Japan. These three things were not designed to converge. They simply did. At sea, between Yokohama and Singapore, the work that will arrive on land in Imabari in 2027 is already underway.
"The ocean does not separate Panama from Japan. It connects them — it always has."
Our Work Onboard
Two concerts, research lectures, and embodied workshops — each designed to work with the others. The concerts open a shared emotional space. The lectures provide intellectual framework. The workshops translate both into lived practice.
Performance
Concerts as shared cultural experience. Two programs — one opening the voyage, one closing it — built from songs that cross languages, cultures, and generations. The stage as a space of encounter, not exhibition.
Facilitation
Embodied intercultural facilitation. Participatory sessions grounded in music therapy methodology and somatic regulation — designed to generate genuine cross-cultural encounter through shared presence. No musical background required.
Inquiry
Live experimentation and knowledge development. Research-based lectures drawing on MA work at Soka University and twenty years of intercultural practice. The voyage as laboratory. Practice and inquiry inseparable.
Concert I · Opening
対話への架け橋
Songs in Spanish, English, French, Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese — spanning jazz, Latin American repertoire, and works by Piazzolla, Simón Díaz, and Juan Luis Guerra. Each piece an invitation to approach one another with curiosity and openness.
Patricia Vlieg — voice, piano · Vilma Esquivel — classical guitar
Concert II · Closing
心の中のパナマ
Built around the album CABANGA (2015) — songs as roadmaps to Panama's land, culture, and people. An invitation to visit Panama not with your feet, but with your heart. Featuring the ベネオケ String Quartet.
Patricia Vlieg — voice, piano · Vilma Esquivel — classical guitar · ベネオケ String Quartet
Ten days. Five ports. The movement, the horizon, the encounter with open water — these are part of the program. The ocean is not the background. It is the context.
April 7
Yokohama
Japan — Departure
April 8
Kobe
Japan
April 9–11
Open Ocean
Pacific
April 12–13
Hong Kong
China
April 14–16
Open Ocean
South China Sea
April 17
Singapore
Arrival
Aboard: 800+ passengers from more than 30 countries — educators, activists, researchers, artists, diplomats, families, and individuals committed to peace and intercultural encounter. The Peace Boat has been making voyages like this since 1983. This will be Bridges for Dialogue's first residency aboard.
Documentary & Legacy
What happens onboard does not end at the port.
The residency is conceived as a documented process — one that continues through film, reflection, and institutional circulation. What is lived at sea becomes a record, a resource, and an ongoing presence.
Film
A filmic record of the voyage, the encounters, and the artistic and human process unfolding onboard. Not a promotional film — a witness.
Support the Documentary →Process
Fragments of workshops, rehearsals, conversations, and shared moments — revealing the depth of what unfolds when people meet across difference in motion.
Circulation
Materials that support presentations, partnerships, exhibitions, institutional conversations, and future initiatives — the voyage extending its reach beyond the ship.
Phase V of a twenty-year trajectory. What begins at sea will be grounded in Imabari the following year.
Phase V · 2026
Movement. Encounter. Open ocean. 800 passengers, 30 nations, 10 days. The work begins at sea.
Phase VI · 2027
Grounding. Community. Territory. A two-week bilateral residency in Imabari — the city that built this vessel, the city that has been Panama's sister city for fifty years.
Explore Sea Bridges 2027 →Continue the Journey
We collaborate with institutions, cities, and partners who understand that culture is not an event — but a bridge.
