Estimated read time: 7–9 minutes

Meet Your Group — Get Your Assignment

Before you leave the U.S., you’ll meet your team through one or more virtual meetings. This is where you get to know the men you’ll live and work with in Japan — not just names, but personalities, strengths, and how you’ll need to rely on each other. Once you’re acquainted, you’ll be assigned your day of leadership — the specific date you’ll be in charge. You’ll also receive the “wireframe” for that day: a skeleton plan with mandatory events, locations, and times. These are not suggestions. They are your assignments.
We partner with a variety of organizations — manufacturing plants, local business owners, entrepreneurs, and civic service groups. The goal is mutual benefit: you serve them, and they impart something of value — whether it’s in leadership, character, business, or servitude.
Your wireframe might look like this:
Your Assignment: Thursday 2/05
Mandatory Partner Meeting: 1:00 PM at American Chamber of Commerce Japan — Focus: Leadership
Mandatory Group Activity: 7:00 PM at Tokyo Skytree
From there, you plan the rest of the day — serving the group’s best interest. You decide how to get there, what to do in between, how to manage the budget, and how to make it meaningful (and FUN).

Japan: Lead, Follow, Learn

When your day arrives, you are the leader. Your job is to brief the group on the mission: where you’re going, what you’ll do, why it matters. You manage the budget and timeline. You balance the pressure of leadership with the reality of being in a foreign country — including the need to make it engaging, not just efficient. You are not expected to be perfect. You are expected to be prepared, decisive, and accountable.But most of your time in Japan, you will be a follower. And that’s where you’ll learn the most. Good followership is not passive. It’s active, intentional, and demanding. Your job as a follower is to support the leader — not just by doing what you’re told, but by making their job easier, by catching mistakes before they happen, by stepping up when needed, and by holding yourself to the same standard of accountability. You will learn from the leader’s decisions — good and bad — and you will be expected to reflect on what you saw, what you did, and what you’ll do differently next time. This is not about waiting for your turn to lead. It’s about mastering the art of following — because great leaders are great followers first.

The Structure of Rotating Leadership

Group size: 8–14 people. Trip duration: 14 days. Each participant leads at least one day. When you’re the leader, you make the decisions. When you’re not, your job is to support the leader and grow as a follower. As the leader, your decisions will have consequences — good or bad. If the group misses a deadline, it’s on the leader. If you go over budget, it’s on the leader. Staff will not step in to fix problems unless safety or legality is at risk. We will let you fail, but we will not let you crash.

Daily Rythm

Each day starts with a briefing that lasts about 30 minutes. You’ll go over the day’s mission, the budget, the mandatory events (times, locations), and your plan for how you’re going to get everything done. You’re expected to have thought this through before the briefing. You’re not there to wing it. You’re there to show up with a plan and explain it to the group.At the end of the day, there’s a debriefing — also about 30 minutes. The leader presents what went well, what didn’t, and what they’d do differently next time. Followers each get one chance to speak — not to complain, but to share what they noticed, what they learned, and how they contributed.You’ll also be given a structured journal to fill out during the day. It’s not a diary. It’s not for poetry. It’s a simple way to track what you’re learning — no fancy language, no pressure to sound deep. Just write what’s real.

Mandatory Reading

You will have mandatory pre-trip reading. These are not optional. They are designed to give you a mental framework for the challenges you’ll face — not to preach, not to convert, but to prepare.
You’ll read:
‍Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink — for leadership under pressure
‍Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson — for pathfinding, purpose, and courage
These books align with the moral and leadership philosophy of the program. You are not required to adopt any religious belief to participate or receive value from this course. The reading is meant to give you a baseline — something to hold onto when things get hard.

Budgets

It’s possible you’ll mess up your day — you might go over budget, miss a deadline, freeze when you’re supposed to make a decision, or just not know what to do. That’s not a reason to quit or feel like you’ve failed the program. This is designed to let you make mistakes and learn from them, not to punish you for not being perfect. You’re not here to impress anyone or get everything right the first time. You’re here to learn how to handle pressure, make decisions under stress, and grow from what doesn’t go well. If you put in the effort, you’ll walk away better than when you started — even if you didn’t get everything right during your day as leader.

Japan

You don’t need to learn Japanese to get through this program, and you’re not required to eat any specific foods or follow any strict cultural rules beyond basic respect — like bowing when it’s appropriate, which you’ll figure out as you go because being a guest in another country means paying attention to how things work there. The reason we run this program in Japan is because the systems work — trains run on time, rules are enforced, and when something goes wrong, there’s no room to blame someone else or make excuses. This environment forces you to focus on your own performance, not because we’re trying to be harsh, but because that’s how you learn to lead under pressure. You’ll see Japan, but not as a tourist snapping pictures — you’ll be moving through it, working in it, and dealing with its rhythms. You’ll learn, but not in a classroom with lectures — you’ll learn by doing, by failing, by figuring it out. It’s not about being comfortable. It’s about being capable.

The Outcome

By the end of the two weeks, you’ll have led, followed, failed, and succeeded under real pressure — not in a simulation, not in a classroom, but in the real world, in a foreign country, with real consequences. You’ll understand your own strengths and weaknesses better than you did before, not because someone told you, but because you lived it. You’ll have a network of other young men who went through the same thing — FEP Alumni — people you can call on for advice, collaboration, or just to talk about what you went through. You’ll have a mentor if you want to keep in touch — someone who saw you lead, saw you fail, and saw you grow. You’ll have a letter of recommendation if you need it — not a generic one, but one that speaks to your character, your decisions, and how you handled pressure. You’ll know yourself better — not in a vague, self-help way, but in a practical, real-world way — because you were tested, and you responded. And you’ll learn how to push yourself past your comfort zone — not because someone told you to, but because you had to, and you did. This isn’t about being comfortable. It’s about being capable. In today’s world, everything is designed to be easy. But you won’t always have a program or a person to push you. Learn to push yourself. Live up to your full potential.

Cost - What You're Paying For

The program fee is $6,500. This covers everything you need while you’re in Japan — all domestic transportation, all meals, all activity fees, lodging accommodations, staff wages, program insurance, program material, and the costs of our partnerships with local organizations. Discretionary spending is not included. Flights to and from Japan are not included, because those vary too much depending on where you’re coming from and when you book. We offer payment plans if you need one — just let us know, and we’ll work with you to set up something that fits your situation. This isn’t a luxury trip. It’s not a vacation. It’s an investment in your ability to lead, to follow, and to handle pressure — and the price reflects what it actually costs to run a serious, structured, real-world program in Japan with real consequences.

Christian Values

Statement of FaithThe Far East Project is built upon the foundation of historic, orthodox Christianity. We believe these truths are not just academic, but are the very reality that shapes our lives, our leadership, and our mission. We expect all staff and participants to be in agreement with these core tenets of the faith.
‍1. The Trinity
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equal persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. He is the Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and the source of all truth and goodness.
‍2. God the Father
We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of humanity, hears and answers prayer, and saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.
‍3. God the Son
We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, and teachings. We believe in His substitutionary and atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal, visible return to earth.
‍4. God the Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He regenerates the heart of the believer, indwells, guides, instructs, and empowers the believer for godly living and service.
‍5. The Bible
We believe the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. It is the supreme and final authority in faith and life, a sufficient guide for all we believe and how we are to live.
‍6. Humanity and Sin
We believe that humanity was created in the image of God, but that through Adam's disobedience, all inherited a sinful nature. This nature has alienated us from God and has left us unable to remedy our lost condition. All are therefore under just condemnation.
‍7. Salvation
We believe that salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It is a free gift of God, not a result of human works. Those who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ are declared righteous, forgiven, reconciled to God, and adopted into His family, secured for eternity.
‍8. The Church
We believe in the universal Church, a living spiritual body of which Christ is the Head and all regenerated persons are members. We believe in the local church, consisting of a company of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and associated for worship, work, and fellowship.
‍9. The Ordinances
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has committed two ordinances to the local church: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the triune God. We believe that the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ for commemoration of His death. These ordinances are to be observed by the church in obedience and as a public testimony of the Gospel, but they are not regarded as means of salvation.
‍10. Last Things
We believe in the personal and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust—the just to everlasting blessedness and joy with the Lord, and the unjust to everlasting, conscious punishment.