Who is Aditi Paudel? Meet the 17-year-old student from Tokyo who has become Japan's first literacy ambassador

Aditi Paudel, a 17-year-old high school graduate in Tokyo, was recently named Japan’s first female literacy ambassador. Around 900 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 from 101 countries are participating in the program, which is run by the World Literacy Foundation, a global non-profit organization based in Australia.

Andrew Kay, CEO and founder of the World Literacy Foundation, was quoted by the Japan Times as saying, “Although the program is 12 years old, this is the first time an ambassador from Japan has been appointed.”

Who is Aditi Paudel?

According to local media, Paudel is a high school graduate in Tokyo. She was born in Japan but spent the first half of her childhood in Nepal.

She returned to Japan to enter third grade. In addition to the typical upheaval of settling into a new life, she also found herself having to relearn Japanese, which meant hitting the books, the Japan Times reported.

Read also | How a professor’s movie subtitling idea is helping billions in India read better

Paudel, who has a lot of experience developing her own reading skills, said the common view of literacy is how well someone can read or write, but she sees things in broader terms. Basically, it’s “something that helps you open the door to more opportunities,” he notes.

Paudel’s love for reading appeared early and her father nurtured it by buying her several books. She developed an early fondness for fantasy and recalls falling in love with Enid Blyton’s “The Wishing-Chair.”

“It sounds funny, but the moment I read it, I would be so immersed in it that I felt like I was flying. So I felt like I was really in the story, and I love books like that where I can just transform into another world and, yes, imagine myself there,” she quoted her as saying.

Read also | India’s population will stabilize at nearly 1.9 billion by 2080 thanks to better education

Later, reading Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography, I Am Malala, significantly influenced Paudel’s interests in women’s empowerment, including ensuring that women worldwide had access to education and literacy.

Paudel plans to work with the Shanti Volunteer Association to collect and donate books to Asian countries with lower literacy rates – including Nepal.

Why was she chosen as Japan’s literacy ambassador?

Kay of the World Literacy Foundation said Paudel was chosen “for her leadership, passion for literacy and commitment to empowering young people in Japan”.

“Her curiosity about English shaped thoughtful advocacy, strengthening the program’s global voice and cultural reach,” the Japan Times quoted him as saying.

Read also | International Literacy Day: 5 Credit Card Myths You Shouldn’t Believe

The report claimed that while Japan has a literacy rate of roughly 99 percent, the situation is vastly different in Nepal. There, only 76 percent of the population is literate, and there is a significant gender gap. For men, the rate is around 84 percent, while for women it is 69 percent, according to the latest available government data, as reported by the media.