Achievement unlocked! The Wikimedia Bolivia-Japan Friendship made history

During May and June, the Bolivian community got to work improving content on bilateral relations between Bolivia and Japan and enriching content related to Japanese culture in Bolivia. These activities were part of the Wikimedia Bolivia-Japan Friendship, a campaign coordinated between the user groups of both countries to strengthen community ties and improve content about both nations on Wikimedia projects. To learn more about the origins of this friendship, we invite you to read this post and this post.

Cameras ready!

During the whole month of May, volunteer photographers from the Bolivian community visited several dojos in La Paz to capture the growing interest that Japanese martial arts have been generating in Bolivia for decades. They also photographed bonsai trees and cosplay events, where they caught the excitement and passion of the cosplayers. Bolivia, after all, is a country that truly loves Japanese culture.

Most of these visits were carried out by mixed teams: experienced volunteers, newcomers, and members of the Wikimedistas de Bolivia User Group team. The more seasoned photographers guided the beginners, not just on technical aspects, but also on how to recognize what makes an image encyclopedically relevant for Wikimedia Commons. Meanwhile, senseis and martial arts students gave it their all in front of the cameras. Later, the mentors helped the newer photographers pick the best shots, edit them, and upload them to Commons with proper titles, descriptions, and categories.

The experienced photographers were invited because they’ve been part of the Bolivian community for years and have won several contests organized by Wikimedistas de Bolivia. The apprentices, on the other hand, come from the Photography and Visual Narrative Workshop, which has been training enthusiastic new volunteers in El Alto (Bolivia’s youngest city) for three years now.

The result? Dozens of high-quality photos, which you can browse here. It’s also worth highlighting that the dojo senseis themselves helped write the descriptions, so these images aren’t just technically solid; they also come with expert-reviewed captions, which is something we rarely get to do. Take a look at this image as a great example.

The younger volunteers also took charge of covering cosplay events, like the Marchas Friki in La Paz and Oruro. User NikoBitre, a self-proclaimed otaku and Bolivian volunteer, led the photo coverage of the Marcha Friki in La Paz. Here’s what she had to say:

As a fan of Japanese culture and anime, I got to combine my love for photography with my passion for this world. I really enjoyed leading the Marcha Friki because I could recognize almost every cosplay there, and I could also help my teammates identify them. It also means a lot to me that some of my photos are now on Wikipedia. It’s nice to think that through them, other people might discover and appreciate a community that keeps growing and expressing itself with so much energy.

User Ale RaFlo, a long-time volunteer, shared her thoughts on mentoring the newer generation:

Aside from shooting photos myself, I also had the chance to mentor other beginner photographers. I helped them curate their images and guided them in recognizing the exact moment when a photograph can really tell a story. It was a very rewarding experience, not just for the shared learning, but for the satisfaction of contributing to free knowledge about Japanese migration and its influence in Bolivia.

Making history

Thanks to this campaign, a significant share of Wikimedia Commons images related to martial arts now come from Bolivia. In the Aikido by country category, for instance, most photos are Bolivian. Search for Iaido, and almost all the images are from Bolivia. In Karate, there’s now a good number of training shots, which are especially valuable, since martial arts are mostly about practice, not just competitions.

The very first photo of a bonsai tree from Bolivia on Commons came out of this campaign, and what’s more, it’s of a native Bolivian species. The first good-quality cosplay photos from Bolivia also came from this campaign, which is quite surprising, considering cosplay events happen almost every month in the country.

As we mentioned, Bolivia is deeply into Japanese culture. You see more and more street food stalls selling Japanese food, more shops catering to anime fans, and more cosplayers going all out to bring their favorite characters to life. But none of this was documented on Wikipedia or its sister projects until now. That means we’ve just taken a historic step; we’re finally giving coverage to something that matters a lot to our society.

The partners who made it all possible

A big part of these achievements wouldn’t have happened without the collaboration of the Japanese Society of La Paz. They connected us with martial arts dojos and bonsai specialists, and they also opened their doors to us. We held a Wikipedia editing workshop with them, and on June 27, we ran our in-person edit-a-thon right at their facilities, with 24 people attending. That same day, we visited the Historic Center of Japanese Migration to Bolivia, where several Nikkei community members shared their experiences of living between two cultures.

78 new articles about Bolivia in Japanese

And while all of this was unfolding in Bolivia, Japanese volunteers were busy improving, creating, and translating dozens of articles about Bolivia into Japanese. By the time the campaign wrapped up, 78 articles had been created on the Japanese Wikipedia, including some that are essential to Bolivian history, like the entry on the Cerro Rico of Potosí.

But they didn’t just edit. They also went out to try salteñas, drink mocochinchi, and learn more about Bolivian culture, right there in Japan.

We can confidently say that this friendship went beyond creating content on Wikimedia projects. It was about building real connections and collaboration between both communities. It gave us a chance to understand each other better, despite the vast distance separating us.

We’re deeply grateful to our Japanese friends. We never imagined this friendship would reach this far. Arigatou gozaimashita, friends from Japan!