High School Robotics in Japan?

[dtengineering]

Our school has recently signed a "sister school" agreement with a new Science and Technology based high school opening in Yokohama. We recently had some senior dignitaries from the school visit us for the signing ceremony and as the first stage of a process that will lead to student exchanges and other co-operative activities.

As part of the visit our robotics team was asked to give a presentation to our guests on FIRST and our team's activities. They appeared to be quite interested and there will likely be an opportunity to follow up the presentation with video conferencing and other activities.

Has anyone reading this had experience with the Japanese school system, particularly with regard to robotics competitions? I know FLL is present in Japan, but what about Japanese FTC and VEX teams? Are there/has there been a Japanese FRC team? Is anyone familiar with Japanese robotics competitions that high school students in Japan might currently be engaged in? (I'm only familiar with mini-sumo... our FRC team is actually just a mini-sumo robotics class project that got out of control... )

Background information of this nature would be helpful for the next time we talk to our friends in Japan.

Thanks,

Jason