About Facing the Ocean
Facing the Ocean (FtO) is a community event that brings together civic technologists from East Asia, who share the same ocean. Volunteers from g0v (Taiwan), Code for Korea and Parti (South Korea), Code for Japan and neighboring countries share updates on their civic tech work and collaborate on common themes.
How It Started
Social Hack Day, run by Code for Japan, was originally inspired by jothon, the hackathon of the Taiwanese civic tech community g0v. Members of both communities have also exchanged ideas by attending each other's events, g0v summit and Code for Japan Summit. The idea of a closer partnership was proposed in 2018, and in 2019 we worked with members of g0v-intl and Code for Korea to hold the first event in Okinawa.
Past FtO Events
Since 2019, the communities in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea have taken turns hosting FtO. After Okinawa in June 2019 and Tainan in December 2019, plans for Jeju were interrupted by COVID-19, and for a while we met only online. In-person events resumed in 2023, and the 2026 event in Seoul was the sixth.
- 1st, Okinawa, Japan: participant report (in Japanese)
- 2nd, Tainan, Taiwan: participant report (in Japanese)
- 3rd, Jeju, South Korea: event report (in Japanese)
- 4th, Yokohama, Japan: event report (in Japanese)
- 5th, Kaohsiung, Taiwan: event report (in Japanese)
- 6th, Seoul, South Korea: event page
- All events: Facing the Ocean official website
FtO 2026
FtO 2026 was held at the Haja Center in Seoul, South Korea, from September 18 to 20, 2026. About 90 people from 15 countries took part, and about 30% of participants were 24 or younger. The next event will be announced on Slack, so please join the Code for Japan Slack.
How to Take Part
- Start by joining a Social Hack Day in Japan. See the Community page and our event page.
- Visit the #overseas-facing_the_ocean channel on the Code for Japan Slack. How to join: Community page. From g0v: guide. From Code for Korea: codefor.kr.
Supporting Student Participation
We are looking for companies and organizations to help cover travel costs for students taking part in FtO. See our Corporate Partnership page or contact us through our contact form.
