Friday, Nov 8, 2024
logo
Update At 14:00    USD/EUR 0,00  ↑+0        USD/JPY 0,00  ↑+0        USD/KRW 0,00  ↑+0        EUR/JPY 0,00  ↑+0        Crude Oil 0,00  ↑+0        Asia Dow 0,00  ↑+0        TSE 0,00  ↑+0        Japan: Nikkei 225 0,00  ↑+0        S. Korea: KOSPI 0,00  ↑+0        China: Shanghai Composite 0,00  ↑+0        Hong Kong: Hang Seng 0,00  ↑+0        Singapore: Straits Times 0,00  ↑+0        DJIA 0,00  ↑+0        Nasdaq Composite 0,00  ↑+0        S&P 500 0,00  ↑+0        Russell 2000 0,00  ↑+0        Stoxx Euro 50 0,00  ↑+0        Stoxx Europe 600 0,00  ↑+0        Germany: DAX 0,00  ↑+0        UK: FTSE 100 0,00  ↑+0        Spain: IBEX 35 0,00  ↑+0        France: CAC 40 0,00  ↑+0        

Self-Help and Cooperation

Interview - October 30, 2024

Asia University bases its education on developing students who can understand and empathize with their own culture and other cultures as well communicate effectively in international communities.

KENGO NAGATSUNA, PRESIDENT OF ASIA UNIVERSITY
KENGO NAGATSUNA | PRESIDENT OF ASIA UNIVERSITY

In addition to a relatively low number of international workers compared to other countries, Japan is facing a significant demographic shift characterized by both an aging and declining population. This is expected to result in a labor shortage of about eleven million people by the year 2040. To combat this, the government wants the country to reach 400,000 international university students by the year 2033. What role can Japanese universities play in addressing these challenges?

First, I would like to talk about what roles a university could play, not just our university. This may be something obvious, but each university should provide unique programs or faculties so that international students will want to come to Japan to study. We should not only focus on science, technology and other academic areas, but we should also educate them on Japanese culture or business manners, etc.


International students at the university


When I asked international students at our university why they came to Japan, many of them said they liked Japanese anime and manga. They don’t necessarily want to be animators or cartoonists themselves, but they like Japan because they were introduced to it by this anime or manga. Although we don’t have any animation courses at our university, close by is the large Ghibli studio, which is Hayao Miyazaki’s studio, and we have collaborated with them and invited them to create a class for us, which is called The World of Animation.

When you look at it from a different perspective, we have cross-cultural or multicultural communication studies within the Faculty of International Relations. In that department, we talk about how foreigners and Japanese can live together harmoniously. Unfortunately, although the government is trying to invite more international students and more international workers, we don’t actually have great policies to support their lives or their families and children, so I think there are certain roles that universities can play in that respect.

You mentioned our government’s target of 400,000 international students, but we only have a little less than 300,000 at the moment. That’s actually about 10% of university students. In Korea, the rate of international students is only 4%, and in the US, it’s 5%, so compared to them, I think we have a relatively high percentage. Our government often mentions the high rate in the UK or Australia, but that’s because many people want to study English there.

To summarize, I think that the role the universities can play in this area is to improve the standard of education that we provide in Japan, and also think about how those from other countries can live in harmony with the Japanese people.

 

I understand you have a couple of unique international programs. Could you tell us about those?

Yes. We have a scholarship program for students from ASEAN countries. Students have to spend one year studying Japanese before getting into the four-year university course, so they need to study for five years in total. During that time, we offer the dorm for free for the first two years, and the tuition is free throughout their study program. This program started in 2018, but we had to take a break during the pandemic for one year. Apart from that, we’ve been running this program for the last eight years, and nearly 100 students have graduated.

This program is possible thanks to the great support from the private sector of Japanese companies. We have very strong ties to the Tokyu Group, which is a large conglomerate in Japan. Some other companies, such as Kirin, Sapporo Beer, and Taisei, also contribute and support this program.

We’ve been able to receive students from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar. They’re pretty talented. They can speak their own native language as well as English and Japanese, and they’ve been leading many of the classes here at our university. They also play a very important role whenever we have some cultural exchange programs or events.

After graduation, some of them returned to their own countries, and others went to graduate school. However, many of them stayed in Japan to work for a Japanese company. For example, one student that we had from Thailand got a job at Tokyu Hotel, and I’ve heard that many hotels wish to hire people from each of the countries where tourists come from because that way, they can ensure language support.

That’s one of the important programs that we have that I wanted to highlight. Another one is called ASIA YUME COLLEGE, which is for Japanese students to study abroad. We have been running this for about twenty years now, and Japanese students go to Dalian in mainland China to study Chinese for about half a year, and during that time they have an opportunity to do some internship for about one month at a Japanese company in China.

 

Your university emphasizes global education through international exchange and study abroad opportunities. In addition to the ASIA YUME COLLEGE, the Asia University America Program (AUAP) enables students to study for five months at partner universities in the United States, such as Western Washington University. You also welcome international students to study at Asia University, including in the Faculty of Business Administration. What do you believe is the value of study abroad programs, and what unique benefit does studying at Asia University offer international students?

Let me start with the US partnership. We are actually the first university in Japan to offer an accredited program for common, not-elite students to study abroad at a university in the US. Since we developed this AUAP program, over 14,000 students have gone to study in the United States for about half a year. That time frame is not enough to become excellent in English, so students who are motivated to study further can take advantage of our Asia University Exchange Program (AUEP), which lets them go to the US again to get some work experience. For example, one student from my seminar went to the US to work there, and he has now been working for over ten years in a trading company.

Apart from that, I think being separated from family and living independently in another country gives students a great learning experience. Of course, it’s a little expensive to study abroad, but all the students who do so seem to really appreciate the experience, and they always thank their parents for that opportunity.

Another thing is that the US culture is quite different. You have to be very proactive and you have to speak up, so that is one of the unique things that students can learn from going abroad.

I heard from one student who went to study abroad in the US, who said he met a student from Saudi Arabia, and that there was a big cultural difference between them. For example, he told me that Saudi Arabian students would raise their hands even if they were not sure of the answer, whereas Japanese students would never raise their hands, even if they knew the answer. Students will see those kinds of cultural differences when they go abroad, and they will come back to Japan and become more confident and proactive. I think that is a big change that we see in these students.

As for the Asian region, we have a very close relationship with China in terms of the economy, so wherever you work in the future, there will probably be some relationship with China or other Asian countries. That’s why we offer a lot of programs at Asia University, including ASIA YUME COLLEGE. We also started a program in Malaysia three years ago where students can go to study English for about five months, and next year, we’re going to offer a program where students can go to Korea to study the Korean language for about five months.

These days, the tuition and living costs in the US are much higher than before, so we are thinking of shifting and sending more students to universities in the Asian region. I always tell students that they should have Asian skills, which means I want people to be able to speak Asian languages, have experience visiting Asian countries, and have friends in other Asian countries so that they can be a bridge between Japan and those other countries.

 

The Faculty of International Relations explores how diverse societies can coexist in a globally connected world. It includes the Department of International Relations, which offers an expert English program, and the Department of Multicultural Communication, which provides onsite research opportunities abroad, including in South Korea, China and Indonesia. How does this faculty, and the departments within it, successfully prepare students for careers in international relations?

Actually, the careers that they choose after graduating from this faculty are quite diverse. Some people will be directly involved in international relations, but others may not be. One of the career paths that we have seen in the past from these graduates is to work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in each of the embassies around the world. Several of our students have been selected for these roles. They gain hands-on experience overseas, and after they come back, their abilities are highly recognized by Japanese companies. Some of them join the private sector in Japan, and others may go to work for international organizations or international corporations.

The students who study at this faculty don’t hesitate to go abroad, so even if they are not directly involved in international relations, they may still go to other countries. Thus, I think that we’ve been successful in lowering the barriers for them so that they can easily go to other Asian countries.

 

The Graduate School of Asian and International Business Strategy is interesting because it is dedicated to nurturing future leaders capable of driving corporate success across diverse regions in Asia. With the immense business potential in China and other Asian countries, the program is tailored to help students seize emerging opportunities and effectively tackle the associated challenges. What unique business opportunities and challenges exist in the Asia-Pacific region, and how does this graduate school prepare students to leverage these opportunities and navigate these challenges?

We receive around 20 to 30 students every year in this program, and all of them are from China. Unfortunately, Japanese companies don’t think graduate degrees are very important for the liberal arts fields like management or economics. That’s why not so many Japanese students apply for this graduate program and why we have so many Chinese students, but they are very diligent students.

The students are actually studying in Fukuoka at the moment. They’re in the middle of a program that’s about one week long, and they’re visiting a factory in Fukuoka to learn how it is working with its Chinese counterparts. I think it is pretty unique that a graduate school program offers these kinds of site visits.

I think more than half of the students go back to their own country after they graduate from this program, and once they go back, some of them work for a company that has a relationship with Japanese companies, but others start their own businesses. Unfortunately, it’s been difficult to financially sustain this graduate program since we currently don’t have any Japanese students enrolled, so we’re considering what to do in the future.


Graduate students visiting Nissan Moter Kyushu


You have a new faculty, the Faculty of Sociology, which will launch in April next year with the mission to equip students with the skills needed to thrive in various sectors of society. The faculty places a strong emphasis on enhancing communication abilities, acquiring programming skills, and broadening students’ perspectives through study abroad opportunities. The curriculum offers three distinct courses: one focuses on entertainment and culture, one explores community and network, and one centers on city and business. Why did you decide to introduce this new faculty, and what can potential students expect from it?

Actually, we are transitioning one faculty that we had, the Faculty of Urban Innovation. That was a very interesting one because we used to send a lot of students to various Asian countries, and we would work with local governments to do some fieldwork, but it has been difficult to sustain this faculty because of COVID and the devaluation of the Japanese yen. If we make it compulsory for students to study abroad, then it’s difficult to attract students, so we decided to shift the focus of the faculty to domestic issues. We want to focus more on local communities and inbound tourism. Entertainment is a big part of that. We also want students to gain skills in doing social surveys.

We put a lot of focus on onsite education. Instead of just classroom learning, we will let the students go to some rural areas where the population is decreasing or even go to the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower in Shinjuku. We also want them to have general knowledge of AI or IT technology. The scale is relatively small, with only 145 students and fourteen faculty members, so the students will be able to study in small groups. We want to partner with Musashino City or Mitaka City, which is near our campus, to do some projects with them.

 

Established in 1941, the university was founded on the spirit of Self-help and Cooperation. The founding mission is rooted in the belief that self-help fosters independence and requires deep introspection for people to empower themselves and to carve their own paths. True cooperation, according to this philosophy, is only possible when self-help individuals unite. How does your university embody this philosophy today, and how do you prepare your students to be independent after graduation?

Thank you for mentioning our philosophy. This self-help concept was developed by founding President, Kozo Ota. Actually, in addition to individual independence, we have a vision of Asian countries being independent and self-reliant so that we can be a different force compared to the Western world. President Ota was also a devout patriot and Christian.

Both self-help and cooperation are important, but he put a particular focus on self-help. He would say to the students that they have to think for themselves and then actually act. Though he emphasized self-reliance, in today’s world, you cannot do much on your own. You have to cooperate with others and collaborate, but in order to collaborate with someone, there has to be something that you can offer as well, and that’s why it’s very important to be independent and self-reliant. Therefore, I think the students think cooperation is more relevant, and I put more focus on that.

 

You have a broad global network with 35 universities in twenty countries and regions around the world. Some of the partner universities include San Diego State University in the US, Kyung Hee University in South Korea, and the University of Burgundy in France. What role do memorandums of understanding (MOU) play in attracting international students to your university, and are you looking for any new partnerships or MOUs, particularly overseas? Additionally, are you looking to attract any more international students?

We have a lot of partnerships with different universities. However, the depth of the relationship differs. For example, we have some partnerships with universities in France, Russia, and Germany, but they’re basically to offer some short-term language programs. For English-speaking countries, obviously one purpose is to study English, but they can also learn other things, including the cultural differences I already mentioned.

Since we already have a lot of partnerships with a lot of universities, we’re not thinking about increasing the number of partners. However, I just mentioned that we’re starting a new five-month study program in Korea with Kyung Hee University, and that’s because many of the Japanese students are now interested in Korean culture.

Another thing that we’re trying to do now is to have an online session between overseas students and Japanese students here. Although it’s a little difficult because of the time differences, we want to have some discussion-based classes or some kind of project. We have done that before, but it was never possible to continue it in the long term, so we want to establish some system that we can sustain for the long term.

 

What message would you like to convey to the global readers of Newsweek International magazine?

Before answering that question, I wanted to mention one more thing. In two years, we want to open a new faculty called the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences. At Asia University, we have always put a strong focus on sports, and we have a top level baseball team, for example. That’s why we will include sports as one part of this new faculty. Since Japan is an aging society, I think it’s very important to study how people can live healthily for a longer life. That’s our concept, and we look forward to that new faculty.

To conclude, I want to say that Asia University is a university that connects Asia with Japan. I hope that people from all over the world will be interested in us so that we can strengthen this relationship with other Asian regions.

 


For more information, visit their website at: https://www.asia-u.ac.jp/english/

 

  0 COMMENTS