Recently, I received mails from 2 groups of young people seeking for advice.
In the morning, 5 university students (mostly from Keio University) came to visit me. Each of them was passionate, seeking for advice about their possibilities and career amid this global era. We discussed a lot, about what is happening in the world, the reason for my message and what can and should be done.
Towards the end of their visit, William Saito and Michiko Sugita came (recently, I’ve been to Kyoto with them), so I introduced them to the students. William and Michiko definitely have “out of the box” background. I’m sure none of the students could have imagined such a career in any people around.
Photo1: the 5 students from the morning visit and Mr.Saito (next to me) and Ms.Sugita (left)
In the afternoon, likewise, a group of six young passionate people came. This group was led by 3 sophomores from Waseda University. They traveled to Bangladesh this year and were shocked by the terrible difference of its situation as compared to Japan, so during their short stay, tried everything they could think of to be of any help. They also knew about the Grameen Bank and were eager to bring change to the situation as well as to Japan. So after coming back, they worked hard to gather information at universities etc., but no satisfying response was given. It was when their motivation was growing even stronger that they came across my blog, and that’s why they sent me an e-mail saying that they had to see me.
Photo2: the six students in the afternoon.
They all had some knowledge about “Social entrepreneurs”, but since it is a career new to Japan, they didn’t quite know what to do. We talked and discussed about topics like you see in my blog, and by the time they left they were nicely high spirited.
In short, these young people are aware of primordial issues, but they don’t know how to deal with them or even where to begin. Everything is in a mist. Of course, they get lost. Since those primordial issues are something way different from what has been taught or from any social values of Japan which they had taken to be a common sense, it is only natural that they are at a loss. However, on the other hand, a good number of young people and future leaders of the world are taking such paths (Peace Corp, Teach for America etc.) at the beginning of their career, and this kind of first step is now quite popular.
I advised them to begin by seeing and listening to the speech of Steve Jobs from Apple (links). I already got reactions from some students by e-mails.
Because I use “blog”, a “means of web age”, as the tool for sending out messages, getting to see such young people is so easily possible. Isn’t it wonderful?
I shall be seeing them from time to time.