Welcoming Mr. Ryoji Noritake to My Keio SFC Class

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My Keio SFC class.:  On October 27th we welcomed Mr. Ryoji Noritake, a wonderful individual doing a great job at the Health Policy Institute, an NPO in which I serve as Chairman.
 
Mr. Noritake is an alumni of SFC, class of 2007.  After graduating, he joined our Health Policy Institute Think Tank and has since been working actively in fields like, measures for cancer, cancer and brain stroke patient support ,  programs to nurture leaders of patients, and so on.  These programs have produced many results that will positively affect the health care industry.  As he persists in leading these diverse activities, he is gaining invaluable experience as a great leader.  He has become one of the most indispensable members of our institute.

Because he is an SFC alumi, I think Mr. Noritake was able to connect with the students even better. The students related with him more because he was their senior and because of his sharing of many moving stories.  

Among those stories, I was impressed especially by the one regarding the World Trade Center terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.  He was studying at Oklahoma University at the time.  He spoke about the reactions he observed of the people around him, and how he was moved to witness for the first time the power of words beyond his imagination.

In this course I aim to have students understand the importance of moving towards the global age, and to provide them opportunities to listen to the real world stories of people who are qualified enough to be their role models.  Such inspirational narratives, because they are true experiences, have power to move youth, to make them want to emulate or pursue similar careers .

Jiro Shirasu (in Japanese), is one of my favorite historical characters. He was a politician, whose career covered the early Showa era.  I wrote several articles (Ref.1,2,3,4 in Japanese) (Ref.5,6 in English) on him on this web site.   

Mr. Shirasu’s post-World War II work in Japan is just remarkable.  He studied at Cambridge University, and became a true ‘English Gentlemen’.  There are several books about Mr. Shirasu published, but he is more generally known for his philosophy of Principle (the fundamentals, essence, of things…) as well as for his countless piquant episodes.  I haven’t seen many true gentlemen like him around recently …
 
There is one collection of the essays by Jiro Shirasu titled,  ‘Japan: A Nation Without Principle’.  I purchased it at ‘Buaiso’ (in Japanese), his former residence.  In this book, there is a line that says something like ‘Education is about whether the teachers are practicing in real life what they teach…’  This is, in my view, an important ‘Principle’, especially in higher educations.  I remember nodding here and there as I went on reading.

Similarly, the stories that Mr. Noritake told in class clearly illustrated the importance of experiencing the world at an early stage in one’s life.

Thank you, Mr. Noritake, for giving us such an inspirational lecture.  I am confident that many of your juniors learned and sensed something important from your stories.

GEW2010@GRIPS, Communications in Broken English

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I reported about the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) several times last year (Ref.1).   This year, the event is being held from November 15th to 20th and 100 countries from all over the world participate.  A variety of GEW events will be held in Japan, too.

My home institution, GRIPS, collaborated with Nikkei Newspaper to focus on Design Thinking. On Tuesday, November 16th we invited young professionals with the entrepreneural spirit who were working actively at places  such as TEDxTokyo, D-Lab Japan (in Japanese) , See-D, Soket, and Kopernik (in Japanese) to gather at GRIPS in the for a practical Workshop.  The event started at 7pm and all participants quite enjoyed it for 3 hours.

The guests included many young, hot ‘role models’ of entrepreneurs such as Mr. Kota Matsuda (in Japanese), current member of the House of Councilors and the founder of Tully’s Coffee, Japan (in Japanese), Mr. Kohei Nishiyama of Imaginative Life (cuusoo seikatsu) and Elephant Design, and Mr. Magnus Jonson. 

Other events for this weak are planned and organized by the initiatives of Impact Japan.

These activities are part of an ongoing process ? a 24hours a day, 365days a year of effort -  of connecting the activities of young innovators, of people who’s creative thoughts and actions drive society into new directions. This conference introduces them to worlds beyond Japan or their native land, expanding their networks and perspectives. Although the internet is a strong connective tool, it is just as important, if not more, to share time and space with others who pursue common values and dreams. The internet in combination with these conferences expand possibility of expanding in multiple orders, not just additional ones.

I ask you to support them.  I ask that you help to cultivate future paths for youths. They are the fundamental structure and basis for the future of our Nation.

By the way, the communication tool during this event was broken English. There were no interpreters.  Everyone did a splendid job in making themselves understood.  Yes, you can do it!  You were all truly wonderful.

As Serbian IT entrepreneur, Sinisa Rudan put it: "We are taught to take business rationally, to focus on profit. However, I suggest that if you feel a particular project is good for you ? even a non-commercial one ? take it, because it will advance your skills or expand your network, possibly bringing you other, more-profitable projects. Choose projects you love. Do your business from the heart, and business comes to you!" (Quote from GEW website, http://www.unleashingideas.org/)
 

 

 

Learning by Taking a Leave of Absence and Going Abroad: An E-mail From Ghana

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Do you remember a student I introduced on this site some time ago who took a leave of absence from school and went to Ghana?(ref.1).  The purpose of his visit was to participate in an AIESEC program in Ghana. AEISEC (Japan Office) is a student-run organization from more than 100 countries that focuses on creating youth leadership development, offering young people opportunities to be global citizens.  This particular student sent me an e-mail from Ghana. After staying in the capital, Accra, for about 10 days he described what he saw, felt, and learned as being much more than he expected.

After sending me this message, he traveled to the northern parts of Ghana and stayed there for about 3 weeks. He returned to Accra and sent me another e-mail.  I could sympathize with his long silence, since I too, while traveling in Ghana(ref.1,2), had a difficult time finding internet access, even in first-rate hotels.

His e-mail was as below:
●I spent some time at a rural village located in the northern part of Ghana and am now back to Accra.  I chose to go to this village because I wanted to learn more about Ghana, and a farming village seemed to be a good place to see the poorest part of this country.  There, I started to observe distant affects from our development aids which I would not have known had I not gone to this place in person.

●I assumed this village to be highly dependent on the aids from the NGO, since I was told that this village was poor, even by Ghana’s standards. However, they were apparently self-sufficient people.  They hunt chickens running around in the village, grow corns, yams, vegetables, beans.  They are not at all in hunger.  When they need cash, they get them by selling things to passengers on the buses that stop by their village occasionally.  Men do not seem to have particular jobs, they love to play board games, or just hang around all day.  Women, on the other hand, appeared to be busy farming, cooking, doing laundry…

●There is a primary school in this village, but since only two teachers are taking care of all 6 grades, their workload seems to be very heavy.  The fee for school seems low, but even so, some children were not attending.  Financial excuses were not so much the explanation for not attending school as the need of parents for domestic labor (mostly doing laundry).  As a foreign person, I worried about their lack of education, since I had been taught that, ‘if you don’t learn English, your perspective of the future will be very narrow, and you might end up staying in this village your whole life’. But this anxiety seemed to be pointless to them. For them, they probably figured understanding the local dialect would be sufficient for their long tradition in living a self-sustained, local life in their village.

●The most shocking of it all was to feel that the activities of the NGO that was so instrumental in my travel, was not so appreciated by the villagers. This NGO is run solely by the money of its founder.  The salaries of the local staff also come from the founder’s pocket money.

●This NGO is working to support developments through agriculture, and is currently focusing on rice planting.  Their plan is to get the villagers involved in this effort.  So, they are donating used tools, giving text books and providing uniforms to village school.

●I was impressed with the volume of the donation and support, but, strangely, no one in the village seemed to be truly thankful of the NGO.  Rather, their attitude implied a stance of ‘It is not because we are in need, but because they offer it us that we accept their aid’.  Maybe this lack of appreciation is due to the fact that this NGO is run by its owner’s pocket money and so the support is given according to the needs that he perceived from from an outsider’s viewpoint.  In other words, he gave what he wanted to give.  In a way, he did not try to understand the true needs of the villagers, or try to support them as one of the foreigners.  Actually, whenever I talked to local NGO staff or villagers and said ‘I think our NGO is doing a great thing!!!’, all I got in return were smiles, not agreement.

●Through this observation, I strongly felt the difficulty of giving support to the people with respect to the values they live with.  It is easy for us, people in developed countries, to point out the ‘needs’, as we see, of the developing countries.  The lesson I learned was that whenever we seek to build relationships with developing countries, we must always be careful not to become ‘preachy’.

●Another thing I noticed by staying in Ghana is that African people do not think ‘being different’ is a bad thing.  In Japan, if someone can not do things as you do, the most commonly heard comment is; ‘You can’t do even this?  What a shame.’  If someone is not capable of doing things that you can do, then you take it as their failure because you think they should also be good at what you do.  In short, we see what is different from ourselves as being not good. However, during my stay, the Africans were very kind to me.  They always tried to find cool tree shade for me, and cared much about my appetite.  ‘You are Japanese, you come from where food and climate are so different’, they said, and treated me, a foreigner, with respect to the differences that I hold.  They never made me feel bad because of I was different from them.

●So, as for the ability to accept different values, and the ability to build relationship with respect to those differences, I came to think that Japanese is far behind African people.

I was happy that this student sent me such a long e-mail to share his thoughts with me.  Although I trust that many ODAs are aware of such issues and they take them into considerations before putting their plans into actions, there is still much to be done in terms of understanding the value of local people, and the way they feel about our aid.

Regarding the activities of ODA, Dr. Toshiharu Yamamoto provides lots of good information and also points out many local issues in his blog.  Here, I found many observations similar to the student. In my mind, what really counts is whether or not you have been to the country, whether you have a sense of that place, and whether you will take actions.  It is by these measures that you will be judged in the future.

Going to the area and having first hand experience during early stages of your life, such as this student did, can be very helpful in the process of building your career.  Of course, you could choose to go through tons of research before you go and I wouldn’t deny the importance of ‘careful planning before taking actions’, but quite often, excessive prudence ends in inaction ? that is, with nothing being done.  It seems to me that the power of putting things into action, as this student demonstrated, is hopelessly lacking in Japan today.

There is more value than you think in lessons you gain through actions, and I recommend actions particularly to the young generation.  Understanding the local situation by being on the site and having your senses refined is not something you acquire overnight.  I am confident that this student will continue to grow, because through this experience the way he sees the world has changed, his point of view has become much broader, and without doubt this will work positively in his search for his dreams and in his efforts toward his goals.

A week after his return to Ghana, this student sent me an e-mail saying, “In just one week I came to feel that I became friends with so many people, that I am connected, and the world is going to change.  I am filled with so much wonder.”

With telecommunication technology ?e-mails, cell phones, and websites ? you can sense the powerful connectivity.  Indeed, today, this world is one world.

‘Book Return’ Project: Let’s Support Learning For All

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I assume that you remember my postings on ‘Learning for All’ (Ref.1).   Mr. Matsuda and his colleagues are working hard every day.

I think this activity will become one of the major movements for creating a positive cycle of change in Japan for the future.  If you look at Teach for America’s 22 years of history  in the United States, it is quite clear that the outcomes stemming from it are extraordinary.

Raising funds to support Teach for All is a very difficult task.  Hard work does not necessarily mean enough funding.

Because of this, Mr. Matsuda and his colleagues have been trying to think of ways to lessen the expenses. One idea is the Book Return Project  (in Japanese).  This project is basically about recycling used books.  As you see at their web site (in Japanese), the books can be of any category.  If you have more then 5 books to give, the Yamato Transport will come to your place, pick them up and will deliver them to the Project collect.  All you need to do is fill in the form and call the organizer.
 
What a beautiful idea this is to support the future of less priveledged children.

Such small things accumulated become a forceful power in making children’s future bright.

Here is my message of support to Learning For All:
By teaching, you teach yourself.
Education for poor youths, by youths.
Through this youths will grow to become true leaders.

Learning For All – Anyone can participate in this fantastic project. By participating you are taking part in that which will trigger a positive cycle for the future by educating children and nurturing youths to become leaders.

Welcoming Dr. Mario Tokoro at My Keio SFC Class

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On October 29th, we welcomed to my Keio SFC class (in Japanese)  Mr. Kohei Nishiyama. He came as a guest speaker to lecture about his very interesting story regarding his innovative business, Imaginative Space, Elephant Design.

Our guest for October 27 was Dr. Mario Tokoro (I like to call him Mario…). He is the founder and President of Sony Computer Science Laboratories as well as a Professor at Keio University.  Dr. Tokoro is conducting a course for graduate school at Keio’s Yagami Campus, where he had honored me by requesting that I participate..

The topic of his lecture was ‘Open Systems Science’, which is essentially the culminating result of his several years studying scientific issues of future generations. In its most simplest form, open systems science is the methodology used to manage and solve the problems in systems whose operation needs interaction with the outside world, as opposed to being closed and complete within themselves. This methodology can be used for systems like globalization and biomedical research, where the system is open and consists of many subsystems that might be dependent on other systems to operate. Dr. Tokoro’s book on this topic is titled, ‘Open Systems Science: From Understanding Principles to Solving Problems (The Future of Learning)’ both in English and Japanese.

 His other book, ‘Sony’s magic lab ? where geniuses and super-talents pop up’ (in Japanese), which describes about this unique lab and the talents they accommodate.  I strongly recommend reading this. 

 
Director, Dr. Hiroaki Kitano was awarded one of the two Mentor Awards from ‘Nature’ magazine last year that celebrate those individuals who promote youth to explore their independence in the world.  He is again a very original person, clearly one of the ‘Crazy Ones’ that I am very fond of.

The lecture that Dr. Tokoro gave in my class was also delivered to Stanford University about one month ago. It is about the future of science and of science education. It is about exploring in order to find the true direction for its development.

Dr. Tokoro does this by initially introducing an overview of the history of modern science and then goes into stimulating discussions about the future of science and how he thinks it should develop.  I made several supplementary comments, too.

Here it is in English.
And here it is on-line.  

 

From Dhaka ? The Dragon Cherry Blossom’s Great Achievement!

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Very late yesterday evening I received an e-mail from Mr. Saisyo (Ref.1). If you recall, he is the founder of the Bangladesh Dragon Cherry Blossoms (in Japanese) (Ref.1). With the partnership of the Grameen Foundation, Dragon Cherry Blossoms help impoverished Bangladesh high school students try for the area’s top university, Dhaka University. Mr, Saisyo and his colleagues help prepare the students for the entrance exam, and according to his email, he’s had an amazing experience.

Mr. Saisyo’s email read:  “We are receiving phone calls from the villagers like mad.  Most of the calls are to tell us how surprised they are of the successes we’ve had and to shower us with congratulations!!!  It seems that the whole village has been thrown into a whirl of excitement.

“The entrance exam was for the B course (humanity) at Dhaka University. 36,000 students took the exam and 3,000 passed.  From Dragon Cherry Blossoms, 13 students sat the exam, and 1 student, Boran Udin Heral, passed and scored in 1276th place.

“A student at a top-ranked high school passed at 2300th, and a student of an elite prep school passed at 1500th.  Our Heral, from our village, passed at the score of 1276th!  This is a huge accomplishment!

“13 students took the exam and 1 student passed from our Dragon organization.
1000 students took the exam and 50 students passed from a major prep school called UAC.
2000 students took the exam and 180 students passed from a major prep school called UCC.
This shows how well our students competed against the major prep schools.

“Two more entrance exams are scheduled at Dhaka University;
C course (November 26th)
D course (December 3rd)
Dragon students will challenge both!

‘Heral proved that nothing in the world is impossible.  He will without doubt become a role model for the village children next year, and eventually a thousand and then ten thousands students will follow.

‘Heral is the first case in Bangladesh to have passed a Dhaka University entrance exam through e-education study!  Mahin, my partner, exclaimed,  ‘E-education will change human life!!!!’”.

Mr. Saisyo explains the intense academic competition in Bangladesh as follows:

“I talked with the local university student team and a reporter from a major newspaper who is specializing in education issues.  In Bangladesh, I learned,
730,000 students take the High School Certificate (HSC) exams.
530,000 students pass the HSC and go on to sit University entrance exams.
Out of those 530,000, 290,000 of the students receive an A rank .
But Universities only have the capacity for 107,000 students.

“Among these 107,000 seats, 70,000 are offered by private universities  Students from farming village can not afford to pay the high tuition of private universities.

“ With these facts I have come to understand why it is that so many talented students compete for the very limited seats at National Universities.”

It was just two years ago when Mr. Saisyo came to my office for advice. Since then he’s taken a leave of absence from Waseda University for two years, and endured many challenges and struggles.  And today, he is celebrating a true accomplishment and a tremendous success.

By putting his passion to work, Mr. Saisyo proved that nothing is impossible in this world.

So, you see, youths today are not as bad of a place as you think.

The Job Fair in Boston:　An e-mail from a local observer

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On October 20th I reported about the job fair in Boston for Japanese companies to recruit bilingual (English and Japanese) young professionals.

In this regard, I received an e-mail from someone who had been at the Forum both this year and last year. The person said this year’s experience was completely different from last year’s.

The person wrote the following: “I was astonished. By just strolling along the streets of Boston, I felt that something was different from last year.

“I thought that this Job Forum was a U.S.-Japan Career Forum, focused on English-Japanese bilingual professionals. But, throughout the city I saw mostly Chinese and Korean people carrying plastic bags distributed at the Job Forum.  I even saw some Western people, which made me think that this Job Forum has now become a place for Japanese enterprises to recruit professionals from all over the world.  I was told that these non-Japanese people do not necessarily speak Japanese.
 
“I had an opportunity to listen to a Japanese person who had interviewed with some companies. This person said, ‘there was a time when it seemed that I was the only Japanese in the interviewees’ lines.’  Given this information, I think that current companies are shifting their recruitment strategy; from limiting to Japanese students studying abroad, to accepting any good talents regardless of their nationalities.

“I also talked with one of the people in charge of recruiting the students. When I asked what was his/her impression of this year’s Job Forum was, the person replied that the overall preference was changing from hiring Japanese to hiring non-Japanese.

“Apparently going abroad and broadening one’s views is not enough any more.  Companies are seeking people who are capable of enhancing ‘their own unique talents’, and this trend is getting stronger every year. Which means, it seems to me, that the key word is probably not ‘quantity’ but ‘quality’.  Recent Japanese media seem to be concerned only about the number of students studying abroad, but we have to understand that ‘the issue is not about numbers but about what students do with their life after going abroad.”

The observations from this individual are very important and valuable information to us.  However, though this impression is based on the Job Forum itself, we also have to consider extending those observations outward toissues existing in Japan regarding conventional Japanese employment and working style.

In Japan, University of Tokyo is regarded as the top university. But let’s admit that the students are selected by just one entrance examination: the T-scores.  What we should really care about is how to help students discover their potentials, and nurture their unique talents while they are within the university to become true assets of our society. In other words, we must be able to distinguish between between the person who ends in Todai, with the person who starts from Todai. (in Japanese)

Furthermore, we must admit that it is not good to linger on the conventional habits of companies providing informal employment offerings exclusively to students in the 3rd year of college, or of limiting recruitment to newly graduated students only.  Also, we need to closely monitor how the companies, especially the top ones, treat those bilingual talents after they are hired.

Students and youth, I want you to know that confining yourself within Japan will not broaden your perspectives for your future.  Why not collect your courage and take a leave of absence from school (Ref.1, 2). Go abroad for a while. Explore for even a few months. By doing so, there is a good chance for tapping new potential and talent within you. Taking time to travel more extensively -  maybe for about the length of a year – to broaden your perspective and refine who your are is so important.

Youths’ futures lay ahead of them.  I don’t see any promising future in any Society or Nation that is not willing to carefully and patiently nurture its younger generation.  Elders must encourage and support youth. They must refrain from oppressing their future by getting in their way.  There are no excuses for interrupting a young person’s potential. That you are older or wiser should only be an excuse to withhold your meddling and to support from a distance by encouraging exploration of opportunities.

The See-D and D-lab Activities Continue

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Previously, I introduced the event called ‘Technologies Appropriate to Local Needs Will Save the World’ . It was held in July by the students’ initiatives of D-Lab at MIT and Kopernik, (in Japanese).

Their activities later developed into sending students to East Timor in order for them to see the place firsthand -  to feel the situation, identify the issues, search for solutions, and craft plans for possible projects.  The results of their observations and analyses were displayed and presented at GRIPS, my home institution, on October 22nd.

Participants commonly reacted with surprise to experiences in East Timor.  Much of this reaction was reflected in their work. They described the proposed projects with strong emotion ? with a passionate drive to introduce solutions to the issues they observed.

To have a discussion about their plans was part of their objectives and was also included in this event. Together, with the participation of commentators and Professor Yonekura of Hitotsubashi University (Ref.1), an avid supporter of this sort of activity, triggered not only great excitement, but also materialized great learning opportunities to all who participated.

A review  of this gathering is available at Kopernik, and ‘here’ (in Japanese) and ‘here’ (in Japanese)

Like the lively discussion that took place at this conference, I advocate for analyzing ideas in a serious but positive manner. Where there is room for support or opinion do so cautiously. Give constructive criticism that encourages the students to further think about the problems and tasks at hand. Refrain from merely providing the solution, especially since you don’t know if different sorts of creative solutions will emerge from those students, youth, or young professionals.  Provide support, but without too much meddling.  And most importantly, never discourage the youth. If you do so, the only service you will provide is to chill their passion. Encourage youth by helping them see for themselves the world around them. Be silent but strong for them, and remember that our future lies in their hands.

As for the young individuals you gathered in the conference room to discuss East Timor, each and every one filled to the rim with passion for what they spoke about. We need this sort of energy to be felt more.

 

Hot Youths Helping Themselves to Create Careers

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As I have written on many occasions, today’s Japanese youth is not in as bad of a place as you think (Ref.1). They are just perceiving the world differently from conventional Japanese views, and therefore are taking courses of action that diverge from traditional paths.

I hope you remember Mr. Saisyo (in Japanese), a Waseda University student who took leave of absence from school and founded the ‘Dragon Cherry Blossoms E-education’ in collaboration with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. I have great respect for his work and so I’ve written about his story and his progress in many different entries (Ref.1, 2). 

After being on ‘sabbatical’ for two years, he has returned to school. To hold his place, Waseda charged him 100,000 yen (1,200 dollars) for each year of absence.  I do not agree with this policy. It seems to me the University should encourage such experience by reducing the tuition. Still, Mr. Saisyo’s friend, Mr. Miyoshi (in Japanese), is now traveling around the world to discover his passion for the thing he really wants to do in his life.

I spoke with Mr. Saisyo soon after he returned to Japan. I listened to the difficulties he faced, learned of all the plans he worked on, and discovered how though his work was very challenging, the tasks were extremely rewarding. He also told me that after spending 2 years in Bangladesh, he is able to see that the focus and seriousness between the teachers and the students at Waseda is severely lacking.

Recently, I introduced another group, Mr. Matsuda  (in Japanese) (Ref.1) of ‘Learning For All’  (in Japanese) and Ms. Muto, a proxy for Mr. Fukazawa, the secretary-general, to speak at a 2 hour meeting hosted by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology).

 They spoke about a new organization that will appear in Japan soon. ‘Learning For All’ is a new project in Japan that is a prerequisite to associate with ‘Teach for America’, a highly respected organization  amongst American college graduates of which I wrote about 2 years ago.  Teach for America is a body of outstanding college graduates from all different backgrounds. They commit to two years of teaching in urban and rural public schools of underprivileged communities of USA, abecoming leaders and broadening opportunity for themselves as well as for the students they teach.  Still in it’s infancy, Mr. Matsuda and his colleagues plan to test and prepare the details and operations of ‘Learning for All’ for two years before making ‘it a public opportunity in Japan.

In the beginning of the meeting, the officers at MEXT were curious about many things. In particular, they wanted to know why Mr. Matsuda began such a project and how it could be funded.  But as they listened to Mr. Matsuda, they gradually understood his passion and the deep implications such an organization could have on the Japanese youth and education.  I felt this visit very worthwhile.  Thank you all for your time and commitment.

As adults, it is our responsibility to help youth with dreams and passion explore as many paths as possible and to alleviate whatever obstacles might be in their way  They will benefit from our helpful guidance, but to block their way is a sin.  Big cheers to all the youth!!  I ask you all to please join me in supporting them in becoming diverse and impassioned. . They are our only future.

 

Welcoming Mr. Kohei Nishiyama at the Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus

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This semester, I am conducting a course on ‘Innovation in Globalization’ at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus. (Ref.1)

As I have previously reported here, I recently was traveling outside Japan for a duration of two weeks. Because of this, Dr. William Saito  and Mr. Kazuhiko Toyama (in Japanese) kindly helped me with my course and delivered exciting lectures to the class in my absence.  Just after the October 13th class, I called from Seattle and thanked them.

This week, on October 20th, my guest was Mr. Kohei Nishiyama of Elephant Design.  He delivered  a very stimulating lecture about his business and on how he founded such an innovative enterprise that incorporates unique global vision and processes.

If you are interested in hearing this lecture or another from previous weeks, all of the lectures from my class are online in Japanese. They have all been extremely informative and I recommend that you take time to watch them.
・ Dr. William Saito
・ Mr. Kazuhiko Toyama
・ Mr. Kohei Nishiyama

After class that day, I went to PASONA’s head office in Tokyo to give a lecture at the joint session by Osaka University Graduate School and PASONA Career Juku.  This was again a very exciting session.  Mr. Nanbu, the CEO of PASONA, is a wonderful business leader.  He designed a program to support young professionals find jobs by providing them opportunities to learn business skills through hands-on experience.  By providing such opportunities, Japanese youth gain invaluable knowledge about what they want to do in their professional life. It is important to participate in this sort of activity in anyway possible.

Supporting and encouraging Japanese youth to build their careers is crucial for the Nation to prosper.  Elders must never try to discourage youths from dreaming. The more repressed children and students are, the less chance there is of this portion of our population to reach their full potential. If a country is dominated by adults who only want to fit youth into a preconceived box, limiting opportunity and growth, then the future of the country will not be promising.

So I encourage you all to invest in our young people.