February 2015 "Will Japanese high-speed railway systems work in America or not?"
This time, Ms. Noriko Aoki and Mr. Junichiro Kubo, from Central Japan Railway Company, have given us a lecture. As for the Linear Chuo Shinkansen project, they told us how they promote the plan consistently, especially in terms of safety and funding.
About overseas expansions of Japanese high-speed railway systems, they told us about the Texas project and the NEC (North East Corridor) project. Ms. Aoki stressed that they didn’t want to sell their systems or technologies individually like other countries did because the safeness and preciseness of Japanese railway systems are maintained by the total system of the company. I felt we have to make foreigners understand Japanese way of thinking before selling products.
Then we discussed about “Will Japanese high-speed railway systems work in America or not?” However, there are many opinions for “How to work the systems in America.” I was interested in someone’s opinion that not only the company but also individuals and the Japanese government need to make efforts to advertise merits of railways and to rouse Americans ? who don’t have so much interest in railways.
January 2015 "Understanding America: Culture, Democracy and Policy."
Dr. Nancy Snow put emphasis on how it is important to learn the dominant values when you want to understand a country. She mainly talked about the prevailing notions about how a person should be in the U.S. The U.S. is highly religious even though it does not have a national religion. The way people think is strongly connected to Christianity.
Since the country was founded by men who came from Europe with hope to start new lives on their own, it values acts of risk-taking and innovation. These chances for people to challenge themselves are equal, which leads to individualism and equality.
In addition, Dr. Snow talked about why there is so many immigrants entering the U.S., in other words, what attracts people to immigrate. She claimed that the biggest cause is the prevailing notion of the “American Dream”. Because of this, people are optimistic for change.
By understanding the values people hold predominantly in the U.S., we were able to compare them to those of Japan and gain a better understanding of ourselves as well. We also gained insights on immigration that will be an essential issue in Japan. (Yuko Yokoi)
November 2014 " How the society changed over time and how to adjust to the changes in terms of video service"
Mr. Nagase talked about how Toyo Laboratory (the former name of IMAGICA Corporation) adapted itself to the change of social trend in Japan. The social trend of video watching changed from film to television. The number of commercials increased and video production companies changed their workplaces to TV stations. Mr. Nagase mentioned how he repeated trial and error to commercialized the skills he had for changing plastic films to digital videos and became the company he currently runs.
He emphasized the “word owner-manager” to tell us the big responsibility an owner has in decision-making. He mentioned the bankrupt of Kodak Corporation and making Robot Communications Inc. Imagica’s wholly owned subsidiary company to show how an owner’s decision can affect the company’s future entirely. In his own experience, he made the family business listed in the stock exchange. He refers to the experience as his success story for acquiring talented people and more capital, and eventually making the company more stable. As it is shown above, we learned that the decision making of an owner could greatly influence the company itself.
After the lecture, we had a discussion on “family business and listed company” based on what we had heard from Mr. Nagase. We also talked about a company run by an executive with charisma. Since there are members who are now searching for a job, the topic was very familiar to us and made us think about our future more profoundly. It was such a meaningful opportunity. (translated by Yuko Yokoi)
October 2014 "Working in England and thinking about the ideal future for Japanese society"
Mr.Shikata said, it is vital to increase Japanese People’s international competitiveness. London is a political, economic and cultural center and it maintains its international competitive with its strength of brand. On the other hand, in Japan, the current English education system has been extended and people might face more outwardly than ever before. In order to take initiative and get engaged in rulemaking and communication, it is necessary to be people who match international society and also strengthen of human resource development. I realized that the technologies of Japanese have been highly evaluated, but Japanese people should have an excellent command of English as a tool. By doing this, Japan might get its appearance great in Asian-Pacific region and international community.
After his lecture, we had a discussion session. We did discuss a policy, how to adequately provide information to the public on Japan’s fundamental stance and philosophy. Our group focused on person, Not only the government and Media, but also one person can be an actor to send information. Japanese people create its culture and habits. Therefore, we thought it is essential to have a consciousness of being part of those, so that we can enhance the general level of individual performance in Japan. (Yumie Sano)
July 2014 "Leadership on March 11"
Mr. Niinami
Chairman of Lawson, Japan
I was impressed that Lawson, Inc., Japanese convenience store service company restarted to run its business in disaster area in Tohoku immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 even though they had lack of stock all around Japan. The reason why they did it so early even they sacrificed their profit in other areas was because Mr. Niinami, former CEO of Lawson, Inc. believed that Lawson is the corporation which has strong relationship with the local community and its social responsibility is to make the community happier. Therefore, he decided to support the disaster area in order to help the people who lived in and revive the local community. Actually, all convenience stores in the area were closed because there was nothing to sell and store staffs were also victims from the earthquake. In spite of the difficulties, he negotiated with storeowners in other areas and drivers to provide foods for disaster area.
Recently, CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility has been highlighted. However, CSR is used just as advertisement for most companies. I don’t think a lot of them really consider CSR to be necessary. Most of them just pursue their own profit rather than contribute to social benefit. It means that they can only see their business in the short run. If they want to think of their business in the long run, they should consider CSR more since corporations are also a part of our society.
In Lawson’s case, they could help the local community because other employees and local staffs also made actions voluntarily. For example, when Lawson provided their lunch box to local community, local staffs put custard pudding without any order from Mr. Niinami and head quarter. To prevail leader’s will to all staff members, Mr. Niinami mentioned, leaders need to take the initiative to follow corporate philosophy. He went to disaster area to handle the situation by himself. His behavior moved the local staffs to contribute to the community. Generally, the more companies become bigger, the less the employees can know the belief of the leader. He expressed his will with his behavior. This lecture made me think that I want to work with leader who has strong belief, in addition, I want to be a leader with strong belief. (Ryosuke Suzuki)
June 2014 "The Issue and Prospect of Japanese Diplomacy"
Forum in June: Mr. Nomura, a diplomatic official, gave us a lecture about the issue and prospect of Japanese diplomacy and his works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Recent days, Japanese medias say that Japan is losing its power in the world. However, Mr. Nomura stated the opposite, that Japanese is being counted by other countries with its political and economical power, geographical location, soft power or the power Japanese culture posses. This startled me. In these situations, what kind of role does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs play? For example, Japan has dispatched the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq and Afghanistan. This was to secure the import of oil from Middle East and secure the safety of navigation route to Japan. Similarly, the measure against the pirates in Somalia was to secure the safety of trade route by ship between Europe and Japan. As it can be seen from here, it is important to take into consideration the relationship Japan has with other areas in the world, even though that area may seem to have nothing to do with you Japan. And this is the first important step when we think about foreign affairs.
Another thing I found interesting was the comparison between Japan and England, where Mr. Nomura had been working for several years. On one side, it resembles each other in geographically, economically, and politically. However on the other side, there are many points Japan can learn from England, especially how to utilize the power of its own culture and the ability to deliver messages to overseas. This encouraged me that Japan still has the possibility to develop and thrive. Japan could be seen differently seen from the outside or from the inside. From this forum, I felt that Japanese, including me, should have more confidence in their nation. This does not mean to boast about our country, but to be more conscious of our country. Mr. Nomura posed “What kind of role Japan should play in the future international society” as an awareness of Japanese diplomacy. I think Japanese can gain a much better international status making the most of the strong points of Japan by approving and be more conscious about our country. (Yurie Aiura)
May 2014 "Business of International lawyers"
We visited the office of Ushijima & Partners, Attorneys-at-Law, to see lawyers Mr. Tamura and Mr. Kato. They told us about the business of international lawyers. I deeply impressed about two points.
First, there are some remarks only lawyers are capable of. For example, they insist “We lawyers cannot handle inside of men. On the other hand, we can handle outside of him.” I have found the pride of lawyers in this statement. However, according to them, it is arrogant for them to control the life of client. Lawyers can only advise the client as an observer.
Second, they told the importance of English skills in the discussion. When they negotiate with foreign enterprises, it is difficult for them to talk with the foreign lawyers. In this case, they are required not only English skill but also logical thinking in Japanese. Logical thinking is required when we construct what we want to say even in Japanese. I think it is persuadable. We are likely to regard lawyers as masters of logical thinking but actually some of them are lack of it. According to speakers, we cannot get this skill in a short time. As Japan is globalizing, all we have to do is to think logically in both Japanese and English. (Yuto Nakamura)
April 2014 "The skill of project management"
Forum in April: We invited Konagai Satoshi, who is the principal of BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP. He talked about “the skill of project management” Based on his experience.
Firstly, he explained about how to do project. He taught us why each part is important and what should we do carefully through the project. And he said that good hypothesis bring us good result, so he emphasized the importance of the fast and the efficient when we decide the hypothesis. We shouldn’t decide the hypothesis based on everything, shouldn’t decide at random, should decide based on the arrangement of the point at issue. By doing so, if the hypothesis is not correct, we can make another hypothesis fastly.
We can get practical information because some people of us do kip project. I feel that the important is to find the correct cause without misled by the superficial issue. And we can’t get this skill while short term, can get by a lot of experience. In order to get a lot of experience, we shouldn’t forget the mind of challenge everyday. (Shun Hasegawa)
