The 5th Symposia on Global Citizenship

The 5th Symposia on Global Citizenship

[Last Update] 2010-03-09

The 5th and final session of "The University of Aizu Symposia on Global Citizenship" was held on Thursday, February 4, with two invited speakers: Mr. Kazuhiko Hanaoka, the CEO of Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory Ltd., and Mr. Tsutomu Ishiguro from R&D Planning Department, Olympus Medical Systems Corp. They gave lectures on "Quality and Attitude for Living as a Global Citizen." During Mr. Hanaoka's lecture, he looked back on his college days, he used to hate English. He also talked on his experiences at Fujitsu Ltd., where he could go through by knowing English. He used many pictures so that the audience could visualize what he was talking about. Mr. Ishiguro talked about how he changed his way of thinking from negative to positive when he was in college. He sent a message to our students and encouraged them to become global citizens with pride as Japanese. Stories of their personal experience were very informative to the students who are the bearers of the future, and were appropriate as the last event of the symposia

Lecturers: Mr. Hanaoka (left) and Mr. Ishiguro (right)

The Symposia on Global Citizenship, five consecutive lecture series, started in October of last year. Lectures in English focused on "Necessity and importance of English in business society" by lecturers from various business fields. Lecturers invited to the symposia were those who were working on the international stage including corporate leaders and our graduates. Our students enjoyed lectures provided with different themes and learned important lessons from their real-life experiences at colleges and in the society. The following comments were provided by participants in the symposia.
"It was very useful to listen to the lectures on the real world and it helped me think about the future."
"I am eager to find an opportunity to take part in overseas activities."
"I truly understand that English is the important tool to communicate with people all over the world."

Reports on each session of the symposia are as follows.

Under the title of "Overseas Studies", the 4th Symposium on Global Citizenship was held on Friday, January 22. In this 4th of the series, lecturers were invited from Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) Japan, the distributor for TOEFL in Japan, and Japan Student Services Organizations (JASSO), which plans and operates international education programs. The first speaker was Ms. Tomoko Nakano, Executive Advisor of CIEE Japan, and introduced various opportunities to gain international experiences more easily than studying full-time at universities abroad. The second speaker, Mr. Yukio Fujikura, Educational Advisor of JASSO, talked about the significance of studying in other countries which comes from his own experience of studying in America after 20 years of his career in teaching English. He also introduced an intriguing story of finding a job after studying abroad. Audience enjoyed their talks.

Lecturers: Ms. Nakano (left) and Mr. Fujikura

Two graduates of the University of Aizu were invited to give lectures at the 3rd Symposium on Global Citizenship, Friday, December 4. Mr. Masayuki Hisada, the Director of NST Laboratory, Inc. and Mr. Yusuke Sugawara from J-Will Advance Co., Ltd. were selected as they had interesting working careers as lecturers. Mr. Hisada is one of the founders among the University-launched venture companies and Mr. Sugawara pursues his career in non-IT field. Their lectures were based on their own experience and focused on the importance of English to succeed in international businesses, which they realized through their own experiences. They advised students that, in the midst of the growing expansion of cloud computing, everyone, even students have a chance to do business in the global market, and emphasized the value of IT knowledge obtained through the University's education which would be useful for any industry regardless of whether it's IT or non-IT such as financial industry. Over 130 participants listened to their convincing stories out of their real life experience intently.

Lecturers: Mr. Hisada (left) and Mr. Sugawara

The 2nd Symposium on Global Citizenship was held with two invited speakers: Mr. Toru Ihara, Chief of Recruitment, External and Internal Recruitment Group of Nissan Motor Company and Mr. Hironori Tateishi, Chief of Instruction of Excel International Co., Ltd. Starting from the 2nd symposia, lectures have been given in English. Based upon their real experiences, their lectures focused on how important it was to swing into actions and to enjoy the challenges with continuous efforts. Over 130 participants listened deeply to the lectures.

Lecturers: Mr. Ihara (left) and Mr. Tateishi

Mr. Hideo Edasawa, the CEO of DG Communication, Inc. and Mr. Minoru Tanaka, the CEO of Kakaku.com, Inc., both heading the leading IT business companies, were invited to give lectures with the theme on "Front line of IT business field" and "What it takes to be a good businessperson" at the 1st Symposium on Global Citizenship on Friday, October 16.
Highly-networked society with a flood of information made IT market increasingly complicated, that Mr. Edasawa explained. On the other hand, Mr. Tanaka looked back on life of his youth and expressed his own life as the one full of "escape" from reality. After the individual lectures, they held a special question-and-answer session where they mentioned based on experience, they believed that the development of IT businesses is realized based on the accumulated effort of individuals, no matter how small the task, and also talked about how they enjoyed that they were able to provide highly reliable information in demand by consumers driven by the opinions of users.
The "Symposia on Global Citizenship" are a series of lectures by invited speakers from various fields of business and industry. The next lecture is scheduled on Friday, November 27, and will be given in English.

Lecturers: Mr. Edasawa (left) and Mr. Tanaka