東京大学公共政策大学院 | GraSPP / Graduate School of Public Policy | The university of Tokyo

Greetings from Nepal!! I feel highly privileged for getting an opportunity to write on behalf of the alumni of GraSPP, where I am among the first batch to graduate from the Master of Public Policy International Program (MPP/IP) in 2010-2012. My graduation from GraSPP proved to be a milestone in my pr ofessional career as I was successful in getting a double promotion from Section Officer to Joint Secretar y. It was only possible thanks to my academic horizon being broadened by MPP/IP and a resultant understanding of the different dimensions of development paradigm relevant to Nepal. I always follow the objective approach learned during my GraSPP days for gaining deep insights into policy design and formulation on a global scale, and then try translating it to the local context. This helps me internalize core issues of public policy. My experience in GraSPP has also strengthened my capabilities to analyze public policy opti ons and bring about its effective implementation. Dedicated professors and staff, student-friendly teaching methodologies, and a very cooperative management style at GraSPP are highly commendable and will be remembered throughout my lifetime. Easy access to top-level researchers and practitioners as well as d aily interaction with students from all over the world at GraSPP enabled me to devote myself to policy studies. Moreover, memorable features of life in Tokyo include the cleanliness of the environment, soft and supportive nature of the Japanese people, and extremely reliable public transport services, which added value to my rewarding academic life. All these factors broadened my thought horizon and inspired me to commit and devote myself to the pursuit of national development with greater aspiration and motivation. I highly recommend that young candidates from all over the world win the opportunity to be a part of the GraSPP community, from where you will be able to cultivate a better career avenue for yourself. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. (from Newsletter No. 40)

I graduated from GraSPP in 2013, and since then I have been living in Japan. I am originally from Brazil, and after graduating I decided to stay in Japan and try and acquire as much work experience as possible in order to build the foundations of an international career back in my country. I currently work at NHK World Radio Japan as a translator (English-Portuguese) and announcer. My work mainly involves broadcasting news and cultural programs in Portuguese to audiences in Brazil and Africa. Working at NHK World enables me to keep myself up-to-date on the latest Japanese and global events. I also work at Peace Community Plan, a social company engaged in community and environmental activities. Most of our work at Peace Community Plan involves CSR projects sponsored by Japanese corporations or projects that we implement with subsidies from the Japanese government. A project related to this company that I am also engaged in is a series of forums named VISIONS. The forums aim at creating a grassroots platform for the free exchange of ideas among actors involved in promoting disaster resilience in different parts of Asia. Last year, in Bangkok, we gathered around 30 people from countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Japan to discuss how disaster resilience could be improved all over Asia from the community level. One of the outcomes was the chance to spread apps and other IT tools that can support communities when disasters strike. Having two different jobs is sometimes challenging, because each place demands a lot of time and energy. However, working at two different places has been a good way to learn about various issues and expand my career network. Since each organization has its own rules and characteristics, by comparing both places I have also learned lessons on how to manage people, how to achieve long-term goals and what strategies are more likely to work. In the future, I intend to go back to my country and use the lessons I have learned to establish my career in a government or an international organization-related agency. (from Newsletter No. 40)

Under the “APEC Blue” sky, I have had the privilege of participating in the APEC Voices of the Future program from November 5th to November 11th. In this report, I would like to reflect upon the thought-provoking week spent with my fellow “Voices” at the center of Beijing.

First, the main event of the Voices of the Future was the participation in the 2014 APEC CEO Summit. It was a great honor to be part of a lively discussion among distinguished panelists and renowned CEOs from the APEC economies, and it was an academically stimulating experience for a student of international political economy as the themes for discussion ranged from the stability of the current global economy, prospects for future cooperation among APEC economies, how to secure the future of global finance, etc. The recurring usage of the word “innovation” symbolizes the impasse the global economy is facing, while it emphasizes the potential and hope for innovative private companies in cooperation with governments to overcome such an impasse.

Second, among the heads of state and CEOs who stood on the stage during the summit, President Putin left the strongest impression on me because of his confidence and proximity to the audience. Contrary to President Obama and Xi Jinping, who left the podium just as they had finished reading the scripts of their speech, Putin opened the floor to take questions for twenty to thirty minutes. He had clear-cut answers to all the questions asked with solid confidence. Whatever time restrictions Obama and Xi might have had, at least for me and possibly for many other audiences present on that day, Putin appeared to have the attributes of a strong leader, especially when taking into account the fact that for Russia, APEC was held during an extremely sensitive period with the Ukraine incident.

Thirdly, apart from the events at the APEC CEO Summit, the APEC Voices of the Future 2014 Youth Forum was thought-provoking. The Forum was an opportune time for the “Voices” delegates to exchange ideas for cooperation on the theme of “Education and Employment.” Ambitious but achievable goals such as the establishment of the APEC student travel card (The student version of the APEC Business Travel Card), the APEC Student Mobility Program (APEC version of the CAMPUS Asia Program), and a joint incubator by APEC countries for entrepreneurial businesses gained support among many of the participants. This illustrates how much the participants shared in what they recognized as problems, and how cooperation on the aforementioned areas are strongly called for. At the same time, however, there were participants who advocated the need to prioritize poverty eradication policies, unsupportive of the emphasis on education and employment. Through this, I came to realize the difficulty of establishing cooperation mechanisms among APEC economies that entail a diverse group of economies with uneven levels of development.

There are various mechanisms for economic cooperation in the world today, and it goes without saying that knowing about APEC alone will not suffice to draw the blueprint for future economic cooperation of the Asian Pacific economies. However, through the Voices of the Future program, I was blessed with the opportunity to have a first-hand understanding of the possibilities and limitations of APEC as an economic framework, allowing me to evaluate its standings in the entire global economy.

I sincerely hope that this program will develop as a platform for students of APEC economies to exchange views on the future of APEC.

Trust Building. This simple word I continuously heard during the participation in APEC Voices of the Future (VOF) indeed symbolizes my experience and the responsibility of our generation.

Throughout VOF, we had various opportunities to hear the speeches made by the world’s leaders in terms of politics, such as President Obama and Putin, and business, such as those from Johnson & Johnson and Nomura Holdings. Meeting with these people was, of course, one of the highlights of my experience, but at the same time, meeting with the participants of VOF had a huge impact. Because most of them have spirit in their minds and are willing to make efforts for the society they dream of, it gave me the motivation to go on for my own.

The program itself was a mixture of experiences in both traditional and modern China. Before the APEC CEO summit, which is the main VOF program, we were given various opportunities to witness China. We visited one of the local high schools in Beijing, and the scenery of the Great Wall overwhelmed us. Discussion among the participants was also unforgettable. In addition to the official program, the Japanese delegate was honored to meet with the Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan Ishiguro. Throughout a week of VOF, I could gain precious experience and wonderful friends around the world.

To talk about encounters in VOF, I had two kinds of encounters: one was to meet with the business leaders who can change tomorrow’s global business, and the other was to meet with the global leaders who can change tomorrow’s international society. In this encounter, what made me realize was the importance of “Trust Building”. Because I have been studying about Japan-China-South Korea relations, I was hoping to gain some of these leaders’ perspectives. I was eager to hear what they see about today’s difficult situations among these three countries, such as what the major challenges are and what kind of future they would like to see. I heard many stories from the media or textbooks, but nothing can be more convincing than these change makers’ own words. After all the experience, what I got is “Trust Building”.

For instance, I met ABAC APEC Chairman Frank Ning and had the chance to ask him how he is seeing the recent situation of economic integration among three countries. Chairman Frank Ning raised “Trust Building” as one of the challenges for the future possible economic integration. In addition to that, when I talked with one of the representatives from AIA, he referred to the same word, trust building, as one of the challenges we may face on business occasions. The importance of trust building was continuously emphasized by the global leaders from each nation as well, even though not all of them used the same word. Needless to say, I was fully aware of the importance of trust-building. However, it had a huge impact to hear the same concept from these people who can make the actual changes in the world. When these people told us the importance of trust building, I realized that it indicates the responsibility of our generation. This trust building can explain the reason we attended this conference itself.

The power these change makers’ have was indeed overwhelming. By just standing there, they can leave a huge impact. Therefore, the experience for me to hear their words and feel their power is unforgettable for my own future. Next year, VOF will be in the Philippines. I sincerely hope that the 2015 VOF as a whole will be successful and that the Japanese delegation will have more experience, such as meeting the Prime Minister of Japan. Last but not least, I would like to express my great appreciation to the organizing committee in Singapore and other nations, related organizers in China, and the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo.

 

The principal reason why I participated in APEC VOF was to discuss the importance of entrepreneurship and human networks in the Asia Pacific region, which is also my research interest, with participants and business leaders from different parts of the world and to broaden my personal connection for the development of my own activities. In this sense, this conference was a great success for me.

In particular, I had a precious opportunity to address a speech as the representative of the Japanese delegation at the opening forum on the first day. Even though the topic was suddenly changed to “education and employment” with short notice, this allowed the entire Japanese delegation to share our opinions about our society.

The forum was conducted based on the international protocol. First, each representative stated the current situation and prospects on the given topic in alphabetical order of economy name, and then the discussion was opened to the entire hall.

As the representative of Japan, considering the main purpose of APEC, I explained the brief history of the Japanese economy after World War II and the problems that our generation faced, who were born after the collapse of the bubble economy. I introduced the Japanese virtue of “following the social norms”. Still, I pointed out that the problem lies in the fact that we tend to regard homogeneousness as the “rules to follow” and thus the “right answer,” even though there is no single answer to the problems that we face. Even though norms and entrepreneurship are not mutually exclusive, we need to achieve cooperation between every actor in society to create a diverse and tolerant society that cherishes both rules and entrepreneurship. For instance, more and more entrepreneurial education programs are provided to students nowadays, but as long as major companies stick to the formalistic　New Graduates hiring system, the risk to “get off the rail” will get higher. Thus, there exists a structural problem, where the number of students who take a step forward to challenge themselves would not increase as the consequence of rational choice by each youth.

At last, I concluded that this lesson is not only for Japan but for the entire globalizing society, where we are expected to utilize each other’s strengths and cope with people from different backgrounds, and that the youths of Japan are determined to tackle the problem and keep spreading our words to the world.

What surprised me at the conference was that the speeches of every representative had a common message, even though there was no pre-meeting about the contents. The main focus of the forum was integrated into the importance of entrepreneurship and the creation of a human resource network. This gave me the impression that the problems that we are facing as VOF are something that we all share in common, and there is great room to achieve cooperation among all the economies to overcome the difficulties. In this sense, I re-recognized the importance of my own attempt to create a global network of entrepreneurs and gained further momentum to create a larger impact on society together with all the VOF participants, which has now become a large family.