JICE partnered with Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry（METI）to provide an opportunity for young METI officials and the JDS Fellows to exchange views on various social issues faced by each country. The exchange session was held on August 22, 2018 with the participation of 45 METI officials and 16 JDS Fellows belonging to METI’s counterpart ministry of each government.

The exchange session was structured into two parts: discussion and presentation. In the discussion part, the participants were divided into eight groups, each consisting of 5~6 METI officials and two JDS Fellows and each group was assigned one from the four themes: Developing Global Leadership Skills; Educating Children; Improving Work Environment; and Women’s Economic and Work Force Participation. The participants actively engaged in the discussion by referring to the situation of their home countries.

In the presentation part, each group was asked to make a brief presentation about what they think about the challenges and how they should tackle with them to create an ideal situation with regard to each theme they discussed earlier. After the presentation, many questions were raised by the audience such as “Are there any concrete policy suggestions to promote women’s economic participation?” and “What is the differences between global leadership and domestic leadership?”

Following are some of the feedback from the participants:

-I was able to understand the present social situation of each country. (A Japanese participant from METI)

-This event helped me to realize again the different way of thinking between Japanese and people from other Asian countries. (A participant from METI)

-It was a good opportunity to build networks with the foreign government administrators. (A participant from METI)

-I spent a very productive time because I was able to not only gain various information relating social issues through the group discussion but also to get to know many Japanese government administrators. (A JDS Fellow from Lao P.D.R.)

-It was a great opportunity to share my experience and knowledge with the Japanese government administrators. Furthermore, I was able to learn a lot about the work environment in Japan. (A JDS Fellow from Bangladesh)

We believe that this exchange session not only helped the participants to deepen their understanding of various social issues faced by the world but also to develop future cooperative relationships among young Japanese and other Asian government leaders.

Chie Terashita

International Student Programs Division

International Student Programs Department I