NEWSLETTERNO.

29

2012 . 9. 4

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY
THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
東京大学公共政策大学院

Contents

1 CAMPUS Asia Program Launched [ Kotoko Ogawa]2 Murmurs and Musings, No.4 [ Yayoi Tanaka] ／ My Wonderful Experiences in Japan［Endah Sari Utami］
3 Student Interview No. 12 [ Mr. Fumiaki Misawa]
4 Seminar Camp: "Case Study (Modern Administration I )" [ Jun Muto] ／ Topical News

CAMPUS Asia Program Launched
Kotoko Ogawa Program Manager, International Aﬀairs Oﬃce
The CAMPUS Asia Pilot Program is a three-way exchange project in which the governments of Japan,China and Korea provide ﬁnancial assistance to their students as well as students from the other countries so as to increase the mobility of students, and is one of the 2011 projects designed by the Ministryof Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan to enhance the world presenceof Japanese universities. The BESETO (Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo) Double Degree Masterʼs Program(BESETO-DDMP) of the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP) has been chosen as a pilot program.
It has been developed by the GraSPP, School of International Studies of Peking University (SIS) andGraduate School of International Studies of Seoul National University (GSIS), with the focus on student
exchange and the double degree system. It will be taught in English.
Students enrolled in the BESETO-DDMP will choose either student exchange or a “double degree”(for a masterʼs degree from his or her university and another degree from one of the program schools).
All students will be required to study in all three countries. For example, a student may study at theGraSPP for a year, and then go to SIS and GSIS for a year or a semester each while enrolled at theGraSPP. All classes at these three universities are as a rule taught in English. Student may be able toacquire double degrees from two graduate schools, including the GraSPP in a time as short as two anda half years if the requirements set by a university where the student has gone for a year-long study
are met. This is truly a groundbreaking project.
The BESETO-DDMP plans to include programs which oﬀer students studying outside their own countries the chance to get in touch with the local culture and customs of their host country. Althoughclasses are generally taught in English, there are plans to provide opportunities to learn beginner-level
School of International Studiesof Peking University (SIS)

Japanese, Chinese or Korean, and develop a pool of local businesses or international organization
which might oﬀer internship to students who wish to do so. In addition, there will be an annual
summer program for students of all three universities to come together and learn by making full use of
the diﬀerences of semesters in the academic calendars (GSIS begins its academic year in March, theGraSPP in April and October, and SIS in September). The ﬁrst summer program was held from August 1
to 13 this year at GSIS in which 14 GraSPP students participated.
The GraSPP students will be exempt from paying tuition to SIS and GSIS; they will pay their tuition
only to the GraSPP for the entire program period, including the time they are studying abroad.
Students who participate in the program by 2015 will be eligible to receive ﬁnancial assistance fromgrant programs to meet airfare and a part of living expenses during their study abroad.
At the GraSPP, the “Master of Public Policy, Campus Asia Program” (MPP/CAP) course will start inApril, 2013. It oﬀers a curriculum based on the CAMPUS Asia plan with the requirement that students
study at SIS and GSIS during the program. The programs are expected to provide outstanding students
from the participating countries a great venue to build a network and develop themselves to be leaders of not only the 21st-century Asia but also the 21st-century world.

NEWSLETTER

Graduate School of International Studiesof Seoul National University (GSIS)

1

M

urmurs and Musings

No.

Public-mindedness of the University of Tokyo students

3“Volunteer jobs? Well, Todaisei (the University of Tokyo students) might not want to apply forsuch jobs because they always get part-time jobs with good conditions.” That was the reaction of
the University of Tokyo encountered by the Nissan Motor company when it was asking the coop-

Yayoi Tanaka

eration of universities in a scholarship program. This program was founded in 1998 to encouragePart-time lecturer (Associate Professor,
National Institution for
Academic Degreesand University Evaluation)

image of unreﬁned grassroots activism. Perhaps, in the eyes of the Todai (the University of Tokyo)

university students to participate in NPO activities as volunteers. The world “volunteer” evokes anpeople, the image of a volunteer worker did not seem to match that of a Todaisei who carries out
his or her tasks ﬂawlessly. In reality, however, Todaisei accounted for the largest number of applicants who responded to the call for volunteers.
Many students at the University of Tokyo aspire to become bureaucrats. One of the reasons forsuch aspiration is “public-mindedness” which motivates the students to seek public interest jobs.
It seems, therefore, quite natural that such public-minded students would be interested in volunteerism.
Fifteen years later, the number of Todaisei who have experience working as volunteers has
increased dramatically. The most interesting development of all, however, is a change seen in thestyle of volunteerism. While it used to be the norm that volunteers simply carried out tasks thatwere given to them, students appear to have grown dissatisﬁed with the style of just waiting fororders. When given a problem, they prefer to design solutions themselves and carry them out on
their own initiative. They even seem to enjoy the process of doing so. A good example is the“Youth for 3.11” * which was organized by the Todaisei in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake. When it was considered diﬃcult for untrained people to go into the disaster-stricken areas,
the group devised a system which eﬀectively dispatched more than 10,000 untrained students tothe disaster areas for relief work, to the surprise of disaster professionals.
Perhaps, Todaisei have been undertaking to push the evolution of the style and venue withwhich to express their public-mindedness far more sensitively than we have imagined.

*Youth for 3.11: an organization that provides volunteer programs in which students can easily participate. (http://www.youthfor311.com/)

My Wonderful Experiences in Japan
Endah Sari Utami 2nd Year, MPP/IP

It is very diﬃcult to describe my two-year experience in Japan in words, but maybe “I am one of the luckiest
Indonesian students in the world” is the most suitable words to express how I feel. Yes, I am very lucky not
only because I was able to obtain a scholarship to pursue my master's degree in the best university in Japan butalso I had a chance to directly feel the great culture of the country. Back then, two years ago, actually I was not
sure if I can survive in Japan because of my inability to speak Japanese. Fortunately, the uncertainty soon disappeared when I received the warmest welcome upon arrival in Japan. My tutor taught me about Japanese basic
customs and helped with all of my settling process. The administration staﬀ members and faculty members ofGraSPP showed full dedication and did hard work to make all international students feel comfortable in their
new environment by removing constraints within the campus as much as possible. One of the most touchingexperiences during that time was that GraSPP oﬃce provided a praying space for me. That really surprised me,and I was moved to realize how a monoculture country can appreciate diversity. That experience taught me
tolerance which I think will be diﬃcult to ﬁnd in other countries.
The second miracle happened to me May 2011, just after the great disaster in Tohoku. I found that I was pregnant. I was really happy since I had been waiting for years for this miracle. But then, I became very afraid if Iwas able to get through my pregnancy process. When I experienced a miscarriage before, I received full support from my family in Indonesia; this time I had to struggle alone in a country whose language I cannot speak,NEWSLETTER

against an uncertainty about radiation condition in my area. Most of the English-language media, my only2

information source, gave me scary news, but I had a huge responsibility to ﬁnish my study. Fortunately my worries did not last long since I got a lot of support from GraSPP administration staﬀ members, classmates and professors who shared their knowledge and experiences about child rearing in Japan. Now I am very grateful not
only because I have a cute and healthy son but also I have had very wonderful experiences with the Japaneseprime, professional and fast healthcare and public service system. I hope I can share all of my valuable experiences here when I go back to my country to promote a better public service system.

I enrolled in the GraSPP because I wanted to study tourism from the perspective ofgovernment policies. However, as the GraSPP oﬀered no class specialized in tourism, I
took the class called “Culture and Tourism Policies for Cities” in the Masterʼs Program in
Sustainable Urban Regeneration (for working adults) of the School of Engineering(http://www.due.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/mps/index.html). I learned so much from talking withworking adult students. I started to think of a job opportunity at an advertising agency
because one of them suggested to me that I could be involved in tourism at an advertising agency from the perspective of “application”. It made me realize that an agency may

haved and long hair cut short totackle job hunting

be the place I can put a developed policy into an action. As I progressed through mystudy, I started to see strong aﬃnity with public policy.
I always loved islands. By travelling to islands around Japan, I started to sense that policies developed by consultants and government bureaucrats were rather out of sync
with reality. I reached the conclusion that advertisements that appeal by taglines andvisuals would be an eﬀective means for diverse stakeholders to share the core conceptand develop a tourism-oriented community.

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO-I heard you have accepted a job at an advertising agency.

Student Interview
No.12 Fumiaki Misawa
Public Management Division (2nd year)-You have a reputation as a remote island expert.
My recent visit was to Ama-cho on Oki Islands in Shimane Prefecture. While
remote island communities are likely to have their public policies developedby external consultants, this community does it on their own. However, I heardthat the people who were involved in Ama's comprehensive development
plan included Ryo Yamazaki, a famous community designer. I also heard that aMother and Child Health Handbook which the island administration designed
in collaboration with Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living was very popularwith mothers as a means to enable them to share information and communicate with one another.
In order to gather information regarding remote islands, I not only visit thoseislands but also frequent the library of the School of Science to read every
Swimming butterﬂy in the Ganges

available back number issues of the quarterly("Island"), and participate

in an island festival called the “Islanders”, which is organized by the National
Institute for Japanese Islands and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportand Tourism. When I visited the National Institute for Japanese Islands for anhour-long interview for my research, I ended up engaging in such a lively conversion with the interviewee that three-and-a-half hours had passed before I
looked at the clock.
I always urge people around me by saying, “you can't call yourself Japanese
until you see the Japanese islands” or “go to the islands before you go to theUS or Europe,” although their reactions are not very positive. I travelled
through the Eurasian and African continents over a year while I was an undergraduate (at Keio University). I toured many places, such as Armenia where
there was a church presumed to be the oldest in the world, Israel which got
me interested in tourism-oriented community development, and Kenya where
I jointed a safari. Yet the place I arrived at in the end was islands of Japan rich infresh whenever I return to the city after spending some time on an island,perhaps, because my senses have been sharpened. Every time I go to an island,
there is something new that moves me and for me to discover. It gives me thereal sense of the breadth and depth of the country called Japan. I believe theseislands are a treasure trove full of allure.

(Interview and text by editor)

NEWSLETTER

their nature and culture. It is amusing to me that the world looks diﬀerent and3

Seminar Camp:"Case Study (Modern Administration I )"Jun Muto

Class of 2012, Public Management Division; now works at an incorporated non-proﬁt organization

On March 26 and 27, 2012, Visiting Professor Hiroya Masudaʼs "Case Study (ModernAdministration I)" organized a seminar camp at Tsunan-machi in Naka-Uonuma districtof Niigata Prefecture. When one of our seminar students, Ms. Haruka Kuwahara (Class of2012, Legal Policy Division), was elected to the Tsunan-machi town council by a landslide in October, 2011, the media reports included the coverage of the seminar.
Professor Masuda was kind enough to ﬁnd time in his busy schedule to come to ourcamp. The participants toured the town and listened to local farmers. Tsunan-machi isknown as one of the areas that receive heavy snowfall in Japan. In spite of it being inlate March, the town was still under about 2.5m of snow. On the evening of March 26,Professor Masuda gave a lecture at the Tsunan-machi Culture Center Hall on community development and improvements which was open to all Tsunan-machi residents. Itwas entitled “Building Tsunan-machi, an Autonomous Community,” based on the factthat Tsunan-machi did not merge with surrounding communities but chose to be “autonomous” during the Great Heisei Mergers, and fromthe point of view of how a town could stand alone. The evening was a big success with the townshipʼs councilors and oﬃcials as well as manytownspeople coming to hear the lecture. At the reporting session on the township administration by Councilors Kuwahara and Minoru Onda
that followed at the public hall, Professor Masuda engaged in conversation with the townspeople. I believe we have gained a better understanding of the town administration by watching the attendees carrying on lively discussions around us.
Next day, Councilor Onda took us on a tour of the town. We visited scenic Akiyamago, and thoroughly enjoyed a magniﬁcent view of thenature. At a former elementary school, which was closed down due to the decline in the child population, we put on snowshoes and climbed asnow mountain built on the school ground. The school buildings are carefully preserved, and used as a venue for city children to have agricultural experiences. We realized the importance and need for sharing and discussing ideas about how to use facilities such as this eﬀectively. Ourtime in Tsunan-machi was limited, but we spent very productive two days.
With the local autonomy as the seminar subject, we had been analyzing and discussing government policies on local autonomy and a varietyof challenges for local governments. The seminar camp at Tsunan-machi provided us with an excellent opportunity to wrap up the course ofstudy with a real sense of what local autonomy was. In particular, we have a new understanding of the magnitude of the issue of “autonomy”
for small local governments, such as Tsunan-machi, in this age of continuing depopulation, declining birthrate and aging of population.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude again to Professor Masuda and the people of Tsunan-machi.

Topical NewsItʼs Oﬃcial; GraSPP Joins the GPPN
Under the Global Public Policy Network Promotion Plan, which was adopted by the 2007
MEXT Project for the Promotion of Internationalization of University Education, the GraSPP
has been working on the implementation of a double-degree system and the developmentof an educational infrastructure in response to globalization. As a result, the GraSPP and twoother schools (Hertie School of Governance in Germany and Escola de Administração deEmpresas de São Paulo da Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP) in Brazil) have been
accepted into the full membership in the GPPN (Global Public Policy Network).
The GPPN is a network of the worldʼs top-tier graduate schools of public policy formed byLondon School of Economics and Political Science, Columbia University School of International and Public Aﬀairs, Institut dʼ Etudes Politiques de Paris (Science Po) and National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

This issue became unexpectedly a special issue
featuring students. In addition to the usual
student interview, it has articles such as the one
submitted by an Indonesian student who gavebirth to her child in Japan, the one by a former student who
reported on his seminar camp in a town under more than
two meters of snow in March, and the one giving us a glimpseof the real Todaisei as seen by a teacher. All of these articles
reveal the diversity of students at the University of Tokyo as
well as the GraSPP. (Editor)

NEWSLETTER

Editorʼs
Postscript

4

NEWSLETTER ［Editor+publisher］GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY
No.

29

THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

東京大学公共政策大学院［date of publication］2012 . 9 . 4［design］Masahiro ABiCo

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E-mail grasppnl@pp.u- tokyo.ac. jp

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