NEWSLETTERNO.

40

2015. 6. 17

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

Contents

1 Young Leaders Shaping the Future of Global Society! ―Ongoing Expansion of GraSPPers Network［Toshiro Nishizawa ］
2 Messages from Alumni［ Ardhi Santoso Handarumukti ／ Eri (Mukae) Nakamura ／ Wilson Tadashi Muraki Junior ／ Siritala Saengduang ］
3 International Student Interview, No. 6［ Mr. Daniel Beckurts ］
4 Messages from Alumni［ Junichi Takahashi ／ Radhika Aryal ］／ Topical News

Young Leaders Shaping the Futureof Global Society!
―Ongoing Expansion of GraSPPers Network
Toshiro Nishizawa Professor
I have been visiting various countries for recruitment purposes over the last few years. It
is great fun because I am able to catch up with alumni almost everywhere I go, who often
provide me with support in uncovering the next generation of public policy students. Allof them are actively engaged and ﬂourishing in their positions. It leaves me reassured,
heartened and encouraged. Also, current GraSPP students are studying around the world
under double degree and exchange programs the school oﬀers. Despite their busy workor study schedules, we get together. All around me are familiar faces with their hopes
and aspirations for the future.
I also have the chance to catch up with former students in Hongo. Recently, Jie Li
dropped by my oﬃce during her business trip. She currently works at the Lee Kuan Yew
School of Public Policy in Singapore. Alumni based in Japan do the same. Kunro Hino andYoav Hilman, young professionals actively engaged in international projects on a global
scale, came to talk about their personal experiences in my class session. SNSs provide mewith a way to feel closer to alumni. Those who only a few years ago were studying in
Hongo now provide current GraSPP students with a variety of role models.
The voices I hear from outside my oﬃce between classes are roughly an equal mix ofJapanese and English. With students from more than 30 countries, GraSPP resembles amicrocosm of global society. Many alumni who worked hard and have since gone on totake their place in wider society are taking an active part, not in a microcosm, but in atruly global community as "professionals with intellectual excellence and practicalcompetence" in their respective ﬁelds.
Regardless of where they are now, I am conﬁdent that GraSPPers, who have moved onfrom GraSPP now in its eleventh year, are truly “global professionals” in terms of boththeir abilities and desires. Meanwhile, current GraSPPers endowed with such potential
are following in their footsteps. This GraSPPers network is steadily expanding year afteryear. These links between the young leaders who seek to contribute to the public arenaand to shape the future of global society are a great asset for GraSPP.

NEWSLETTER* Just as I was ﬁnalizing this article, a major earthquake
struck Nepal on April 25. My heart goes out to those
whose lives have been devastated, and I oﬀer my prayers
to the victims. I have been informed that all GraSPP
alumni, their family members and those of the current
students here in Tokyo are safe. I oﬀer my support to thecurrent students and alumni who will provide aid to thoseaﬀected and work on recovery and reconstruction.

1

Messages from Alumni
Ardhi Santoso Handarumukti (Class of 2014)

Analyst (Manager), Outlook, Review, and Policy Recommendation Division, Department of Macroprudential Policy, Bank Indonesia

I am very thankful that I got theopportunity to study at GraSPP while I was inmy third year at Bank Indonesia (centralbank), sponsored by Joint Japan World Bank
Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP).
This gave me very valuable knowledge formy professional career. Shortly after earning
my master's degree at GraSPP, I was
promoted to manager at the Department of Macroprudential Policy inBank Indonesia.
The experience of the recent global ﬁnancial crisis (GFC) showedthat the central bank's price stability policy alone could not prevent
ﬁnancial sector turmoil trigerred by an over-leveraged ﬁnancial
system. Even the combination of low inﬂation with strong growth that
had been achieved by the US economy for more than two decades
ended with a meltdown of the ﬁnancial system of 2008. A new
perspective of macroeconomic management was developed after the

GFC. Execessive leveraging during a boom in the ﬁnancial systemtends to be followed by a big depression. Thus, the role ofmacroprudential policy to smooth out the business cycle becomes
important to promote ﬁnancial system stability.
In my position as manager in the Outlook, Review, and Policy
Recommendation Division, I am responsible for analysing the
economic outlook, reviewing materials (assessment) to be presented
to the Board of Governor meetings, and implementing reserve
requirement policy.
What I learned in GraSPP is readily applicable to my work.
Econometrics has equipped me with economic modeling skills very
useful to generating a robust economic outlook. Another example ismacroeconomics, which has helped sharpen my perspective inunderstanding and dealing with macoreconomic policies. In addition,international networks that I created during my GraSPP days have
expanded my global reach.

Eri (Mukae) Nakamura (Class of 2006)

Assistant Director, Africa Division 1 (Kenya & Somalia), Africa Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency

After graduating from GraSPP, I worked
on infrastructure and private sector
development at the Japan Bank forInternational Cooperation (JBIC). I
subsequently joined the South Sudan Oﬃceof the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA). The key item on our agenda
was creating employment for young people.
Our aim was to enable the public in this conﬂict-aﬀected region tobring peace dividend and to prevent young people from being
recruited into the military. To this end, I worked on vocational training
for young people including former soldiers, and on aid for improving
the livelihood of young people and women in rural areas.
I then joined the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington DC
where I worked for the unit of Financial and Private Sector

Development, Africa Region. I worked on private sector developmentin North and South Sudan based on my belief that encouraging
private sector activity is crucial to employment creation in
conﬂict-aﬀected areas. My tasks included analyzing a value chain for
specialty goods produced in Darfur, supervising the on-going Private
Sector Development Project and designing the ﬁrst Investment
Climate Assessment for South Sudan. I also visited Nyala, the state
capital of South Darfur, to conduct surveys on activities in the private
and ﬁnancial sectors in that region.
A number of seminars were held at the World Bank headquarters on
private sector development in conﬂict-aﬀected areas. This conﬁrmed
my understanding that employment creation in these areas is one of
the most critical issues in international development. I am currently
working in the Africa Department at JICA headquarters on a youth
employment program for Somalia.

Wilson Tadashi Muraki Junior (Class of 2013)
Translator and Announcer, NHK World

I graduated from GraSPP in 2013, andsince then I have been living in Japan. I am
originally from Brazil, and after graduating I
decided to stay in Japan and try and acquireas much work experience as possible ino r d er t o build t he f o und a t io n s o f aninternational career back in my country.
author in the center
I currently work at NHK World Radio Japanas a translator (English-Portuguese) and announcer. My work mainly
involves broadcasting news and cultural programs in Portuguese toaudiences in Brazil and Africa. Working at NHK World enables me tokeep myself up-to-date on the latest Japanese and global events.
I also work at Peace Community Plan, a social company engaged incommunity 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 theJapanese 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 amongactors involved in promoting disaster resilience in diﬀerent parts ofAsia. Last year, in Bangkok, we gathered around 30 people fromcountries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Japan to
discuss how disaster resilience could be improved all over Asia fromthe community level. One of the outcomes was the chance to spreadapps and other IT tools that can support communities when disasters
strike.
Having two diﬀerent jobs is sometimes challenging, because eachplace 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 aninternational organization-related agency.

Siritala Saengduang (Class of 2012)
NEWSLETTER

Economist, Bureau of International Economic Policy, Fiscal Policy Oﬃce, Ministry of Finance, Thailand

2

author in the center

After graduating from GraSPP, I have beenworking in the Fiscal Policy Oﬃce of the
Ministry of Finance, Thailand. As an
economist in the Bureau of International
Economic Policy, I am responsible for policy
analysis and design as well as strategicplanning to bring economic and ﬁscal

measures in line with Thailand's obligations to international treaties.
My other responsibilities include the tariﬀ reduction program.
I have been involved in many rounds of international negotiation
under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),
Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA), Asia-Paciﬁc
Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the World Trade Organization(WTO), to name a few. Flying frequently across the globe has neverContinue to Page 4

Daniel Beckurts

MPP/IP Year 1 (from Germany)International
Student
Interview

6

No.

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO― Where are you from?
I grew up in Cologne having moved there from Munich when I wassix. Cologne was an outpost of the Roman Empire, has an age-old
rivalry with Düsseldorf, and is home to FC Köln where Tomoaki
Makino (Urawa Red Diamonds) used to play. Cologneʼ s famous
Kölsch beer goes down very nicely, which is indeed dangerous as
one tends to drink more than is good for you. In Germany, the legal
drinking age is 16 for beer and wine and 18 for spirits which have ahigh alcohol content.
My next door neighbor at my home in Cologne is a Japanese
woman who married a local. Her house is furnished and decorated
in Japanese style, she often treated me to meals which whet myappetite for Japanese food, and I loved listening to her speaking
Japanese. She introduced me to the Deutsch-Japanische
Gesellschaft e.V. Köln (the German-Japanese Friendship Associationin Cologne) which gave me a chance to meet young people fromJapan. It was thanks to her that I came to love Japan so much. I
developed a particular interest in Japanese architecture, especially
the wabi-sabi aesthetic, and I appreciate the works of Tadao Andofor their simplicity. My favorite is the Ando Museum in Naoshima. I
ﬁrst saw it in the Brutus magazine and have since paid a visit.
After my second semester at the University of Cologne, I did a
one-year exchange at Hitotsubashi University, which is a partner
university of my German home university. Before that I had been to
Japan. After graduating high school, I spent three months at aJapanese language school and then did a so-called working holiday
for another seven months. I had studied Japanese language by
myself while at high school to the point where I could use hiragana
and katakana. I registered with World Wide Opportunities on
Organic Farms (WWOOF) and found hosts that would take me on.
WWOOF hosts provide free food and lodging in exchange forvolunteer work of six hours a day. I spent three months (fromDecember to March) at a pension in the Hakkōda Mountains of
Aomori Prefecture, and from then up until May working for an
orange farmer in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture. I found it a very
rewarding time as I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing ruralcommunity life for a change.
― What is your view of present-day Germany?
This year marks the 25th anniversary of German uniﬁcation.
According to a national opinion poll, most residents of what wasformerly known as West Germany today feel that the country iscompletely uniﬁed, whereas those from the old East (the newfederal states) still donʼ t quite share this view when they compare
their situation to those living in the old federal states. One reason forthis is that economic disparities and cultural diﬀerences to this day
still remain. After more than a generation Germany has not entirely
managed to overcome these diﬀerences. I look forward to a time
when these diﬀerent perceptions have made way and it cangenuinely be said that we are uniﬁed - not only in a geographicaland political sense.
Today, Germany has the second largest population of immigrants
after the USA. While Germany faces the same problem as Japan of
an aging population and low birth rate, I believe that immigration
can play a major role as one of the key factors to solving thisproblem.

I will be graduating from GraSPP in the autumn of next year. I
would very much like to ﬁnd a job possibly in the German Foreign
Oﬃce or at an international agency.
(Interview and text by editor)

NEWSLETTERMy choice of studying at the University of Tokyo was because I
wanted to learn about how Japan, China, and Korea will deal with
their territorial disputes. There are many socio-political similarities
between Germany and Japan. Now that I have achieved a degree of
proﬁciency in Japanese, my ideas is to conduct a comparative
analysis using Japan as a base, it being the oldest democracy in East
Asia. When I worked at BMW Japan as an intern, I felt that, although
their methods are diﬀerent, Japan and Germany are striving forcomparable aims. In both Japan and Germany, small andmedium-sized enterprises have a high level of technical know-how
with excellent craftspeople (“Meister”).

3Continued from Page 2

been easy, but given me a chance to make friends as well as enemies(!) sometimes.
My team's goal is to maximize the beneﬁts for Thailand while
contributing to the sustainable development of the world. In order toaccomplish our mission, we need to be professional to lead thediscussion and convince our counterparts on various issues. Learningfrom renowned professors at one of the most highly-ranked
universities in the world has strengthened my expertise across a wide
range of disciplines and given me much conﬁdence in expressing

opinions in an international forum with professionals on the otherside of the table.
Studying in GraSPP could be one of the most eﬀective ways to gain
not only an in-depth knowledge but also a good conduit to engage
with diﬀerent cultures, customs, people, and languages. In conclusion,
I thank GraSPP for opening doors for me to a wide range ofinternational activities that contribute to my professional career andmy life.

Junichi Takahashi (Class of 2006)

Deputy Director, Country Assistance Planning Division II, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Aﬀairs of Japan“The goal of foreign policy is to ensure thesecurity and prosperity of the nation.
Nothing more, nothing less.” Keeping thesewords by Ambassador Hiroshi Shigeta (fromthe case study course of Foreign Policy I and
II in academic year 2004/2005) in mind, I
have been working at the Ministry ofForeign Aﬀairs of Japan since I completed
my study at GraSPP, with this April marking my tenth year on the job. I
currently work in the ﬁeld of development cooperation (oﬃcial
development assistance, or ODA), spending days and nights thinking
over issues and discussing with the relevant people on ways topromote individual policies so as to contribute to the ultimate goal offoreign policy and then turning the results into action. I often think
how important my busy but fulﬁlling days at GraSPP were in building
the foundations for my thinking as a would-be “craftsperson” in theﬁeld of foreign policy.
Another thing that strikes me about the school is how the networkof those associated with GraSPP is also bearing fruit in the world of

public policy. When I was a diplomatic trainee studying in the U.S., I
had an opportunity to organize an exchange event between GraSPPand SIPA with Professor Takatoshi Ito, who was at Columbia University
at the time (and after a stint back here in Tokyo has since returned toColumbia). When I was working at the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam asa second secretary in charge of political aﬀairs, I bumped into
Professor Akira Morita (currently the Director-General of the National
Institute of Population and Social Security Research), who wasinvolved in a project for the training of Vietnamese public oﬃcials.
Recently I also had the chance to go for a drink with alumni fromGraSPP working in the ODA ﬁeld: one was a more recent graduate
working in a division in the foreign ministry next to mine and theother a graduate from my own year who works for JICA.
I hope I can maintain the spirit I acquired at GraSPP of aspiring tobecome a “foreign policy craftsperson” rather than simply being anoﬃcial of the foreign ministry, and keep up with my current and future
professional colleagues in the world of public policy. I wish all of you asimilar GraSPP and post-GraSPP experience.

Radhika Aryal (Class of 2012)

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Government of Nepal

Greetings from Nepal!! I feel highly
privileged for getting an opportunity towrite on behalf of the alumni of GraSPP,
where I am among the ﬁrst batch tograduate from the Master of Public Policy
International Program (MPP/IP) in
2010-2012.
My graduation from GraSPP proved to bea milestone in my professional career as I was successful in getting adouble promotion from Section Oﬃcer to Joint Secretary. It was only
possible thanks to my academic horizon being broadened by MPP/IP
and a resultant understanding of the diﬀerent dimensions ofdevelopment paradigm relevant to Nepal. I always follow theobjective approach learned during my GraSPP days for gaining deep
insights into policy design and formulation on a global scale, and thentry 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 options 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 mylifetime. Easy access to top-level researchers and practitioners as well
as daily 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 thecleanliness of the environment, soft and supportive nature of theJapanese 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 anddevote 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.

Topical On April 3, more than 80 students from the April intake were invited to asession for new students. After a welcome by Dean Shiroyama and an
News guidance
overview of GraSPP, presentations were given on the cross-disciplinary Global

NEWSLETTER

Leading Program for Social Design and Management (GSDM), Science,
Technology, and Innovation Governance (STIG) Education and Research
Program, and the Ocean Alliance. We hope that the new entrants will make themost of the numerous opportunities available to them.

4

I had a eureka moment when I saw the term “GraSPPer” in thearticle by Professor Nishizawa. I have long been looking for a termthat encompasses both current students and alumni. I personallyexpanded the meaning of GraSPPer to include teachers and staﬀ
members. I guess that lurking in the back of my mind was thememorable phrase of our ﬁrst dean, that “once you get yourself involved in
GraSPP, you will never escape its grip.” As GraSPP is a homonym of “grasp”, a
GraSPPer can also be someone who grasps something. I hope that GraSPPers"grasp" something worthwhile while they are here. (Editor)

Editorʼs
Postscript

NEWSLETTER
No.

40［Editor+publisher］GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY

THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

東京大学公共政策大学院［date of publication］2015. 6. 17［design］Masahiro ABiCo

7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan tel 03-5841-1710 fax 03-5841-7877
E-mail grasppnl@pp.u- tokyo.ac. jp

http://www.pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp