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Building Alumni Relationships:
Connecting Former, Current &Future Students in the JDS Program
JDS Tsukuba Alumni Network
50th Anniversary of the University of Tsukuba
October 1, 2023
13:00 to 15:00
Hybrid Venues: Special Meeting Room, University Hall &ZOOM

1Today’s Program (Part 1: 13:00 to 13:50)• Introductory remarks (Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki, Director,JDS Program) and introducing current JDS students• Presentation by Mari Minowa (former Director, JDS
Program): “Building Alumni Relationships: Connecting
Former, Current, and Future Students in the JDS
Program”• Video messages from former professors and students• Memorial video of Mya Yamin• Break (5 minutes)
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Today’s Program (Part 2: 13:50 to 15:00)• Panel discussion: Reflecting on JDS past contributions, looking
forward to future collaborations• Onsite panel participants: Professor Minowa, Professor Shuto, and Mingyue
Liu (current JDS fellow)• Zoom panel participants: Tinat Hnep, Aung Thu, Hou Meng, and Zhan
Wenqian (possible commentaries from Professor Faucher and Professor Mori)• Photo memories: Tinat Hnep and Aung Thu• Introducing J-TAN (JDS Tsukuba Alumni Network)• Quiz time!
• Q&A Session• Closing remarks (Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki)• Commemorative photo (online and onsite)
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Introductory Remarks
Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki, Director, JDS Program442

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Presentation by Mari Minowa (formerDirector, JDS Program): “Building Alumni
Relationships: Connecting Former, Current,
and Future Students in the JDS Program”

55Video messages from former professors andstudents
Alexander Bukh ([former] professor)
Carole Faucher (former professor)
Edson Kenji Kondo (former professor)
Makara Phann (former student)
Nathan Quimpo ([former] professor)
Jeet Sapkota ([former] professor)
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Alexander Bukh (Tsukuba, 2008-2012)
Alexander Bukh is an Associate Professor in International Relations at Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand.
He holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics
and a LLM in International Law from Tokyo University.
Alexander has published extensively on international relations in NortheastAsia. His publications have appeared in academic journals such as Third World
Quarterly, The European Journal of International Relations, Asian Survey,
International Relations of the Asia Pacific and The Pacific Review.
He is the author of Japan’s National Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia asJapan’s ‘Other’ (Routledge, 2008) and These Islands Are Ours: The SocialConstruction of Territorial Disputes in Northeast Asia (Stanford UniversityPress, 2020), a recipient of the 2020 Choice Award for Outstanding AcademicTitle, sponsored by the American Library Association and a co-winner of the2021–2022 ISA Asia-Pacific Distinguished Book Award.
Alexander is also a producer and a co-director of a documentary on territorial
disputes-related activism in Japan and Korea titled This Island in Ours
(Contented Production, 2016).
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Carole Faucher
Carole Faucher is a Canadian socio-anthropologist based in Tangier, Morocco.
She holds an MSc. In Anthropology from the Universite de Montreal and a PhD inSociology and Anthropology from the National University of Singapore.
She is an Affiliate Professor and course leader with the UNESCO Chair Global Healthand Education and Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy ofTangier, University Abdelmalek Essadi, where she also leads a new diploma course inHigher Education in Prevention, Health Promotion and Health Education for healthprofessionals.
Her current research interests include identity processes, transcultural mediation,
health education and health promotion, the co-production of knowledge in global
health promotion, and the impact of climate change disasters on schooling invulnerable communities.
Her latest publications include McLellan, R., Faucher, C., Simovska, V. (eds) (2022)
Wellbeing and Schooling: Cross-cultural and Cross-disciplinary Perspectives, London:Springer.

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Edson Kenji Kondo (Tsukuba 2003-2007)
Edson Kenji Kondo is the Director of the School of Public Policy andGovernment at FGV EPPG and the President of the National Association ofGraduate Courses in Administration.
He also serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard University and visiting professor at theInstitute of Strategic Leadership in Japan and Shizenkan University.
Professor Kondo graduated in Production Engineering from the Universityof São Paulo (1980), obtained an Extension in Economics from theUniversity of Colorado, in Boulder, and did his master's and doctorate inPublic Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at fromHarvard University between 1990 and 1994.
Professor Kondo was a Professor of Public Policy at the University ofTsukuba from 2003 to 2007.
99Makara Phann (Fellow, 2011-2012)
Makara Phann is currently the Minister Counsellor of the Permanent
Mission of Cambodia to the United Nations (since August 2021).
He is the former Director of the International Cooperation Department
within the General Department of International Cooperation, Ministry ofForeign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFA-IC) (2019-2021)
Makara Phann was also the Deputy Director of the ASEAN PoliticalSecurity Cooperation Department, General Department of ASEAN, MFA-IC(2017-18).
His undergraduate degree is in Archaeology from the Royal University ofFine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and his M.A. in International Relations
is from the University of Tsukuba.
Makara Phann received the award of “Officer” in the Royal Order ofMonisaraphon in 2013.
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Nathan Quimpo (2006-2018 & current)
Nathan Gilbert Quimpo is a semi-retired adjunct lecturer of politicalscience and international relations at the University of Tsukuba. He has
also taught at the University of the Philippines, University of Amsterdam,Sophia University, Hosei University and Toyo University.
A long-time political activist in the Philippines before turning to academia,
Nathan did his Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations at theAustralian National University.
Nathan has authored Contested Democracy and the Left in the Philippines
after Marcos (Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 2008) and coauthored Subversive Lives: A Family Memoir of the Marcos Years (OhioUniversity Press, 2016).
He has published articles in various journals, including ComparativePolitics, Pacific Review, Asian Survey, Southeast Asian Affairs, Critical AsianStudies and Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs.
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Jeet Sapkota (2013-2018 & current)
Jeet Sapkota is an Associate Professor in the School of International
Studies at Kwansei Gakuin University and adjunct professor at theUniversity of Tsukuba.
After receiving his Diploma in Engineering as well as his Bachelor and MBAat Tribhuvan University in Nepal, he did an MA and PhD in International
Studies at Waseda University in Japan.
Jeet’s research interests include the economic policy, development
economics, globalization, and topics in Asian economies. He also does
work in the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality, as well asrelationship between welfare, globalization, and economic policy indeveloping countries.
His work has appeared in journals such as Sustainability, Education
Sciences, and the Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies.

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Video Memorial
Mya Yamin

1313BREAK

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Panel discussion: Reflecting on JDS past
contributions, looking forward to futurecollaborations

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Mari Minowa
Specially Appointed Professor in charge of academic exchangewith Latin American universities from April this year. Until her
retirement in March this year, she was a full-time professor ofthe University of Tsukuba from 2002 to 2023. Prior to that, she
worked in the field of international development, as economist
in the World Bank from 1993 to 2000, and as JICA expert in theUnited Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia andthe Pacific (UNESCAP) from 2000 to 2002.
Prof. Minowa has a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University
in the US, MA in International Studies from the University ofTsukuba, and BS degree in geography from the University ofTokyo. Her field of research is economic and social
development in Latin American countries.
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Motoko Shuto
Motoko Shuto is a professor emerita, University of Tsukuba. She completed theDoctoral Program in Law/International Relations, Hitotsubashi University in 1980
and got her PhD. After having served as a professor for Komazawa University (19822001), she served as a professor for University of Tsukuba (2001-2018). She worked
as a consultant for the Project on “Follow-up Analysis of the ASEAN Member States’
Self-Assessment of the ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour Recommendations” (20222023). She is currently Vice President of the Japan Association of Global
Governance.
Some of her latest publications include:“The COVAX Facility and Agenda for Global Public Interest,” Journal of Public Interest
and Common Good Studies, Vol. 21, No.1, 2021, pp. 1-12.
"ASEAN's Governance on Cross-Border Labor Migration," The Study of Global
Governance, Vol.6, 2020, pp. 33-53.
“Patterns and Views of China’s Public Diplomacy in ASEAN Countries: Focusing onConfucius Institutes”, Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies, Vol. 7, Issue 2,
2018, pp. 124-148.

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Liu Mingyue
Liu Mingyue is a staff member of the Foreign Affairs Office of
the People's Government of Kunming Municipality, Yunnan
Province, the People's Republic of China.
She was born in 1997 and graduated from Jinan University in2018 with a bachelor's degree in management.
From 2022 to 2024, she has been studying at the University ofTsukuba in Japan for a master's degree in international
relations under the JDS program, and is still in the progress at
this moment.
Her supervisors are Professor Akiyama Hajime, Professor
Kashiwagi Kenichi, and Professor Aki Mouri.
Her current research focus is on international sister cities.
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Tinat Nhep
Tinat Nhep is an Executive Vice President at the CAMFIRST SCHOOL inCambodia.
He graduated his Master’s degree in International Relations from theUniversity of Tsukuba, Japan under the JDS program between 20102011. His former supervisors were Professor Carole Faucher, ProfessorNathan Gilbert Quimpo, and Professor Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki.
Tinat also received his Ph.D. in Tourism Management from Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2019.

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Aung Thu
Aung Thu is an alumnus of the Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource
Development Scholarship (JDS) program from Myanmar, having studied atTsukuba University during the academic year 2011-2012. He earned aMaster's Degree in International Area Studies under the guidance ofProfessors Carole Faucher, Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki, and Mari Minowa.
While at Tsukuba University, Aung Thu worked as a Staff Officer at theMinistry of Hotels and Tourism in Myanmar, gradually advancing topositions such as Assistant Director, Deputy Director, and eventually
Acting Director. In 2022, he furthered his education by obtaining a Masterof Business Administration Degree from the European International
University in France.
Since 2019, Aung Thu has been dedicated to his role as the Head ofAgriculture and Stakeholder Engagement at the Swiss Foundation forTechnical Cooperation (Swisscontact), a renowned Swiss non-profit
foundation, in Myanmar.
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Hou Meng
Hou Meng is currently a staff member at Yunnan Provincial
People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries,
People’s Republic of China.
She studied in the Master’s Program in International Public
Policy in Tsukuba University from October 2021 to March 2023
as a JDS China Program fellow. Her supervisors in Tsukuba
University were Professor Mari Minowa, Professor Leslie
Tkach-Kawasaki and Professor Hajime Akiyama.
Hou Meng’s master’s degree thesis focused on China’s public
diplomacy programs in Latin American countries.
Before joining the JDS China Program, she studied Spanish
linguistics in Sichuan International Studies University in thePeople’s Republic of China.
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Zhan WenqianZhan Wenqian is currently working as a civil servant of the Foreign
Affairs office of the People’s Government of Yunnan Province, China
with primary focus on promoting a friendly relationship between
China and Southeast Asian countries, especially Myanmar.
With the purposes of gaining more academic knowledge and learning
Japan’s successful experience in foreign affairs field to furtherempower her career, she applied the JDS program.
She studied in the Master’s Program in International Public Policy in
the University of Tsukuba, Japan from October 2021 to March 2023.
Her supervisors in the university were Professor Hajime Akiyama,Professor Mari Minowa, and Professor Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki.

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Photographs by former students

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Introducing J-TAN (JDS Tsukuba AlumniNetwork)

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Introducing J-TAN(JDS TsukubaAlumni Network)

Linkedin Website – Please follow us!
Log into “Linkedin” and search for “JDS
Tsukuba Alumni Network”

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Our newsletter(twice a year!)

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Our website(coming soon!)27

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Quiz time!

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Q&A and Final Remarks

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Building Alumni Relationships:
Connecting Former, Current &Future Students in the JDS Program

October 1, 2023
Thank you for joining us today and let’s keep in touch!

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Group Photo from Our Event31

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