The Asian Plaƞorm for Global Sustainability & Transcultural Studies
Kyoto University

AGST Newsletter‐ International Collaborative Courses at the GSE‐ Reports from the GSE‐ First graduation ceremony in Joint Master’s Degree Program in Transcultural Studies
at Kyoto and Heidelberg University at the GSL‐ Report from the GSL‐ International Collaborative Courses at the GSA‐ AGST Spotlight Interview
Mr. Edward Clarence‐Smith, Senior Advisor to intergovernmental institutions andthe private sector to promote green industry / former UNIDO regional director

Published by The Asian Platform for Global Sustainability & Transcultural Studies (AGST)
Edited by
AGST Head Oﬃce (Graduate School of Economics)
Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economics East Bldg., Kyoto University
AGST Newsletter | Autumn/Winter 2019

Graduate School of

Economics: International Collaborative CoursesAn intensive course named “Multiple Perspectives on Management” was given by
Professor Matthias Kipping from the Schulich School of Business at York Universi‐
ty, Toronto, Canada. This four‐day lecture focused on the evolution process ofmanagement in diﬀerent historical era and positioned it in a broad international context,
which enabled participants to have a more comprehensive understanding about this dis‐
cipline.

Multiple Perspectives on
Management
by Prof. Matthias Kipping
York University

In the first session, some managerial terms and definitions were put forward and dis‐cussed. Through guiding students to think about the origins of some prevalent ideas of management, Prof. Kipping indicated that manage‐
ment exists everywhere in our daily lives and should not be only regarded as an abstruse principle.
In the second session, Prof. Kipping used vivid historical pictures and stories to show students the origins and evolution process of manage‐
ment concepts. Students were able to understand how management plays a crucial role in the development process of human society.
The third session discussed the issue of leadership, as well as how management is regarded in diﬀerent cultural back‐grounds. In the second half of this session, four participants gave presentations to show their understanding aboutsome “management trends”, such as “kaizen” and “core competency”.
The final session started with the presentations given by the rest of the participants. After that, last but not least, Prof.
Kipping introduced the essence of consulting, which was really helpful for participants on their future career planning.
Although this intensive course was very compact, participants were deeply impressed by the innovative and interest‐
ing perspectives about management oﬀered by the lectures as well as Prof. Kipping’s passion and sense of humor.

Zhao Yameng
Master’s Student, Graduate School of Economics

Advanced Econometrics
by Dr. Tatsushi Oka
Monash UniversityT

he intensive course entitled “Advanced Econometrics” was delivered by Professor
Tatsushi Oka from Monash University. This course aimed to develop familiarity witha wide range of statistical and econometric techniques that have proved to be useful
in applied contexts. Theoretical results were developed as necessary and in order toallow students to apply general principles to their own research problems.

The course was composed of several parts, such as simple linear regres‐sion, endogeneity problem, nonparametric regression, panel data models, classification tree, program evaluation, DID,LASSO, quantile regression, time series. Prof. Oka lectured on topics with profundity and an easy‐to‐understand way,
and students were encouraged to discuss and ask questions during the class.
To deepen students’ understanding, they were assigned to do problem sets, a term paper (including group presentations),
and a final exam. The problem sets could help students master econometric knowledge and computation techniques of
STATA or R. And, the term assignment made students apply econometric methods to real data. Students were asked to choose an appropri‐
ate topic by each group, and apply the knowledge from this course and other economics courses to analyze data.
Through this course, students could gain a general understanding of many advanced approaches of applied econometrics. Also, this course
was helpful for students interested in econometric theory as well, which could provide some ideas of the way in which economists attempt
to confront theory and evidence.
After the active group presentations and discussions, this course came to an end. Prof. Oka’s profound knowledge and insightful ideas left agreat impression on the students. The students deeply appreciated Prof. Oka’s teaching, and highly praised this course.

Xiran Ren
Master’s Student, Graduate School of Economics

A

two‐week intensive class, called “Organizational Behavior”, was carried out between July 8th and July 19th. The course was given by
Professor Debjani Ghosh, who is from the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi.

The course had a systematic and all‐round introduction to human behavior in or‐
Organizational Behavior
ganizations and also mentioned the knowledge about how to improve organization’s eﬀec‐
tiveness through human behaviors. The course was divided into seven parts, including ex‐
by Dr. Debjani Ghoshplanation on the content of attitude, leadership, motivation, organizational culture, percep‐
Indian Institute of Managementtion, personality and emotion. Prior to each class, students were expected to complete
readings on various cases. The class not only had a discussion on the definition of each con‐cept, but also used cases, videos and other materials to support and prove it. The first partof the course focused on academic concepts while the second part mainly explained cases such as Bob’s Meltdown, Kramer Pharmaceuticals,
Simmons and Taj Hotel, which are all from Harvard Business School.
One characteristic of Prof. Ghosh’s class is the strong interaction between her and participants, especially during thecase study part. For example, Prof. Ghosh used role‐play activities. For instance, in the case of Bob’s Meltdown, stu‐
dents were required to play diﬀerent roles as employer, employee, colleague and so on. Then they made commentson the case from each perspective. This enlightening teaching style aroused the activity and initiative of students,
leaving them with a deeper impression and understanding of the knowledge.
In the final class, students participated in a closed‐book exam and wrote an essay in a limited time. Through various
topics and the detailed, patient explanation by Prof. Ghosh, every student could form a broader opinion on organiza‐
tional behavior and could apply it in solving realistic problems.

Zuo Anchen
Master’s Student, Graduate School of Economics
AGST Newsletter | Autumn/Winter 2019

Reports from the GSE

F

rom August 25th to August 29th, 2019, the GLOCAL Summer School was
GLOCAL Summer School 2019held at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on the theme of“Tastes of the Global City”. As the programme’s name “GLOCAL”, which is a(2019/8/25‐29)
combination of “Global” and “Local”, implied, participants were expected to equipthemselves with international perspectives as well as enjoy the local atmospherethrough the five‐day long experience. Three faculty members from the Graduate
School of Economics, Kyoto University, were invited to give lectures during the summer school. And four graduate students also had the op‐
portunity to take part in this programme.
Four lecture days had diﬀerent themes, which were “Art”, “Food”, “Fashion” and “Music”. In eachpanel, lecturers with various academic backgrounds demonstrated their viewpoints surrounding
the common theme. During panel discussion, students could ask questions and share their own
viewpoints with the lecturers, which was very helpful for students to improve their ability of diver‐gent thinking.
Besides lectures, two city tours were organized for participants to have a deeper insight into thecity. One was about the art in the public space. Another one was about local beverage production
and branding. Through these tours, students had deeper understanding about the creative industry
and the beverage industry which both play significant roles in the Dutch economy.
On the last day, students presented a pitch for their policy recommendation for the future of thecultural economy of Rotterdam as a team assignment. And the winning group, as the award, wereable to present their pitch in the city hall, which was an unforgettable and impressive ending for the summer school.

Zhao Yameng
Master’s Student, Graduate School of Economics

On October 9th the Faculty of Economics held an event focusing on
study abroad and employment prospects. It was held together with dis‐tinguished guests from Erasmus University Rotterdam, including Uni‐
versity President Drs. Kristel Baele, Prof. Ben Wubs and Prof. Jos De Mul. The
Erasmus University of Rotterdam is a member of the prestigious GLOCAL pro‐gram, a Masters’ degree program on which students study at several leading
European universities. The Graduate School of Economics of Kyoto University iscurrently an associate member of the GLOCAL program. With this recent event
and Kyoto University’s participation in the GLOCAL program a strengthening of the relationship between the two universities is anticipated.

“Study Abroad & Employment”
Seminar held at the Faculty of
Economics (2019/10/9)

In the first half of the event, Drs. Baele gave a profile of Erasmus University Rotterdam and its internationalization eﬀorts, which was followed
by a description of the aforementioned GLOCAL program provided by Prof. Ben Wubs. Next, speakers from Kyoto University gave an outlineof the various study abroad programs available to students and emphasized how a period of study overseas enhances employment prospects.
This was followed by two talks on the GLOCAL program experience, one by a graduate of
the program and another by a student of Kyoto University who participated in the GLO‐
CAL program’s summer school. The first half of the event was closed by a talk given by agraduate of the Faculty of Economics, Kyoto University, who now works for an interna‐
tionally active Japanese company. This talk focused on the kind of human resources thatsuch companies are actively trying to recruit and it was clear that companies value highly
the kinds of international capabilities that overseas study experiences can foster. In thesecond half of the event, short “mock” lectures were delivered by faculty members andgraduates from both Kyoto University and Erasmus University Rotterdam. These were
followed by a lively and enjoyable discussion between participants.
The Faculty of Economics and Graduate School of Economics of Kyoto University aim to further their internationalization eﬀorts for the bene‐
fit of students.
Ai Hisano, Senior Lecturer
Steven Edward Ivngs, Senior Lecturer
Graduate School of Economics

AGST Top Global Course
It is a pleasure to announce that 12 students completed the AGST Top Global Course on September 24, 2019.They
come from the Graduate School of Economics (7 students) and the Graduate School of Letters (5 students).This
brings the total number of students that have completed the programme to 20 since it was launched in March2017. More information about this programme can be found

here

AGST Newsletter | Autumn/Winter 2019

Graduate School ofLetters: First graduation ceremony in Joint Master Degree ProgramT

he Joint Master Degree Program in Transcultural Studies in Kyoto
University was established in October, 2017 through the collaboration
First graduation ceremony inbetween the Graduate School of Letters of Kyoto University and the
Joint Master Degree Program in
Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS) of Heidelberg Universi‐
ty. While Heidelberg University accepted five first students in October 2017,
Transcultural Studies at Kyoto
Kyoto University started from one student in April 2018. The program wel‐and Heidelberg University
comed second batch of three new enrollees in Kyoto in April 2019. As of July,
2019, the program has fourteen students in both universities. After fulfilling(2019/9/24)
all academic requirement in both universities, five students from the firstbatch from Heidelberg University submitted their MA thesis last July andwere awarded a Master of Arts degree jointly by both universities, by the
President Yamagiwa Junichi of Kyoto University. This was the first time to award a Joint Master Degree Program in the fields of Humani‐ties and Social Science in Japan.
The submitted thesis titles include “Anarchism in Japan,” “Demographic Change in Japan,” “World War Two Mobilization in Japan,”“Japanese Art and Modern Painting in China,” and “Memory and Contemporary Art in Japan,” all of which were founded on wide coverageof East Asian philosophy, society and art.
Joint degree students in Heidelberg University stay in Heidelberg University for the first year in Heidelberg and latter one year in Kyoto
University. The first batch students from Heidelberg resided in Kyoto from the third semester of the program. To complete the required
credits, the program requires students to study in Japan for one semester for six months, followed by
one year of study in Germany, and in Japan again from October for the final semester. Therefore, stu‐
dents of this Joint Degree Program spend MA thesis writing in Kyoto.
As the submitted thesis shows, students are working on various issues. To cover the wide coverage,
three study foci are oﬀered, all representing the disciplinary and conceptual framework on the Trans‐
cultural Studies program rests: namely “Knowledge, Belief and Religion” (KBR), such as philosophicalencounters between Asia and Europe, philosophy of science and engineering, “Society, Economy andGovernance” focus (SEG) including concepts and methods of migration studies, development andagriculture studies or gender and sexuality in Asia, and last focus of “Visual, Media and Material Cul‐tures” (VMC) such as art, film and digital media in East Asia and literary discourses and modernity in
Asia.

First graduation ceremony in JDTS

To assist more convenient entrance system, the School of Letters has been reviewing its entrance examination. We do hope many students
will enroll in the program and have great transcultural educational and academic experience in both universities for further academic andpersonal growth.

Report from the GSL

T

he 12th Next‐Generation Global Workshop (NGGW) with the theme“Inequalities” will be held on October 25th and 26th 2019 organized by Kyoto
University Asian Studies Unit, Graduate School of Letters. NGGW has been
The 12th Next‐Generation
held annually to provide an opportunity for early‐career scholars to present their re‐
Global Workshop
search and to have feedback from an international audience. It has proved to be apleasant and eﬀective way for capacity building through mentorship of professors(2019/10/25‐26)
from diﬀerent universities in diﬀerent areas of the world. It has also provided invalua‐
ble opportunities for all participants to learn from their fellow participants with diﬀer‐
ent perspectives and to deepen the understanding of various social phenomena in theworld, particularly in Asia. Ultimately, the NGGW has served as a forum for scholars of diﬀerent generations from various regions to build
a common academic foundation by redefining Asia in the global context.
The 12th NGGW focuses on “inequality” as its theme. Inequalities, in simple terms, are the gaps between diﬀerent groups, viewed from
economic, social, legal, political, symbolic and cultural perspectives, among others. The groups compared may vary in terms of gender,
race, ethnicity, age, place of origin, sexual orientation, disability, social class, educational achievement, religion, caste, and so on.
This time, the students share their research in 6 students’ sessions, “Ethnicity and Inequality”,“Inequalities and Ethics”, “Colonialism, Post‐colonialism and the World”, “Religion, Caste and Gen‐der”, “Gender and Power” and “Sexual and Domestic Violence”, and professors provide their com‐ments on the papers presented in the sessions. Professors also share their own research in“professors’ roundtable” as the new attempt from this time.

Wako Asato
Associate Professor, Graduate Schools of Letters
The 11th Next‐Generation Global Workshop

AGST Newsletter | Autumn/Winter 2019

Graduate School of

Agriculture: International Collaborative Courses

Concentration and Powerin the Food System
by Dr. Philip Howard
Michigan State University

F

rom July 9th to 16th 2019, an intensive course was taught by Dr. Philip Howard fromthe Department of Community Sustainability, the College of Agriculture & Natural
Resources, Michigan State University, USA. The course was titled “Concentration
and Power in the Food System". During the 4‐day course, Dr. Howard used a lot of exam‐
ples and graphs to let us know clearly how power works and shapes today’s food system.
We explored diﬀerent industries to see power as capital,and how it aﬀects policy and our normal life.

At the first class, Dr. Howard used a graph of agriculture treadmill to explain what problems exist in today’s
food producing. Taking seeds as example, when we try to buy seeds from a seed company, the ability of sav‐
ing seeds will be lower, and the needs of purchasing seeds will increase. This kind of circulation can be seenin every step from farming and processing to distribution and consumption. And it’s no doubt that it makes
markets for food related products, like agricultural inputs, food processing and groceries, become more con‐solidated and concentrated.
Then Dr. Howard introduced the examples of meat, beer and retail, wholesale industries to show how these companies put their own inter‐
ests and power (especially power) first, and neglect social and environmental responsibility. This leads to lots of problems: foreign workers
are hired in very bad work conditions, farmers are unable to decide their on‐farm price, some products are made without any considerationof health, and so on. However, even if we try to boycott these products, it is hard for us to find products not produced by international foodcompanies in normal shops. It is very amazing that famous food companies like Nestle and Unilever own more brands than we think.
Facing these kinds of crisis, alternative movements have emerged around the world. And how these international food companies have re‐acted to these movements was discussed in the last part of this course. Dr. Howard used fair trade and organic food as example to explain
the reaction of these companies. To meet the expectation of consumers, they really engage in these movements, while the engagements only
make up a little part of their product. They use the way of “fair‐wash”, which means that they persuade their consumers they are socially
responsible through joining a little part of alternative movements. Nonetheless, the way they run their business and the thing they permit
don’t change.
After joining this course, we became able to see more clearly how our diet life is controlled by a small number of international food compa‐
nies. If we want to make some change, it is necessary for us to know real truth in all parts of the food system nowadays.

Lin Wanting
Master’s Student, Graduate School of AgricultureF

rom July 29th to August 1st, Prof. Xiaohua Yu, from the Chair ofFood, Nutrition and Poverty
Agricultural Economics in Developing and Transition Countries atthe Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development,
in Developing and Transition
the University of Göttingen, gave us an impressive and interesting lecture
Countries
about food, nutrition in developing countries. The course was entitled“Food, Nutrition and Poverty in Developing andby Prof. Xiaohua Yu
Transition Countries”. The objective of this
University of Göttingen
intensive course is to help students understandconcepts and methodologies to estimate thenutrition demands, and the issues related to nutrition and poverty issues in developing and transition countries.
Firstly, Professor Yu introduced the research frontier with regard to agriculture and nutrition. More specifically,
he talked about some recent developments of applicating big data and multiscale data in nutrition research. For
example, Prof. Yu showed that the linkage between soil and nutrition could be identified by employing the satel‐
lite data which indicates soil quality. In addition, he introduced how machine learning was incorporated in re‐search with regard to nutrition. He also discussed about the potential impact of Artificial Intelligence on the soci‐ety and economic policy.

Secondly, Prof. Yu elaborated the background of hunger, malnutrition and poverty in developing countries, as well as the Sustainable Devel‐
opment Goals in cope with food shortage advocated by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Thirdly, Prof. Yu taught several methods that can be utilized to evaluate nutrition demands. He especially explained the framework andadvantages of applying Engle ratio in nutrition and welfare research. To enhance our understanding, Prof. Yu also demonstrated some em‐
pirical analysis on nutrition that employed Engle ratio by introducing some research papers.
In order to confirm our understanding, we were assigned to participate a final exam on the last day. In a nutshell, this intensive course was
helpful to students. Through this course, the participants improved their understanding of the research frontier and main methodologies
utilized in the literature on food, nutrition and poverty.

Junyan Tian
Master’s Student, Graduate School of Agriculture

AGST Newsletter | Autumn/Winter 2019

AGST Spotlight Interview
Mr. Edward Clarence‐Smith
Senior Advisor to intergovernmental institutions andthe private sector to promote green industry andformer UNIDO regional director+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++In October 2019, the Graduate School of Economics (GSE)
invited Mr. Edward Clarence‐Smith for the fourth year togive a two‐week lecture course entitled “Sustainable In‐
dustry Development.” This course is an AGST international
collaborative course and has attracted master’s and doctoral
students from the Graduate School of Economics and the
Graduate School of Management.
At the end of the course, we asked Mr. Edward Clarence‐
Smith a few questions.
Q1: What was the focus of your course this year?

Mr. Clarence‐Smith: Every year I have given thiscourse, I have been shifting from focusing narrowly on thesustainable development of industry to seeing this phenom‐
enon as part of a broader move towards sustainability in thewider economy. Industry alone cannot become sustainable,
the economy as a whole must become so. That is why theconcept of Circular Economy has become so important in
the course; it was a strong focus this year .
Q2: What were some of the highlights of the course? For
example, interesting questions posed by students, concerns
raised, topics discussed?

Mr. Clarence‐Smith: The design of sustainable “green”
products led to a lot of discussion. Not only is this a key tomaking economies go circular, it is also a topic that touches
the students personally. All of us purchase and use products.
All of us see the wastage of products. All of us can see how
the design of a product can both encourage and discouragesustainable behavior.
Q3: In a nutshell, what is a "circular economy"? What do you
think are the main strengths and weaknesses? How is it sig‐
nificant today?

Mr. Clarence‐Smith: A circular economy is one inwhich the materials which we use are continuously reused
and recycled – materials go “round in circles”. But, at thesame time, it is also one where the amount of materials is
minimized. We can do this by “dematerializing” our econo‐
mies by substituting physical products with services andsoftware solutions. We can also do this by increasing theeﬃciency with which we use those materials which we stilluse. We can cut out unnecessary wastage, of course, but wecan also intensify our use of materials, squeezing out every
unit of use from them, though, for instance, shared use. A
circular economy is also one where we extend the useful life‐
time of materials in the economy, by increasing second‐handuse, for instance, or by maintaining, repairing and refurbish‐
ing our products. Industry is a very important actor in this,but not the only one.
The main strength of the circular economy concept is thatit gives us a socially‐acceptable pathway to the developmentof economies which can continue to increase the well‐beingof their citizens while keeping the environmental impacts
caused by our use of materials within sustainable bounds. Of
course, it is not an answer to all our environmental woes. For
instance, for a circular economy to be truly sustainable, it
must be based on a complete transition to the use of renewa‐
ble energy. That transition must take place in parallel withthe transition to circular economies. Also, the current theo‐
retical frameworks for circu‐
lar economies do not dealvery well with the pressing
problem of material toxicity.
It is not just the amount ofmaterials that we need toreduce, it is also their toxici‐ty.
It is still early days for thecircular economy concept.
Governments are only really beginning to get to grips with it.
The same is true for the private sector, where management islooking at what circular economies might mean for theirbusiness. But I expect there to be a distinct quickening of thepace over the next five years.
Q4: Looking back on your career in sustainable develop‐
ment, do you think the companies and institutions that you
have been working with have been moving in the right direc‐
tion, i.e. they are increasingly serious about the issues andaddressing them?

Mr. Clarence‐Smith: I think that the industrial sector
is, in general, increasingly committed to addressing the is‐sues surrounding sustainability, even if the news does notalways portray that. We have to keep in mind that the sto‐ries of the companies which have made good progress most‐ly do not get told. So, I think the overall trend is going in theright direction.
Q5: Looking ahead, are you optimistic or pessimistic thatthe world will meet most of the Sustainable Development
Goals?

Mr. Clarence‐Smith: I think there is a good chancethat we will meet many of the socially and economically‐
oriented SDGs by 2030. I am much less sure of that for theenvironmentally‐oriented SDGs.
Q6: A last word for your students. Any advice for those ofthem who will be in the job market soon?

Mr. Clarence‐Smith: I think “sustainability” will be anincreasingly important element in the job market over the
coming decades. This will happen in all sectors of the job
market, because sustainability covers all aspects of the econ‐
omy and of society. So, I think a specialization of some formin sustainability – whether it is obtained on‐the‐job or dur‐
ing a later break from the job market – will be a useful addi‐
tion to a student’s CV.
But I also hope that one message my students have taken
away from my course is that whatever job they do, whether
it be in the public, private, or social sphere, they should al‐ways look for ways to make their work more sustainable.

AGST Newsletter | Autumn/Winter 2019

Tsilavo Ralandison
AGST Project‐specific Senior Lecturer