Ayabe Field Study Tour, Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of International Relations

This series of training programs is commissioned by the Master’s Program at the Graduate School of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, and consists of three courses: (1) a Kyoto City government study course in January; (2) a Japanese business management course in September; and (3) a field study tour in November to learn about local administration. The third course serves as the culmination of the program, providing participants with opportunities to learn about real-world situations, such as the current conditions and challenges faced by local governments and how officials are addressing them.

 

Although each course lasts only two or three days due to scheduling constraints with other graduate classes, the participants absorbed and processed the lecture content remarkably well, as expected from international students studying at a university. They appeared to make full use of both the lectures and the site visits, asking many questions from the outset.

 

During this field study tour to learn about local administration, the participants visited Ayabe City Hall. The highlights of the tour were the lecture delivered by the Mayor on the city’s administrative approaches, as well as direct exchanges of opinions with municipal officials regarding municipal administration and the current issues and challenges they face as fellow civil servants. (The international students, who are playing active roles as civil servants in their respective countries, came to Japan through the Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship*.)

 

Before visiting the city, we scheduled time for preparation in order to understand its current situation and to prepare appropriate questions. This included researching various data about the city under the guidance of Professor Takashi Yamamoto from the Graduate School of Economics, Takushoku University to gain a better understanding of what kind of place Ayabe City is, as well as gathering information on its economy, demographic changes, and population trends. Based on this research, the participants prepared questions to confirm during the visit.

 

 

On the day of the site visit, municipal officials of Ayabe City took half a day out of their busy schedules to accommodate us. In return, the international students enthusiastically asked questions. The municipal officials’ sincere attitude toward the students’ questions encouraged the students’ curiosity and prompted them to ask further questions in order to gain a deeper understanding. Due to time constraints, they were unable to ask all of their questions. We recognized the students’ strong interest when they told us that they still had many more questions to ask.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of remote classes and meetings has increased. Although remote learning and online meetings offer many advantages, participating in this type of training course—the field study tour—made us realize the powerful impact of in-person experiences and the special sense of connection created through face-to-face encounters and direct interaction.

*The Project for Human Resource Development Scholarship: It is a grant aid program established in 1999 under the Japanese government’s “100,000 Foreign Students Plan”. The purpose of this program is to “accept outstanding young administrative officials who are expected to become future leaders in the target countries as international students at Japanese graduate schools, and after returning to their home countries, they will be active in planning and implementing social and economic development programs as human resources with specialized knowledge gained during their study in Japan, and eventually contribute to expanding and strengthening the foundation of friendly relations between the two countries as people with good understanding of Japan.” (JICA website)