Professional Training: Japanese Business Management Field Tour, Ritsumeikan University Graduate school of International Relations

This is the sixth year of this training course. In the beginning, we organized its contents on a trial-and-error basis. A few years ago, this course was added to two other training courses conducted at different times for long-term international students at Ritsumeikan University. The integration of these three courses has created a single training series, enabling international students to better understand the overall structure and progression of the program.

 

The international student participants in this training course are government officials in their home countries, so we once wondered whether learning about business management through visits to private companies would truly be useful for them. However, university staff members explained that the purpose is to encourage participants to consider what they, as government officials, can do to foster companies in their own countries modeled after those they visited in Japan, by deepening their understanding of private enterprises. This made it clear to us what content should be included in this training course. This year, some international students were conducting research on SME development in their countries, foreign direct investment, and employee training, and as a result, even more active questions were asked during company visits than in previous years.

 

 

When preparing this training course, we always hope that busy participants, who are engaged in research activities on a daily basis, will have opportunities to gain insights for their research and deepen their understanding of Japan through exchanges of opinions with company employees and government officials. Almost all participants proactively asked questions about business succession and overseas expansion, and we were often struck by the breadth and depth of knowledge they demonstrated, which frequently extended well beyond their own research fields. This exceeded our expectations.

At the summary session on the final day, group discussions were held from both the perspectives of government officials and company managers. As mentioned earlier, participants demonstrated strong intellectual curiosity and extensive knowledge; therefore, opinions were exchanged enthusiastically. We were impressed by their ability to absorb and process information quickly.

 

Every year, we have the opportunity to meet a diverse range of international students. We will continue to endeavor to design the course content with creativity and ingenuity in order to provide participants with a WOW experience that they will remember even after returning to their respective countries.