Sophia Students Participate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan’s Invitational MIRAI Program on Economics and Business with European Countries

Group Work on Japan’s Labor Market

As part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Japan’s Friendship Ties Program “MIRAI” (Mutual-understanding, Intellectual Relations and Academic Exchange Initiative), 14 Sophia students and 27 students from European countries participated in an online exchange session from April 26 to May 24. Students from a variety of majors – from economics to nursing – interested in international exchanges participated.

The theme of the program was “Japan’s Labor Market.” Two synchronous virtual sessions were conducted by Professor Naoaki Minamihashi of the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics.

In the first session, the students were divided into seven mixed groups with members from Japan and Europe, and introduced each other. They received lectures by Professor Minamihashi on the lifetime employment system, women’s labor market, and foreign labor in the Japanese labor market. After the first his session, which lasted about three hours and included lectures on each topic and group discussions, the students conducted group work for about four weeks.

In addition to the time difference adjustment and language barriers, some groups struggled with online communication between members who had never met in person and came from different backgrounds. However, by the day of the presentations one month later, all the groups were able to present their work with well-crafted presentation materials.

One of the assignments for the presentations was to include interviews based on the group topic. The group on lifetime employment interviewed and compared the views on lifetime employment of a Japanese banker who has been continuously employed at the same company for about 40 years and a young banker in the UK. They presented about how the members’ views changed before and after the interview. Other presentations featured various perspectives including those of employers and employees, for example interviewing a Japanese person working in Iceland to compare the differences in the work environments of Japan and Iceland. The presentation content reflected the characteristics of each team.

The smiling faces in the group photo taken after the presentations showed the efforts and results of the students’ active exchange over the past month. The Center for Global Education and Discovery will continue to provide students with opportunities for exchange with overseas universities and students in a variety of ways.