PBL-Workshop on EU-Japan Industrial Cooperation

On June 13^th 2017 Professor Dr. Hiroshi Tanaka organized an academic meeting with Dr. Silviu Jora from the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation. More than thirty students participated in Mr. Jora’s lecture. Prof. Dr. Rolf D. Schlunze gave a brief comment encouraging participants to discuss about business opportunities among the EU and Japan. Dr. Jora, a European economic expert, made the interactions particularly valuable because of his previous teaching experiences at RU. There is increasing need to teach about EU history and the new Free Trade Agreement with Japan. Student were surprised to learn that the EU is the biggest investor in Japan. Students found that Mr. Jora has an interesting vision for promoting EU-Japan industrial cooperation. He told us what we perceive as crises today will help the EU to be stronger in future.

Students addressed several questions to the speakers during the workshop. They wondered if Japanese companies need to re-locate after Brexit. Dr. Jora replied that if the UK government makes an effort to compensate the losses there are less reasons to move out of the UK. He emphasized that Eastern European countries have facilities and legislation like in Western Europe attractive for Japanese direct investment. Japanese firms are somewhat reluctant to venture with firms from other countries. Overcoming organizational obstacles and building cross-cultural capability will provide new dynamics for global partnership in projects that suit EU-Japan industrial cooperation. During the problem-based learning (PBL) workshop students started to perceive new opportunities and reflected about new ideas building a global society.