On Sunday, March 20, the Ritsumeikan University Undergraduate and Graduate School Fall Graduation Ceremony 2015 was held at Kinugasa Campus. There, 272 students from the College of International Relations and 23 students from the Graduate School of International Relations were awarded Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.
At the University-wide graduation ceremony, Mr. Syunya Asano and Mr. Yu Hashimoto were commended by University president. Mr. Ryuhei Sugiyama, Mr. Syunya Asano and Ms. Sato Wakabayashi gave a speech as the student representative at the departmental ceremony. Many family members and friends of graduates, faculty and staff members were there to celebrate. Graduates will soon start their new careers here in Japan and around the world.

For five days, starting on Wednesday, February 17, the Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of International Relations held a “Kyoto City Administrative Management Seminar” for non-Japanese international students (hereafter “international students”) who were civil servants, such as national public servants or regional public servants, in their home countries, largely developing countries. In this practical study program, conducted with the cooperation of Kyoto City, students learned about the organizations and administrative structures involved in city administration.

The young international students are dedicated to proposing and implementing policy in their home countries of Indonesia, Cambodia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Myanmar, Laos, and Egypt. As the future leaders of economic, diplomatic, and cultural exchange with Japan, the international students have received scholarships such as Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS), a personnel development scholarship project conducted as part of the grant aid offered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). They engage in their graduate school studies while bearing the expectations of their home countries.

 The program focused on topics such as the election and city council systems which serve as the foundation of democratic government, the processes involved in formulating the Kyoto City Master Plan, a bottom-up effort in which members of the community participate, information disclosure systems, decentralization and regional financial administration, financial support systems for stimulating local industry, global warming countermeasures by local governments, and citizens’ efforts to reduce garbage volume. Talks regarding these themes were given by executives in Kyoto City governmental departments, and Q&A sessions were held.

The international student from Myanmar said, “My country is entering a major transition stage as we shift to being a democratic nation, and Kyoto’s forward-looking efforts will be very instructive in our own efforts to put our local government systems in order and achieve open, participatory government. I want to use what I’ve learned when formulating policy in Myanmar.”

The creation of opportunities for international students to systematically and practically learn about local governance as part of the graduate school’s master's degree program, achieved through collaboration between the graduate school and the local government, is a cutting-edge initiative in Japan.

Dr. Haruyuki Shimada, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

This Talk elaborated Japanese Government role in providing assistance to Afghanistan, in particular, explained the rationale behind the Japanese Government involvement in the war on terror after the 9-11. Dr. Shimada explained the reasons for the government of Japan resumed its full fledge assistance to Afghanistan after the collapse of Taliban. After tracking the history of Japanese involvement in assisting the country, Dr. Shimada also elaborated the following aspects: the kind of Japanese projects in the country, the dilemma of military and non-military assistance, and the problems between providing development aid and security assistance. At the end of the talk, the participants were invited to discuss of how Japan and its people should behave in the context of peace building in Afghanistan.

The Special Talk was held at Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus, on January 7, 2016, hosted by the Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization (R-GIRO) and Ritsumeikan University's Graduate School of International Relations.

Approximately 40 participants attended the workshop.

Guest Speaker: Hazuki Sasaki. Ph.D. Student in Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University, Japan.

The purposes of the workshop were to figure out the big picture of current trends in terrorism and counter-terrorism, exposed the tentative results of the current research, and identified the new theoretical framework for global governance.

This workshop analyzed why and how complex governance remained in the area of counterterrorism.  In particular, the workshop touched upon the most current issue namely propaganda and to what extent propaganda has worked in terrorism and counter-terrorism.  In the last part of the workshop, the audience had an opportunity to identify who and how to protect ordinary citizens from the influence of terrorist propaganda.

Approximately 30 participants attended the workshop.

・Philip Tutu

 Representative to Washington, DC

      Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N)

・Esther Sprague

Founder and director of Sudan Unlimited

Movie event was held in Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus, on November 26, 2015, hosted by the Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization (R-GIRO) and Ritsumeikan University's Graduate School of International Relations.  Approximately 80 students attended the event.

The event consist of two parts: first part is watching a movie, “Madina’sFream” which is the story of rebels and refugees fighting to survive in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. Second part is discussion via skype with two prominent guest. One is Philip Tutu, a representative to Washington, DC, Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and the other is Esther Sprague, a founder and director of Sudan Unlimited, which is a non-profit that seeks to support all Sudanese and Southern.

Screening of parts of the film “Madina’s Dream” that offers a stirring portrayal of the crisis in Sudan, featuring one-of-a-kind footage and gripping testimonials to explore the human cost of conflict.

Students joined discussions actively. International students including the United States, Korea, and African countries eagerly listen to the explanations by the guests.  

Guest Speaker:

Kees Biekart, Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, which is part of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).

This talk elaborated the following aspects: (1) how international NGOs can support civic-driven change processes to engage in advocacy in fragile states; (2) to what extent polycentric governance processes can provide space to overcome systematic exclusion of disadvantaged groups; (3) how capable civil society organizations can enter into dialogue and negotiation with their governments to arrive at inclusive forms of governance. In particular, the talk also explored the idea behind the civic-driven change and figured out the role played by international aid agencies and looked at the conditions needed for realizing the civic-driven change in a setting in which states are either absent or illegitimate because of their authoritarian nature. Among the conclusion are International NGO can expand civic space as the key condition for civic-driven change (CDC), provide international solidarity and links with global networks, and avoid traditional development aid.

The Special Talk was held in Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus, on November 25, 2015, hosted by the Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization (R-GIRO) and Ritsumeikan University's Graduate School of International Relations.  Approximately 75 participants attended the workshop.