The Ritsumeikan University Graduation Ceremony was held on 21 March, 2015.

Graduates, include students from English based program "Global Studies Major"(undergraduate), "Global Cooperation Program(graduate), will soon start their new careers here in Japan and around the world.   

Congratulations to all graduates!

The Fourth Research Seminar of the College of International Relations in 2014 was held by Associate Professor Zsombor Rajkai on the ninth of December, at Koshinkan Room 733. The title of his presentation was “Familism and individualisation in transitional societies: Eastern Europe and socialist East Asia”. The presentation consisted of two main parts. In the first part, Professor Rajkai briefly introduced his academic activities and achievements from the 1990s up to now in two separate academic fields: history (Sino-Central Asian historical relations) and sociology (the different paths of modernisation of non-Western societies seen through family and social change).

Professor Rajkai then talked about a book he published in 2014, titled Family and social change in socialist and post-socialist societies: Change and continuity in Eastern Europe and East Asia. A detailed introduction to the contents of this book (the result of a three-year-long international research study led by Professor Rajkai himself) formed the second (major) part of his presentation. Among other things, he threw light upon the ambiguous and antagonistic co-existence of familism (strong family-centric values) and individualisation (pluralisation of individual and family lifestyles) found in these societies, seen through the change and continuity in demographic behaviour, family values, family solidarity, gender relations, state policy and marketisation. In relation to this, Professor Rajkai called for the necessity, and also outlined the possibility, of a modified second demographic transition theory, stressing that a modified theory would be more accurate in describing the current social transformation of these societies. Finally, Professor Rajkai outlined his upcoming research plan of making a typology of the diverse compressed modernities in an Eurasian context, by addressing not only (post-)socialist societies, but also capitalist non-Asian societies such as Japan, South-Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, etc.

On Tuesday 9 December Dr Nándor Papp, a visiting Professor at the College of International Relations, gave a special lecture on the topic: "From Yalta to Malta" – a subjective Eastern Bloc perspective of the Cold War.

Dr. Nándor PAPP graduated from Budapest’s ELTE University as a teacher of English and Russian. He has taught for more than 40 years at the biggest universities in the Hungarian capital, as well as abroad. From the mid 1980s, he was involved - as an interpreter - in state and government level negotiations towards Hungary’s reintegration in the West, membership of  NATO, and of the European Union. Between 2008-2011, he represented his country in Kiev, Ukraine, as a senior diplomat. 

Dr. Papp’s lecture guided the audience through some of the main chapters of the Hungarian "edition" of communism from the dark days of the 1950s, through the consolidation of the regime, Hungarian "goulash communism", and up to the cutting of the barbed wire between East and West and the Fall of the Berlin wall, which iconically marked the end of the bipolar world.  Dr Papp detailed the major events of the era and also gave a rare insight into actual daily life inside the communist bloc during the Cold War. His role as a participant and witness to some of the closing events in the  Cold War and his recollections of life as a young man and student during the 1960s and 1970s gave the audience a unique and fresh perspective on this era.

The lecture was well attended, with a lively and entertaining Q&A session and the faculty and students of the college look forward the Dr Papp's second special lecture in early 2015.

T French, Associate Professor, College of International Relations.

On Tue, December 2, an International Organizations Seminar Open Lecture was conducted by guest speaker, Ms. Megumi Muto, from the Southeast Asia and Pacific Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Ms. Muto gave a lecture on JICA’s development cooperation with developing countries. In it, she explained the recent demand of objective experimental proofs on the effectiveness of development cooperation. She introduced two specific cases of verification research, one on poverty reduction effect analysis of infrastructure projects, which she had implemented in Indonesia, and the other on an effect analysis of  business management skill training in Africa. She emphasized the importance of such empirical research and that the survey results revealed by findings (such as confirmation of objective needs, business success led by developing country independence) should be reflected on in future cooperation.

The 3^rd Seminar - 20^th Anniversary of Human Security: “Peacebuilding in Perspective: Evolution, Trends, and Future”

Guest Speaker: Dr. Achim Wennmann, Executive Coordinator, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, and Researcher, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP), Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

This seminar was held in Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus, on November 28^th, 2014, hosted by the Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization (R-GIRO), Ritsumeikan University's Graduate School of International Relations, and Global Civil Society Research Group.

Approximately 60 participants attended the lecture.

Graduate School of International Relations held the PCM training session as part of International Organizations Workshop on November 15th.　

Project Cycle Management is well known as the management method for professional fields of development and international cooperation, covering problem identification in a community, causes and effects analysis, building a project design (resource input), and evaluation. This training session was conducted in English with many international students from Myanmar, China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Liberia, Sudan, Germany and the United States.In this diverse environment, students work in jointly developing improvement plan for the areas of developing countries.

Professor KOYAMA commented that the PCM method was a practical common knowledge needed for experts working in international development and cooperation fields, and it could be adopted in a variety of issues to be solved. Foreign students seemed enjoyed practicing this workshop.  

International Organization Workshop

https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/gsir/eng/education/first/feature.html/

Special Lecture. Title: "The Implications of Abe's Nationalism Domestically and Diplomatically".

Guest Speaker: Professor Jeff Kingston. Professor Kingston is the Director of Asian Studies and Professor of History at Temple University Japan. He has written extensively on modern Japan including a second edition of his monograph Contemporary Japan (2013) and his edited volume, Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan (2014) which has just been published. He also writes a weekly column “Counterpoint" for the Japan Times. Professor Kingston's op-eds and book reviews appear in the International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Japan Times and Bangkok Post.

This lecture examines how the current Abe’s nationalism has affected Japanese politics and diplomacy.  The lecture was held in Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus, on November 10, 2014, hosted by the Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization (R-GIRO) and Ritsumeikan University's Graduate School of International Relations.

Approximately 30 participants attended the lecture.

This lecture was held in Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus on November 10, 2014. 

Ritsumeikan University's College of International Relations and the Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization (R-GIRO) under research program namely "Research Core for Peace with Ritsumeikan Interdisciplinary Studies" were the hosts of this lecture.

Approximately 50 participants attended and listened attentively to the resourceful insight and detail material of professor Hinton’s lecture.               

The Admission Guidance Session of the Graduate School of International Relations will be held as described below:

Date:November 20, 2014
Time:12:15-12:55
Place:Koshinkan728, Kinugasa Campus

In this session, a faculty member of the graduate school will introduce the graduate school and a staff member of the Administrative Office will explain about admissions. They will answer any of your questions such as "what can we learn at the graduate school?"

If you are interested in going on to the Graduate School of International Relations, this session will be a great opportunity. Please come and join us!

The College of International Relations and the Graduate School of International Relations will participate in the Japan Education Fair 2014 on Sat, November 15 in Hanoi and Sun, November 16 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Please come and visit our booth.

For more details, visit the following link at:

http://www.jasso.go.jp/study_j/info_fair_vietnam_2014_e.html