Starting in early August 2023, GRIPS held four rounds of its intensive summer program, “Understanding the Japanese Development Experience.” This program, designed for Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) scholarship fellows, was organized by GRIPS in collaboration with JICA. The participants were students, mainly graduate students, from a number of universities in Japan. The rich program content included lectures, a study tour, a cultural event, group discussion and presentations. The program is intended to give the participants a broad perspective on the Japanese modernization process, and to encourage them to adopt a multi-faceted approach to engagement with the topics.

The program was held at GRIPS, Tokyo.?

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There were about 30 participants, diverse in region, career and specialty, in each round of the program. In the first half of the program, they attended a comprehensive series of lectures on the history of Japanese modernization.?

The lecturers were:

Prof. Andrea Pressello, GRIPS, Japanese modern history;?

Prof. Kaoru Iokibe, the University of Tokyo, Japanese political history;?

Prof. Tetsuji Okazaki and Associate Prof. Yohei Kojima, the University of Tokyo, Japanese economic history.?

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Special lectures were given by:?

Dr. Akihiko Tanaka, President of JICA;?

Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka, Special Advisor to the President of JICA;

Dr. Nobuko Kayashima, Senior Research Advisor, JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute?

for Peace and Development;

Prof. Emeritus Naoyuki Yoshino, Keio University (Visiting Professor of GRIPS).

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For the field trip, the participants visited the National Diet Building, Yokohama Port Museum and Sail Training Ship Nippon Maru. The participants also had meaningful experiences of Japanese flower arrangement and calligraphy to deepen their understanding of traditional Japanese culture.

The participants also had meaningful experiences of traditional flower arrangement and calligraphy to deepen their understanding of traditional Japanese culture.

Study Tour to the National Diet Building

In Front of Sail Training Ship, Nippon Maru

Caltural Event: Japanese Flower Arrangement

Cultural Event: Calligraphy

In the second half of the program, the participants applied the knowledge and information they had acquired in the lectures to their exchanges in group discussions about Japan’s development experience and about the lessons that can be learned from it. On the last day they made group presentations expressing their ideas about those topics and their views on some of the challenges that Japan is currently facing.