GLP summer in Japan 2020

8.5.2020 ~ 8.18.2020

The Global Leadership Program in Discussing Global Issues commenced this year on Wednesday, August 5th, in Tokyo, Japan. For two weeks, students from Japan, Australia, Italy and Ireland partook in a series of discussions regarding current global issues. Students actively led the conversation by sharing perspectives from their various upbringings: some had spent years overseas at the University of Bologna, at a boarding school such as Phillips Exeter Academy, while others attended local Japanese schools including Musashi and Seikei High School. Daily discussions were paired with a simulation to understand the nuances between corporations, government ministries, and NPOs.

This year, participants addressed prevalent topics such as Global Warming, Ethnic Minority Issues, Global Food Supplies, and the universality of discrimination towards minorities around the world. Some individuals shared personal experiences of being foreign in a demographically homogenous Japan while others discussed being victims of Anti-Asian prejudice in the United States. This topic was further explored in light of the momentum-gaining Black Lives Matter movement and repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, China. In addition to these discussions, students simulated a case study in which an NPO, working with the Ministry of Education urged a Japanese corporation to diversify their homogeneous workforce. Students walked away from this simulation with a better understanding of the corporate world and how to maneuver change in a bureaucratic system.

Overall, students enjoyed this experience, feeling driven and satisfied throughout. This was possible thanks to the students’ engagement and teaching assistants.