While still struggling to recover from the threefold tragedy of March 11, 2011, Japan continues to be saddled with a weak and unstable political leadership, a sluggish economy, and an aging and dwindling population. The recent rekindling of territorial disputes with its neighboring countries, particularly China, only adds to a collective national anxiety. Under the circumstances, all eyes are on Japan’s youth. Realizing that Japan’s future depends on them, older Japanese are urging them to be more globally-oriented, multi-lingual, proactive and competitive, and more open to risk-taking - qualities which, ironically, seem to be exactly what the current Japanese leaders lack. Are Japan’s youth ready to take over the task of rebuilding and running the country? Are they waiting for a moment to arise and act?

In this presentation, Naoyuki Agawa will argue that, as in the past, Japan’s youth have the potential to act decisively when an occasion arises, but that they themselves may be unaware of their own potential abilities and strengths. Accordingly, it is important for Japan as a whole, and Japanese universities in particular, to instill in them, through more innovative and perhaps slightly untraditional means, the confidence and audacity to think and act on their own and to meet the challenge of revitalizing Japan in this rapidly changing global society.

Professor Naoyuki Agawa graduated magna cum laude from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, in 1977, after transferring from Keio University in 1975. Upon graduation, he joined Sony Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. While at Sony, he read law at the Georgetown University Law Center, graduating in 1984. He joined the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 1987 and worked for its Washington, D.C. and Tokyo offices through 1995. He is licensed to practice law in the State of New York and the District of Columbia. Continuing to practice law with the law firm of Nishimura & Partners in Tokyo, he joined Keio University at its Shonan Fujisawa campus (SFC) in 1999, as a professor of American constitutional law and history. He was appointed Minister for Public Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C. in August 2002 and served there until he returned to Keio in April 2005. He was Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management at SFC between 2007 and 2009 and is currently Vice-President of Keio University, in charge of international affairs.

Globalization in Japanese Universities - Common Themes and Varied Approaches
Panel discussion with Prof Naoyuki Agawa, Prof Junko Hibiya, Prof Angela Yu, moderated by Mr Jason James

Professor Junko Hibiya received her Bachelor of Arts in French Studies and went on to receive a Masters in Linguistics from Sophia University. She received her Ph.D also in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. Prof Hibiya has taught at Keio University, Dartmouth College and Columbia University in the past and is currently the President of the International Christian University and Professor of the Division of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Angela Yiu received her Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature and Asian Studies from Cornell University and her Ph.D in East Asian Languages and Literature from Yale University. She joined the Faculty of Comparative Culture (now the Faculty of Liberal Arts) at Sophia University in 1999. She served as the Dean of the Graduate School of Global Studies from 2009 to 2011, and since 2011 has been serving as the Vice President for Academic Exchange. Her field of expertise is Modern Japanese Literature.

Jason James has been Director General of the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation since October 2011. He gained a First Class degree with Distinction in Japanese Studies at King's College, Cambridge. After working for many years in the financial industry, mostly specialising in Japanese equities, he became Head of Research in the Tokyo office of HSBC Securities, and eventually Head of Global Equity Strategy at HSBC in London. From 2007 to 2011 Mr James was Director of the British Council in Tokyo, during which time he also served as Chair of the European Union National Institutes of Culture Japan cluster, as a Board Member of the Japan-British Society (and Chair of its Awards Committee), and as a Board Member of United World Colleges Japan.