MIRAI Programme

Gabriele Maletta
MIRAI Program 2018 – Politics and Security

Japan has been the passion of my life since I was a child. It first began with animation and toys, and then the culture, history and politics. Everything about Japan is extremely fascinating to me. Growing up in a small town in Italy, however, I could never imagine that I would be fortunate enough to explore this magnificent country by taking part in the MIRAI programme.

Over the past five years, I have been thinking about how to make my passion meet my profession. As an undergraduate majoring in International Relations in Milan, I took a one-year Japanese language course. My strong sense of identity as a citizen of the EU has constantly steered me to focus my studies on the external relationships of the EU, particularly the one with Japan. It was this thirst for knowledge that brought me to London to pursue my master degree in EU politics at LSE. In London, I have even more opportunities to understand Japanese culture and exchange ideas with Japanese people. I continued to study Japanese by taking courses provided by the LSE Japanese Society. In my department, I met Japanese classmates who provided me fresh takes on the EU-Japan relationship. I soon learned about the MIRAI programme from them, and I immediately decided to apply for it. I believed that it could be the best way to make my passion meet my profession, and it turned out to be true.

The program has revolved around politics and security of Japan and 40 students from all over Europe have been selected for the trip. I have been very grateful to be selected as one of them, to finally have the chance to go to Japan.

The trip lasted for one week and we visited Tokyo and Hiroshima. The staff of Japan International Cooperation Centre (JICE) would take us everywhere during the trip and they have been extremely in making us understand various aspects of Japan.

We spent the first two and a half days in Tokyo, where we talked to representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to international relations professors at Keio University. These encounters have been very helpful in making us understand the regional context of East Asia and the role that Japan has in it. In particular, we understood the security challenges that Japan is facing and we started thinking about how cooperation could work between Europe and Japan, due to the values they both stand for.

Then, we spent two and a half days in Hiroshima, where we first engaged with the traditional culture and after we have been introduced to the legacy of the Second World War there. A-bomb survivor Kiriake Chieko shared her powerful story with us, making us realise how some foreign policy choices can have devastating consequences for the population. I will never forget her testimony and I am very grateful to have met her.
For our last two days in Tokyo, we had to prepare an action plan to be implemented upon returning to our countries. As group leader, I have presented our action plan at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, outlining all the plans of my colleagues, which included: writing dissertations and articles about Japan, working for Japanese companies in our home countries or also pursuing a career in Japan.

The MIRAI program has been an incredible experience in which I met great people. It did not only help me learn a lot about the foreign relations of Japan but also, made me realise that I want to develop my career in EU-Japan cooperation. To do so, I will apply to the MEXT scholarship and other programs in Japan in order to improve my research skills and learn the Japanese language.