Associate Professor Allen Kim (sociology) received a faculty program grant from JICUF last fall to hold the Japan-Philippines Student Summit (JPSS) this spring. Six students travelled to the Philippines with Professor Kim from March 7th to 15th. Below is a condensed version of the grant report from Professor Kim.
A team of ICU students participated in the 29th International Law Moot Court Competition Japan Cup held on July 7th and 8th, and received the Fighting Spirit Award. The students took the International Moot Court course taught by Assistant Professor Hiromichi Matsuda. JICUF has been supporting Professor Matsuda’s initiative to send ICU students to moot court competitions through the faculty grants program.
JICUF awarded Dr. Kaori Sato, instructor in the Health and Physical Education program at ICU, a ¥300,000 grant for her project, “Organizing a Hackathon for Quantitative Analysis with Harvard PhD Students.” Held in late May, the workshop aimed to inspire ICU students interested both in quantitative analysis and in developing their career abroad. We asked Dr. Sato to tell us more about her project.
JICUF has been supporting Team Asunaro’s volunteer activities in the Tohoku Region through our faculty grant program. Professor Etsuko Kato (anthropology) recruits ICU students to participate in recovery efforts in Tohoku organized by Team Asunaro, a group founded by four friends immediately after the devastating earthquake of 2011. Hikari Okada, a sophomore student at ICU, participated in one such trip from March 16th to 18th and shared his experience.
From March 7th to 20th, Professor Stephen Nagy led a group of six ICU students on the 2018 Global Link China (GL China) program. Previously known as the Japan-China Young Leaders Development Project, GL China offers ICU students the opportunity to foster a deeper understanding of Sino-Japanese relations through direct interaction between youth in Japan and China.
The first JICUF Undergraduate Research Day was held at ICU on February 24th. 45 senior students presented posters featuring their research. Associate Professor of Linguistics Seunghun Lee organized this event with funding from JICUF.
On January 26th, Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Instructor in the Physical Education Department at ICU, held a Blind Soccer Workshop on the campus. Blind soccer is an inclusive sport in which sighted players are blindfolded and play alongside blind or visually impaired players. Mr. Yamauchi received a JICUF grant last year to organize this event.
On December 2nd (Saturday) and 3rd (Sunday), the 2017 International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition was held at Waseda University, and the team led by ICU senior student Chizuru Yamazaki won first prize. The team will advance to the international competition in Hong Kong next March.
On September 23rd, ICU’s Peace Research Institute and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations hosted an international symposium titled “War Refugees in International Law and the Role of Civil Society” at the Togasaki Kiyoshi Memorial Dialogue House. In June, ICU Professor Osamu Arakaki received a JICUF grant of ¥800,000 to organize the event.
A team of ICU students led by Assistant Professor Hiromichi Matsuda participated in the 9th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Competition in Geneva from July 17th to 21st. Only the best teams from each UN region were invited to participate in this prestigious event, and ICU, along with 12 other university teams, qualified through the preliminary rounds in the Asia Pacific Region.
