On June 7th, 2025, JICUF hosted the inaugural gathering of the Othmer Research Fellows at International Christian University—a day marked by dynamic collaboration, peer feedback, and candid dialogue across disciplines. The workshop included reflections from ICU alumni and concluded with motivating insights from JICUF Board Member and Grants Committee Chair, Dr. Machi Dilworth. Read the full story and see more photos.
Project title: “Singing Songs and SDGs Storytelling in Spanish Class” Grant recipient: Adiene Hishiyama, Instructor of Spanish Amount awarded: 300,000 yen Adiene is on the far left (All photos on this page taken by Yu Goto) Adiene Hishiyama, who has been teaching Spanish at ICU since 2018, held a workshop on learning Spanish songs with support from JICUF’s faculty grant. This workshop not only improved the participants’ vocabulary and pronunciation through singing, but also explored issues such as migration and poverty which were reflected in the songs. The project culminated in a performance at the Nishi-Tokyo City Cultural Festival held in November 2024. Through this project, the students not only […]
In late April, JICUF co-hosted three events in Japan on the theme of expanding higher education access for displaced students: a roundtable on Burmese and Rohingya refugees at the University of Tokyo, a presentation by Wilfrid Laurier University’s International Students Overcoming War (ISOW) team, and a full-day student workshop for student action for humanitarian causes at ICU.
On April 25 (Friday) and 26 (Saturday), JICUF and Wilfrid Laurier University will co-host two events at ICU focused on providing higher education opportunities for students with refugee backgrounds. We invite ICU students, faculty and staff to learn about the groundbreaking student-led initiative of the Canadian University to bring students from conflict zones around the world to study in Canada.
On November 20 and 21, JICUF co-hosted a workshop titled “Skills-Based Pathways for Refugees: Challenges and Solutions for Long-Term Integration” at the Embassy of Canada to Japan. Approximately 70 participants gathered from around the world to discuss how to admit more refugees through educational and professional opportunities.
ICU first year student Taiga Ogusu received a Student Activities Fund grant from JICUF in fall 2019. He and his group Entre organized an entrepreneurship event on February 7.
Earlier this month, JICUF Executive Director Paul Hastings was invited by the Institute of International Education to speak at a workshop in Vietnam on the topic of refugee higher education. JICUF’s scholarship program for Syrian students, the Syrian Scholars Initiative, is the only private sponsorship program hosted by a university in Japan and has garnered much interest among the international community. ICU Professor Osamu Arakaki also participated in the workshop.
ICU doctoral student Jenni Fajardo received a JICUF grant of ¥140,000 in winter term 2016 to organize a series of workshops to help ICU students improve their presentation and business communication skills. Five workshops took place from May 19th to June 16th, with a different speaker and topic in each session. We asked participants to share their experiences.
ICU hosted the 13th Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics (WAFL 13) from May 25th to 28th. Senior Associate Professor Tomoyuki Yoshida received a grant from JICUF last year and played a central role in bringing the workshop to Japan for only the second time in its history. The four-day conference which had close to 100 participants was dedicated to former ICU linguistics professor Dr. Kazuko Inoue, who recently passed away.
On May 27th, ICU Senior Associate Professor Eckhard Hitzer (physics) organized a one-day workshop on campuus entitled “Sustainable University Development with a Focus on Renewable Energy (SUDre 2017).” The workshop explored how universities could switch to renewable energy, and was partially funded by a grant from JICUF. The successful event was attended by close to 120 people.
