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日本語 (Japanese)
JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) hosts “Matsumoto Juku,” an international training program for Japanese and foreign next-generation leaders to discuss climate change, energy issues, and cooperation between developed countries and emerging/developing countries since 2024.
And Hideyuki Yoshioka, CEO of Knowledge Signs facilitated this event in 2024 and 2025.
This training program was designed at the initiative of Dr. Hiroshi Matsumoto, who has served as the 25th President of Kyoto University, President of RIKEN, and as a government commissioner, and Director of the International Institute for Advanced Studies. Dr. Hiroshi Matsumoto associates with JICA’s Social Infrastructure Division that was seeking ways to support emerging and developing countries toward energy transitions based on breakthrough technologies, as well as ways to address the international brain circulation.
Dr. Matsumoto highlights the concern as
“Many young Japanese researchers focus only on their own themes, but they do not have a big-picture view and thought on how they can change the world with their work, and they do not engage in fundamental discussions. There is little interaction between researchers in the liberal arts and sciences fields. Why don’t we gather promising graduate students and set up a forum for free discussion with foreign researchers of the same generation?”
Based on this awareness, graduate students in the liberal arts and sciences fields from Japanese universities and long-term trainees from Indonesia, El Salvador, Kenya, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Egypt gathered at the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Kyoto for a five-day program.
This program applies the similar way of Climate Citizens’ Assembly, which has become popular internationally in recent years.
Firstly, the participants have the input, lectures to learn the current situation of climate change issues, the latest technologies for environmental measures, and other specialized knowledge from experts in various fields. And they transformed into output through debates, discussion and presentations about how to address the world-wide social issues.
During the first three days of the five-day event, more than 10 experts from various fields, including university professors, experts from the private sectors, and specialists from industry associations, gave lectures based on concrete data on climate change, environmental measures, the forefront of new energy development, and various other latest innovations.
The second half two-day session focuses on output. Each group discusses how to address world-wide scale social issues such as climate change, and comes up with an action plan on a policy advocacy scale. The planning process takes almost one full day, and at the end of the fifth day, each group presents its plan.
Knowledge Signs facilitated these two days of discussions and presentation sessions.
JICA has released a movie that report this event in 2025. please take A Look
We share how we facilitated this event in detail on this page. You can learn our facilitation process for cross culture groups.い。
Facilitation case of a cross-cultural group for JICA at the next generation leadership development
