pokejapan@kyoto

Renewal of the website for the Global MBA at Doshisha University

Here is the official website for the renewal official site for the GMBA at Doshisha Business School. 

http://gmba.doshisha.ac.jp/

Here is the International Students Website for the Global MBA at Doshisha University.

http://www.doshisha-gmba.com/

 

Rainbow

From the window of our room for the Global MBA at Doshisha Business School, we could see a beautiful rainbow after raining. We enjoyed it for a while like for a coffee break.

 

Presentation for a HEC student

I had a chance to give a presentation about "Internet Marketing" for the Internship student of HEC School of Management, Paris, France at Doshisha Business School. This program is held by KCCI (Kyoto Chamber of Commerce). After my presentation, we could discuss with him and other faculty member of DBS about differences of Internet marketing between two countries.

New YouTube site for the Global MBA at Doshisha Business School

I have just created the video sharing site at YouTube as a new site for the Global MBA Program at Doshisha Business School. Please enjoy videos of faculty members from many countries.

Here is the new website at YouTube. 

Press conference for the launch of the new Global MBA at Doshisha Business School

We had a press conference for the launch of the new Global MBA at Doshisha Business School (DBS). The conference started with a speech by the President of Doshisha , the message from the Dean of DBS, and an introduction of the head of the Global MBA.  This course is going to start from September of this year and 23 students from 17 countries have been chosen to enter as the first students of this Global MBA course.Finally, we had many questions from the reporters of paper. Here is the one of  the articles of the press conference this time. (Kyoto Shinbun on 6th June, 2009 in Japanese only) 

My Global Kakushin Juku video with Doshisha song

I have just created my first video of the Global Kakushin Juku at Doshisha Business School. "Global Kakushin Juku" is a class of business education for Kyoto craftsmen and and craftswomen for the new leaders of Kyoto traditional industries at Doshisha Business School. Please have a look and feel free to give me some feedbacks.

Here is the new video.

My first video for Doshisha Business School

I have just created my first video for Doshisha Business School. Please have a look and feel free to give me some feedbacks. 

Here is the video.

Four international students from Asia

DBS welcomed eight new international students from spring 2009. Four international students talked together at the common room of the business school. The three of them come from Taiwan, Thailand and Mainland China. The other student has already studied for two years at this school. He was giving information about classes and student life at DBS for the new students. For new students, there are many things they have to do for their new school life. There is a new environment for them here in Kyoto, Japan and a completely new life style. Some help from students who are already studying here is very important and helpful for their new life at DBS. 

Welcome party with “Hanami”, Cherry blossom

At the river side of the Kamo River in Kyoto, a “Hanami Party” was held for the new students of DBS, 6th students by the DBSN (Doshisha Business School Network), which is the alumni organization. More than 40 students, family members, alumni and faculty members came together to enjoy cherry blossom with lunch and beer. It was so beautiful spring day in Kyoto just after finishing the cold weather in winter. By the nice atmosphere with beautiful flowers, water from river, gentle breeze and etc, new people could talk openly at the Japanese traditional ceremony in spring.

Video interview of a Global MBA faculty and a guest speaker

We could have video interview with Professor Zheng Wei Wei for Chinese language Class at Global MBA course. We also took the interview from Professor Kevin McCormick, Visiting Senior Research Fellow from University of Sussex (US) for Global MBA “Online Business Seminar” interviewed by Professor Philippe Byosiere, Doshisha Business School at the same time. Both videos should be very interesting for you even though they are not so long, and they are coming soon on the Global MBA website. Please refer to the “Our Faculty”, “MBA Video Messages” and “Online Business Seminar” page later.

Guests from the University of Hawaii

DBS (Doshisha Business School) had three guest students from Shidler College of Business at The University of Hawaii (MBA). The meeting was held at Doshisha Business School with guests from Hawaii and four DBS faculties, students and alumni for two hours. At first we each introduced ourselves, about our background and majors and discussed about the unique features of each of our master theses on the MBA. At lunch we had very good time talking about many things such as business, economics, politics and education from different perspectives in different countries of origin, and as MBA candidates we could talk freely with the two DBS faculty members. After lunch the guests had a tour of our facilities with some DBS students.

A presentation at DBS Marketing Forum (No.15) in English

I gave a presentation at “DBS marketing Forum” on the 22nd of February at Doshisha Business School. As it was the first time that this forum had presentations in English, I was very happy to participate in this event. I was the second speaker after Mr. Andrew Till, Co-founder and Vice President of Japan Market Intelligence K.K. He introduced some new marketing methods using new technologies, such as CVG (Consumer Vision Goggle). I was very interested in his presentation. 

After him, I talked about Internet Marketing, the theme of my talk was “Attractive website for the niche market using cutting edge technologies web2.0 “. This subject was quite similar to the presentation that I had done for the MBA of Xi’an JiaoTong University in China in November last year. That was about 40 minutes long including Q&A, but this time was much longer, around two hours for only my presentation. When I heard about that, I became nervous because it was the first time for me to give such a long presentation in English. Mainly, I talked about the case of the website of “Kakushin Juku” and its analytics. As I had plenty of time to speak, I introduced the website strategy of Global MBA and analysis as well, and also talked a little bit about my online shop at Rakuten shopping mall which is the largest online shopping mall in Japan. 

Our online shop called “K-net” is now celebrating its 11th anniversary on this shopping mall as it been in 1998. Though the total number of shops in the Rakuten mall, called “Rakuten Ichiba” is now more than 25,000 shops, only 39 shops including “K-net” are the oldest shops on the Rakuten Ichiba. Fortunately, the sales of our shop are gradually expanding, but the competition between online shops is becoming more and more difficult. 

Following that, I wanted to talk about the current situation of Internet marketing, looking at examples such as the website for craftsmen in Kyoto, those of the university and current online shopping, I had quite a few questions and much feedbacks from the audience and I really enjoyed discussion at this forum.

Seminar for Students from Chinese University in 2009

Around 80 students from universities across China visited Doshisha Business School (DBS). This is the forth time for students to visit from universities in China and we hope they had good time in our Business School getting to know about the education curriculum and the atmosphere of our university.　In the morning, the Dean, Prof. Harukiyo Hasegawa of DBS provided the welcome speech, and the next speech, “Introduction to Kyoto, Doshisha University” was provided by Associate Prof. Ou Qian, Associate Dean for International Affairs, Doshisha University. After the introduction of Doshisha Business School (DBS), a trial MBA class, “Marketing Seminar”, was provided by Prof. Hiroshige Hayashi from DBS. To present the students' perspectives, “What one international student thinks about DBS” was introduced by Mr. Sheng Wang a foreign student at DBS. Finally, a “Lunch Party” was held for the visitors with Doshisha students who have experience visiting and learning at Fudan University.

 

Video interview of two faculties from foreign Universities 5

We could have about 5 to 10 minutes of video interviews with Professor Naoki Kameda from Faculty of Commerce of Doshisha University, Professor Hans Marutschke from Doshisha Law School, Professor Keiko Toya from Doshisha Business School , Professor Takao Makido from Doshisha Business School, Professor Reiko Tomisawa from Doshisha University, Professor Peter Neff from Okayama University and Professor Asli Colpan from Business School of Kyoto University at the library on the 3rd floor of DBS. They talked a little bit about themselves and about their class which they are going to teach. All videos should be very interesting for you even though they are short, and they are coming soon on the Global MBA website. Now please refer to the "Our Faculty" page. 

Giving a presentation at DBS Marketing Forum in English

I am giving a presentation at “DBS marketing Forum” on 22nd of February at Doshisha Business School. As this is the first time that this forum is having presentation in English, I am very happy to participate in this event. I will be the second speaker after Mr. Andrew Till, Co-founder and Vice President of Japan Market Intelligence K.K. I will talk about Internet Marketing the theme of which will be “Attractive website for the niche market using cutting edge technologies web2.0 “. This subject is almost same as the presentation that I did for the MBA of Xi’an JiaoTong University  in November last year. That was about 40 minutes long including Q&A, but this time will be much longer, 90 minutes to around 2 hours for only my presentation. When I hard about that, I was a little nervous because this is the first time for me to give such a long presentation in English. Since I want to enjoy it, I’m going to prepare from now. Mainly, I would like to talk about the case of the website of  “Kakushin Juku” and its analytics. As I have plenty of time to speak, I will talk about the website strategy of Global MBA as well, and also about my online shop at Rakuten shopping mall which is the largest online shopping mall in Japan. Our online shop called  “K-net” is celebrating its 11th year anniversary on this shopping mall since 1998. Though the total number of shops on Rakuten mall, called “Rakuten Ichiba” is more than 25,000 shops, only 39 shops including “K-net” are the oldest shops on Rakuten Ichiba now. Fortunately, the sales of our shop are gradually expanding, but the competition between online shops is becoming harder and harder. I don’t know if the audiences of the forum are interested in our online shop, but I want to talk about the current situation of Internet marketing looking at examples such as the website for craftsmen in Kyoto, those of the university and current online shopping. 

Video interview of two faculties from foreign Universities 4

We could have about 10 minutes of video interviews with Professor Simon F Deakin from the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge and Associate Professor Andrew Staples from Kansai Gaidai University at the library on the 3rd floor of DBS. Professor Simon Deakin talked about Cooperate Governance for his next Global MBA class. He said he would mention some of the cases such as Enron from the US and Livedoor from Japan. Associate Professor Andrew Staples is going to teach a Global MBA class as well. Since he has been in Japan for about eight years, he knows about Japan and the Japanese well. Both videos should be very interesting for you even though they are short, and they are coming soon on the Global MBA website. 

Seminar for Students from Fudan University in 2009 Winter

Around 60 students from the well-known university, Fudan University, Shanghai in China visited at Doshisha Business School (DBS). This is the second time for studens to visit from Fudan University and we hope they had good time in our Business School to know about the education curriculum and the atmosphere of our university.

In the morning, the Dean, Prof. Harukiyo Hasegawa of DBS provided the welcome speech and the next speech, “Introduction to Kyoto, Doshisha University” was provided by Associate Prof. Ou Qian, Associate Dean for International Affairs, Doshisha University. After the introduction of Doshisha Business School (DBS), a trial MBA class, “Knowledge Leadership Seminar”, was provided by Prof. Philippe Byosiere from DBS. As a student voice, “What one international student thinks about DBS” was discussed by Mr. Sheng Wang from DBS. Finally, a “Lunch Party” was held for the visitors with students who have experience visiting and learning at Fudan University. 

Video interview of two faculties from foreign Universities 3

We could have about 10 minutes of video interviews with Professor Gordon Redding from INSEAD in France and Professor Raymond Loveridge from Said Business School, University of Oxford in the UK at 2nd floor hall of DBS. They talked about their classes at DBS which will start in autumn next year. I could learn many things from the two faculty members from a different perspective and we discussed about the Global MBA program of Japan in the future even thought it was only for a short time. Those video interviews are coming soon.

Video interview of two faculties from foreign Universities 2

We could have about 10 minutes of video interviews with Professor Fred Robins from the University of Adelaide in Australia and Professor Philippe Debroux from Soka University in Japan at our library of DBS. They talked about their classes at DBS which will start in autumn next year. I could learn many things from the two faculty members from a different perspective and we discussed about the Global MBA program of Japan in the future even thought it was only for a short time. Those video interviews are coming soon.

Video interview of two faculties from foreign Universities 1

Two faculty members who are teaching on the GMBA next year visited DBS for the conference called “The Euro-Asia Management Studies Association (EAMSA)”. EAMSA held its 25th Annual Conference from Thursday 4th to Saturday 6th December 2008.ttp://www.eamsa.org/conference2008/

Just one day before this conference, we could have about 10 minutes of video interviews with Dr. Glenn D. Hook from the University of Sheffield in the UK and Dr. Joop Stam from the University of Twente in the Netherlands at our library of DBS. They talked about their classes at DBS which will start in autumn next year. I could learn many things from the two faculty members from a different perspective and we discussed about the Global MBA program of Japan in the future even thought it was only for a short time. Those video interviews are coming soon. 

http://gmba.doshisha.ac.jp

  

2008, DBS-MXJ Symposium at Xi’an JiaoTong University in China

There are two purposes for this trip to Shanghai and Xi’an for me. One is to attend the meeting at Shanghai Rotary club and the other is that I give a presentation at Xi’an JiaoTong University. The presentation was hosted by the MBA program of Xi’an JiaoTong University (MXJ) and seven speakers gave their presentation including two professors from DBS and MXJ. 

I had time for a 30 minute presentation and 10 minutes for Q&A. My talk was entitled “Attractive website for the niche market using cutting edge technologies web2.0”. In the presentation, I wanted to say that the “Internet is good at niche market” using the Kakushin Juku case and Global MBA case. After my presentation, I had several interesting questions. I enjoyed this presentation and was rather less nervous this time because this was the second time to give a presentation at this university since last year. 

After this symposium we were invited to a Chinese style dinner party by MXJ faculty members, MBA students and PhD candidates from Xi’an JiaoTong University. On the last day of this trip we had an excursion with some people to visit the historical place of Kukai, who is an important person to spread Tantric Buddhist in ancient Japan. I will post an article about Kukai later.

Rotary Meeting at Shanghai Rotary Club

After I visited the highest observatory in the world here in Shanghai called “Mori Building”, which is 492m high and 100 stories high and I made an inspection tour of the powerful city of Shanghai in the day time. At the same day, I participated in the meeting of the Shanghai Rotary club in China meeting on Tuesday night at the Regal International East Asia Hotel. It was the 2nd time for me to visit this historic club meeting, which is the 2nd oldest club in Asia and I found the number of members is increasing to around 70 members consisting of only foreign passport holders. I was so happy to visit this meeting because they were so welcoming me when I visited about four years ago, and this time also they welcomed me, so I donated some money to thank them for the happy time and I made a short speech. I was surprised to hear that they have 10 to 20 visitors from all over the world each time. I could meet many people and enjoyed talking. I also find the many differences between their club meeting and ours. At the beginning they say the four tests, there is no song, they have a talking “spot” where they talk about new things like we do in Japan, they give donations called “happy time” and “sad time”, then there is dinner time where we can chat with people at the same table. I talked about Shanghai Rotary Club and they asked my purpose to visit I told them that I will give a speech about the Internet at Xi’an JiaoTong University in Xi’an a few days later. If I can I would like to come here again to see the lovely people in this club.

   

The first launch of Global MBA website from Doshisha Business School

We, MBA website project staff, have just launched our global MBA site of　Doshisha　Business

School　today. Thank you so much for your co-operation.

 

  http://gmba.doshisha.ac.jp/index.html

 

As I informed it by using this weblog before, we have been created this site since September this year. After it takes about two month and more, the first launch has been released today. I was wondering if several mistakes could be hiding somewhere even though we checked many time by several people. Please let us know if you find some of them. Anyway have a look and feedback any comments about this site to create it better.

Faculty interviews in English at DBS

We, MBA website project staff, had two interviews with faculty members who will be teaching on the Global MBA (GMBA) course in English next autumn in 2009. Both faculty members explained about their study area, their lectures and current issues which are happening now in the world. The first faculty member was Professor Noriko Hama who is a famous economist as well. She talked mainly about the economic crisis that is happening now in the world and explained about what should be the next move by the Japanese Government.

The next faculty member was Professor Kaoru Yamaguchi who is a specialist of “System Dynamics”. For the GMBA, he is teaching about environmental issues and sustainable business modeling. These two experiences of interviewing faculty members for the “video syllabus” were very impressive for me and I learned about some important academic issues even briefly. Those videos will be launched on the GMBA website next month.

YouTube video of Prof. Noriko Hama is here.

The alumni meeting for taking classes at DBS

Quite a few alumni came to visit DBS on Saturday in Kyoto. The DBS Network (DBSN), which is the DBS Alumni Society, planned to have classes for alumni only who have already graduated from DBS since 2005 to 2007. There were five classes such as Technology for Automobile Company, Service Marketing, Business Strategy, Creative City Kyoto, and Financial Crisis. 

People here enjoyed classes from different fields partly because they haven’t participated in any classes for several years after their graduation. It seems very fresh for us, including me. While we were in the MBA, we had so many assignments which make us sleepless and could not have enough time to relax for two years. We studied hard in order to complete the assignments and do the group work in order to make presentations and submit the reports before the deadlines. It was very tough because I had many things to do, such as my main job as the manage of my company, volunteer activities, and taking care of family members at the same time. I sometimes felt that the part time MBA was like a war. Anyway, that’s nothing but a distant memory now. We enjoyed the classes and the reunion of people from different areas in Japan. 

On the same day, I planned to take the alumni video messages from the participants. We took videos from four alumni for the new Global MBA website begining in autumn next year. Some of them are living in Tokyo, which is the capital city of Japan, a little far from Kyoto where the university located. So this was a good chance to catch them for shooting videos. After taking those classes, we went to the restaurant to eat and drink with those former warriors again.

 

The alumni Interview, Mr. Shinmura from Ganko Food Service

We asked Mr. Shinmura to make a video message for the international students of the Global MBA at DBS which will start in autumn of next year. He was an alumni who graduated from DBS in 2008. He is one of the managing directors and a member of the board at Ganko Food Service CO. LTD. The firm has more than 100 Japanese Sushi restaurants across Japan. Especially, the restaurants in Kyoto are unique because the company bought a traditional huge old house with a beautiful Japanese garden and recreated it into a restaurant.

The customers from overseas and from Japan enjoy going to the restaurants, having an experience of Japanese traditional foods with Sushi, and after meal their go to the nice garden of the restaurant. The garden has a waterfall, traditional  ponds, and lots of different trees which are very unique and can be seen only in Japan. The prices are reasonable with including the drinks such as beer, Japanese hot or cold Sake, and wine, etc. He started to work in this firm when he was a university student as a part time job and after several years, he became a managing director and a board member, CFO, CIO, and CHO.

He said in the interview that he enjoyed the business school "Kakushinjuku Project" which is a class for traditional craftsmen and craftswomen to who are supported by the business school which provided an MBA education. Mr. Shinmura was inspired and got many hints from the class and used those in his business. For instance, one of the lectures, Mr. Kawabe who is doing CG (Computer Graphics) Yuzen using the patterns and designs from Yuzen Printing which is the traditional painting method of Kimono, Japanese traditional dress. Mr. Kawabe was growing up in Kyoto surrounded by lots of Kimono due to the family business. He learned this skill and used the patterns and designs which have been  inherited for several hundred years by their ancestors. He had the idea of using elements of Kimono design in different materials and items by creating digital data, such as a swimming suites for Synchronized swimming, bags, clocks, and umbrellas, etc.

Mr. Shinmura got this idea from Mr. Kawabe and he wants to use elements of Japanese food, including Sushi, in Japan to use at Japanese restaurants overseas for expanding their business overseas. He told us at the end of the video about this dream for his future.

A volunteer is wanted to give a message in English on the new Global MBA

Since last month, we have started to prepare for the create on of English website for the new course of Doshisha Business School (DBS) in Kyoto, Japan, which will start from next autumn. I am one of the members of the project team to create the website for mainly for overseas students who are interested in coming to study here at DBS. To achieve this purpose, it should be an attractive website and dispatch lots of messages why in DBS, why in Kyoto, and why in Japan? in a different ways. I think the recent trend is often called “Web 2.0”, in which information is dispatched from individuals such as students,faculty members, alumni at university using video, photos, and weblogs, etc. through normal websites and community sites called SNS (Social Networking Services). I would like to create such an infrastructure for the English website  to dispatch various information to the world to show, how Doshisha　Business School is attractive. Not only nice are there facilities such as its modern building with excellent security, a 24 hour library with wired and wireless the Internet access, individual lockers, a gym, and the　coliseum style class rooms, but also there are a variety of students who come from many world famous industries in Japan such as Omron, Kyocera, Panasonic, Sharp, Japan IBM, Microsoft Japan, Kyoto traditional industries and many entrepreneurs.

First of all, we started to take videos of the alumni who have already graduated from DBS and asked them to give us as many messages as possible. At the same time we asked of messages from the faculties who support us from overseas universities is the format of video messages of discussions with several faculties. Next, we are going to create a web blog by the students, alumni and faculties and also a photo slide show to the demonstrate student life in Kyoto, Japan, in addition to general information. Please have a look a look at video we have already taken messages from several alumni and exchange students from Asian countries. These Google Video lists include those of traditional industries’ as well. We have already made video interviews with Mr. Sanda from Kyocera, Mr. Shinmura from Ganko Food Service, and Jennifer, a Chinese exchange student in 2008 from Xi’an JiaoTong
University. The new videos of Mr. Ishimoto, Mr. Awano are coming soon.

http://jp.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=pokejapan(YouTube) 

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=pokejapan&emb=0&aq=f# (Google Video)

We sincerely welcome anybody who wants to give a messages on our video message project. Anybody is welcome, if you have graduated from DBS or are now a DBS student who speaks English fluently or not. Please do not hesitate to contact us. Your message can help to create the future of DBS.

The alumni Interview, Mr. Sanda from Kyocera

I asked to take a video interview in English from the person who was a 1st year alumni of DBS so as to show it on our new website for the new course, the Global MBA. Now he is working in Kyocera, which is the one of the well-known global firms in Kyoto and works at the international sales division. This time I asked the following question in English instead of a native English speaker.

1. Please introduce a little bit about yourself including what you do.
2. What did you learn at DBS?
3. What are the most impressive things at DBS?
4. How did you enjoy it besides studying at DBS?
5. How do you use the things which you have learnt at work?
6. What will you do in the future in your business or in your private life?
7. Please give some messages to the international students who are interested in studying at DBS. Then why in Kyoto, Japan?

I asked the above questions and he replied very nicely and confidently, based on his work experiences. He provided feedback to us and recommendations for the international students who would like to come and study at DBS in Kyoto. He recommended taking an MBA course in Kyoto because Japan is one of the economically important countries in Asia, more important through Globalization and Kyoto has lots of well-known international firms such as Nintendo, Omron, and Kyocera, etc. The video is coming soon on the new English website of DBS.

 

Gozan No Okuribi, “Daimonji” Five Mountain Send-off Bonfires

In Kyoto, five beautiful bonfires in the shape of Chinese characters, “Kanji”, which are used in Japan, are lit on the mountainsides surrounding the city to send the ancestral spirits that had returned to this world back to the “Other side”. This is an ancient folk festival that marks the end of Obon, and is believed to be a time for the dead to return to the spirit world. The name of the festival is Okuribi (送り火), the Buddhist Festival of the Dead. This festival has been continued for more than 300 years in Kyoto. Here is the list of five mountains and the characters of each of the fires.

1. Daimonji (大文字), the character meaning "large" or "great:"
    on Daimonji-Yama/Higashi-Yama, Nyoigatake at 8:00PM
2. My?/H? (妙・法), the characters meaning "excellent law"
    on Matsugasaki, Nishi-Yama/Higashi-Yama at 8:10PM
3. Funagata (舟形), the shape of a boat:
    on Nishigamo, Funa-Yama at 8:15PM
4. Hidari Daimonji (左大文字), again, the character meaning "large:"
    on Daihoku-San, Hidaridaimonji-San at 8:15PM
5. Toriigata (鳥居形), the shape of a torii or shrine gate:
    on Toriimoto, Mandara-San at 8:20PM

I had a chance to see the Daimonji Festival for the first time from our university, Doshisha in Kyoto. We could see four of all five of the fires from the roof of one of the buildings of the university with three Chinese students and two of them were exchange students from the MBA course of Xi’an JiaoTong University in China.

First of all, the “大” (Dai) fire was started, which is the largest character at 8:00PM. It was so large and clear to see. Ten minutes later, two characters “妙・法” (Myo/Ho) were lit at the same time in the same direction. Then the “舟形” (Funagata) fire was started, but we wondered why the boat was in the mountain. I think it will send the spirits to the spirit world by boat. Finally, the other “大” (Left Dai) was lit. This is the same kanji character as the first Dai, but the shape is a little different from the other and it is located on the other mountain further away from us. According to the news paper of the following day this, one of the four major festivals in Kyoto, had around 100,000 people visit from many places in Japan. Fortunately, we could really enjoy watching the five fires in the four mountains from the hidden place which had very few people in the extremely hot summer in Kyoto.

 

 

 

I would like to introduce about two articles written by the exchange students, after they participated in this festival as follows:

 

A Beautiful Poem of Summer Night　(written by Jennifer)
I stand for the China Xi'an JiaoTong University international exchange students arrived at the Kyoto almost 3 months. In this period of time ,I except felt cross- culture, the most unforgettable experience was caught up with the Gozan no Okuribi (五山送り火), more commonly known as Daimonji (大文字), is one of the iconic festivals of Kyoto. It is the culmination of the O-Bon festival on August 16th.
      I and my friend set out at 6 PM on August 16th evening , left for the DOSHISHA  Business School where have arranged with Mr. YASU. On the way to DBS, we saw above the bank of Kamo River crowded with people who expect to the Gozan no Okuribi would start at 8 PM. It is completely different from the usual peaceful atmosphere.
     We mounted the steps of the highest building of DOSHISHA University, standing the roof, was waiting for the Gozan no Okuribi starting. Starting at 8PM, the giant bonfires were lit, each with a distinctive shape. Three of the fires form giant Chinese characters, and two form familiar shapes. Its represented for Daimonji (大文字), My?/H? (妙・法), Funagata (舟形), Hidari Daimonji (左大文字) and Toriigata (鳥居形), respectively. When the fire was taken turn to light, the entire night sky was illumined by the firing form giant Chinese characters. We surprise for the magnificence of the Daimonji, just taken many photographs, wanted to record this beautiful scene.
We gone through the process of Gozan no Okuribi, at the meantime felt the Japanese attach importance to the tradition. From numerous local populaces on the way, to the local mass media reported on regarding the Gozan no Okuribi, I was aware of respect for the traditional festival by Japanese. Although the Japanese economy is very developed, the Japanese actually want to develop the state economy with retaining themselves culture! Therefore, compare with their economy, Japanese take proud of own country culture. My Japanese classmate told me when I just arrived at Japan: KYOTO will happen to the Gozan no Okuribi after 2 months. Please remember to look! Whenever my Japanese friends mention to the Japanese culture, they easy to break through his primness, becomes exciting. The Japanese respect the tradition, inherit the tradition, and willing to discuss and propagandize their country tradition.
To be honest, when we saw the beautiful scene of Gozan no Okuribi, It is remarkable that not only lit several piles of fires. I hear of the Kyoto Government was framed the strict bill to control the urban district building (The highest construction not to be allowed to surpass ten floors), in order to the field of Gozan no Okuribi vision would not be disturb by the modern construction. And the human were responsible for lighting on the hilltop who kept the kindling and firewood piles already two days and nights. These laborious works is the service personals. They were volunteers, do not gain the rewards. Therefore such one holiday's inheritances, from the government apparatus to the populace, have made much effort together. Thence more and more people could able to see the Gozan no Okuribi. This is precise performance that the Japanese inherit historical. 
       I would remember forever: On the August 16th 2008 night, the Gozan no Okuribi cut through the night sky of KYOTO, the flaming firelight looked like a beautiful poem of summer night.
I should thanks to Mr. YASU and other Japanese friends provided us for arrangement. Thanks a lot!

 

 

Some experience and feelings of Japanese Daimonji festival  (written by ZhaoWeiJia)

I was invited by Mr. Yasu to visiting Japanese traditional festival?Daimonji, I‘ve no idea about this festival at first, just for curious I went to watch this ceremony.
From their introduction, I knew that Daimonji festival is one of the famous ceremonies in Kyoto of Japan, and we watch the whole process of ceremony in a very special place, where is an excellent view for watch the fires, so that we can see all of the five giant bonfires are lit on mountains surrounding the city. It signifies the moment when the spirits of deceased family members, who are said to visit this world during O-Bon, are believed to be returning to the spirit world. The most famous?and the first to be lit?is the character dai (大), on Kyoto's Daimonji mountain. The other four fires are lit at five to ten-minute intervals, and by 8:30, all the characters can be seen. Each bonfire lasts for 30 minutes.
When I knew the fire lit just for ancestors, I feel a little shock, not only because Japanese pay much attention on this festival, but there are so many Japanese whom came from different area for joined in the ceremony. In china, we have some ceremony for memory ancestor, but few of the citizens participate in it, what a sharp contrast
From these kinds of Japanese ceremony, I feel the conformity culture again, because most of the Japanese attach close importance to the traditional culture, and some of them wear Japanese traditional clothes to watching the festival. In my opinion, Japanese government and citizen dedicate themselves to keep traditional culture, they keep the old shrin so well and they keep so many traditional festival and ceremony. Japanese is the developed country which the world’s second largest GDP and famous for high-tech technology, but they keep their traditional cultural so well and deeply impression generation by generation, I think it is a really interesting and thought-provoking phenomenon, of course, this point should be learned by Chinese.
At present, china in a rapid development stage, especially after 1980’s economic reform, for strengthen Chinese economic, government and citizen introduced a lot of western management way, these new western thinking and behavior way, its really lashed Chinese mind. Of course, after economic reform, Chinese gain a outstanding achievement, not only in economic area, but also in political area, which promote Chinese status in the worldwide. Meanwhile, Chinese throw away lot of traditional culture, more and more Chinese young generation like the western festival but not Chinese traditional festival, they also don’t like traditional cloth such as cheongsam, more of young people prefer to jeans or sexy T-shirt.
Maybe Chinese government realized something wrong, so changed some modern festival days, try to keep traditional festival day, which for keep traditional culture and educate young generation, let them learn more Chinese history and culture.
So, for me, we should learn the high-tech technology and advanced management way from Japan, we still should learn more how to management a country’s culture and how to keep the features.

Interview an exchange student, Jennifer from China

One of the team members for the Global MBA web site project, Ms. Eleanor from UK interviewed Ms. Jennifer, who is a Chinese exchange student from MBA at Xi’an JiaoTong University. This MBA is the one of Top MBAs in China and has been affiliated with Doshisha Business School since last year. Four students came to our university this year and stay in Kyoto for about three months. She almost finished her classes already. She said she was really satisfied with her stay in Kyoto and at DBS, because she enjoys faculties, classes and environments of this University located in Kyoto, very famous city as traditional city in the world. She is going to be second alumni of DBS as an exchange student from Xi’an JiaoTong University. We decided to take a video message for information of new students who want to come and study this MBA in Kyoto as following questions.

1. Please let us know your profile.
2. How is going your study at DBS?
3. What do you study at DBS?
4. Why did you chose DBS and Kyoto, Japan to study as an exchange student?
5. What were you impressed by about DBS classes and a student life?
6. What were you impressed by about Kyoto and Japan?
7. What is the difference about MBA between Xi'an JiaoTong University and DBS?
8. What are you doing after graduate from Xi'an JiaoTong University?

Her video message is coming soon on the new Global MBA website, which we are creating now. I will report another parts of other contents soon.

    

The second year of the Kakushin-Juku at DBS

One and a half years have passed since The Kakushin-Juku started. Kakushin-Juku is a class for business education for Kyoto craftsmen and women as the new leaders of Kyoto traditional industry at Doshisha Business School.
Today there's a meeting about the next stage featuring students of the 1st and 2nd graduating classes, teachers, staff and guests. We almost discussed those concepts and structure and what to do in the future. Focusing on craftsmen and craftswomen is especially so important. Professor Murayama, who is a leader of this project, says “We are continuing to function and came here by trial & error. We had some difficulties, but we reached this stage after making some innovative products with craftsmen and craftswomen from different traditional industries in Kyoto.” He continued to say, “We had a presentation of the new innovative products from the Kakushin Juku at the San Francisco Gift Show in the US and the Kakushin-Juku is going to continue for one to two decades.”
At this meeting, quite a few ideas for traditional industries were introduced, such as collaboration with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and it was important to categorize entirely new traditional crafts with the same concept and the same brand name in marketing theories. Anyway, the Kakushin-Juku will continue and develop to progress not only in Japan but also overseas.

 

Students from the University of Education in China

Almost 30 Chinese students visited in DBS from Huazhong Normal
University in Wuhan (refer to the map below).  http://www.ccnu.edu.cn/english/

 

In the morning they had introduction about MBA education at DBS from the Dean Dr. Hasegawa from DBS. Then, one of DBS international student come from China, Mr. Wang, gave his presentation about DBS life and study. Also he explains how important for him to stay in Japan and to study at Japanese MBA. The students are so aggressive to ask many questions about Chinese firms to the professor. For instance, when the good timing is for Chinese firms going abroad, how effective for them Internet advertisements are, how they should act in the global age.

After those presentations, they had a look the facilities of DBS, which are new and advanced features, such as the coliseum style of class rooms with wired and wireless internet access, 24 hours library, large private locker room, and many project rooms which any students can use anytime, etc. I hope they had very important experiences at DBS in Kyoto.

 

 

 

 

More than 100 Chinese students visited DBS

We had more than 100 Chinese students from several universities in China, such as Fudan Daxue University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xiamen University and the other major universities at DBS(Doshisha Business School). This is the first time we have had such a large number of Chinese students at Doshisha Business School. Our program for this day is as follows:

Introduction about Doshisha University in Chinese by the Vice President of International Center
Demonstration class in English by Dr. Hasegawa, Dean of DBS
PR of DBS by Chinese students who are studying at DBS now
Party for lunch with Doshisha students

They traveled to Kyoto after visiting Waseda University in Tokyo. They seem to be positive about finding out what Japanese MBA education entails. After the seminars, some of them wanted to come and study at Doshisha Business school in the near future, but quite a few people want to go to a business school in the US or some countries in Europe because those universities are attractive for them to learn Business Education in English and create a network from all over the world. In the speech Mr. Oho, who is studying at DBS now, said that he understands that those universities overseas are attractive for Asian students because the universities in the US are good at business education and European universities are good at finance, but he has chosen a Japanese MBA because Asian countries will be more important in the future. That’s why he chose an MBA in Japan. I think the role of Japan’s MBAs will be more important if you focus on Asia's rapid development in the future.

Fudan Daxue University
http://www.fudan.edu.cn/englishnew/
Xi'an Jiaotong University
http://www.xjtu.edu.cn:8080/en/
Xiamen University
http://www.xmu.edu.cn/english/

   

  

The recollection of Cambridge

One of the faculty members of our MBA has been in Cambridge for one year and he started to write a weblog everyday on Japan's most famous SNS called mixi. Due to reading them everyday, they reminded me that I had a special class in the University of Cambridge about two years ago, when I was an MBA student. Today I've just found those photos and picked out some of them which I liked and posted them on this weblog. It was my first experience of having lectures in an overseas University and I was so impressed with everything. The environment of Cambridge was so nice to have the atmosphere of studying, because of its long history of more than 800 years. We stayed in the college dormitory named Fitzwilliam College for about one week and had a really nice and large English breakfast at the college dormitory every morning. I wrote on his weblog that I would like to visit there again in the near future with someone who would like to go with me.

Kakushin Juku introduced by Daily Yomiuri News Paper

The title of article is "Redesigning tradition for modern life Doshisha University course aims to pass skills of Kyoto craftsmen to next generation."

Detail of Article as follows:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20080327TDY16003.htm

Kakushin Juku http://bs.doshisha.ac.jp/kakushin/shokunin_e/index.html

Columbia MBA & Doshisha MBA

We had a wonderful party with many students from MBA of Columbia University. About forty people of a faculty and students from Columbia MBA and twenty people from Doshisha MBA had a party at the Sushi restaurant in Sanjyo, Kyoto. Their main purpose of visiting in Japan is the inspection of Japanese
large firms such as an auto company and high tech companies, and also traditional firms such as a brewing maker and a shoe maker. The Columbia MBA has about 1,500 students now for 1st year and 2nd year and about 30% are the International students from all over the world.It means that about 750 students each year, which is more than ten times larger than our MBA course.

After having a good time with sixty students and faculty, around forty people went to the Karaoke box for two hours singing together.I was so supplied to see their powerful singing. As I have quite many opportunities to see the different foreign students in Kyoto recently, I was enjoying to see many new
people.

 

MBA of Yale University

I have attended the group from Yale University in Kyoto yesterday. We visited at headquarters of Shimazu Corporation and Kyocera Corporation with the former president of Kyocera in the morning. We had very good time and studied about a history and strength of both companies, which are called “Kyoto Type Corporation”. After we enjoyed lunch at the Russian restaurant, we moved to our MBA of Doshisha University to have a class about Kyoto. The students and faculty from Yale University are very friendly and sophisticated. Finally, we had a nice dinner at the Japanese Sushi restaurant in Nijyo and enjoyed their garden with several students. I hope I could see them in Kyoto next year as well.

 

Kakushin-Juku Community Opened

   I am very happy to have the day when "the Kakushin-Juku" website community has been opened. It takes almost six month to create this community sites. It has diverse contents on the community, such as culture zone, business zone and communication zone, and each zone has several areas as this chart. Please have a look. My recommend area is the video (movie) area and you can see the video for craftsman’s working place and their excellent works. Now only in Japanese, but we are going to create English version soon. http://bs.doshisha.ac.jp/kakushin/shokunin_e/index.html

   

The Kakushin Juku
DBS (Doshisha Business School) is offering a class titled the Innovative Globalization of Kyoto's Heritage Industries, ”Kakushin Juku” from April 2007. The program offers business education for young managers employed in traditional industries to enable them to create cultural industries from these heritage industries of historic Kyoto, with the objectives of offering hints for new styles of living and making a global impact through overseas expansion.

MBA Network Workshop

     Yesterday, I have attended the DBSN (Doshisha Business School Network) and gave a presentation on how I wrote SR (solution report), which was a master's thesis at our MBA, for the students who were going this report from now for 30 min + questionnaire with the other two people who had already graduated from DBS. There were about 56 students audiences with the students already graduated and still keep studying now.

After this seminar, we had a party with mixed students who have joined and graduated different years together. Our school is quite new, so now there are forth generation. This was a so nice seminar and party to know each other for continue this network, which is very important, because they come from different field on different industries and have unique experiences and knowledge.

After those party, we went to the small bar near the school to drink, talk and see the funny original video which was taken by us for our graduation party this March. I am looking forward to join DBSN meeting for the next time which will be held on September.

Graduation ceremony

    I have just graduated from MBA course, graduate school of Business, after two years study. It was nice ceremony at the chapel with spring weather in Kyoto. 53 students class mates have graduated this year. Most of us have job and study at same time, who came from different fields and different specialities. I really enjoyed not only classes with the faculties and also learned from our class mates doing group works and class discussions. I hope we can have long relationship with them as the MBA network, because it is so important property after shared the same experience at the same place, and same time.

Beijing Forum and workshop

   I have just come back from Beijing in China yesterday after staying for three nights. The purpose of this trip was to attend the innovation forum and the Ph.D. workshop at Beijing Universality. This is the second time visiting in China for me after visited in Shanghai few years ago and fist time for Beijing. In Beijing, it was not so cold and we saw many constructions of building in many palaces for next year's Olympic games. I really enjoy the forum and the workshop, because I could attend many different presentations of innovations at forum and saw researches of Ph.D candidates from all over the world, such as England, USA, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Kyoto, the other region in Japan. Also I could see many peoples and communicated with the people from faculties, undergraduate students, master students , doctor students from different area and had the good time with nice dinners and excursion with them.
   I will take the Ph.D. course in Kyoto next month, so could also learn the ways of approach to write the doctoral dissertation. This trip gave me lots of nice opportunities to learn about it.

A comedian student

　　I read the book " A comedian student" written by Sonomanma-Higashi.　He was graduate from the famous University "Waseda University",　when he was 46 years old. He is a same University student in the deferent faculty and also has become a new governor of Miyazaki prefecture in Japan. He used be a comedian for long time, and one day he decided to become a university a student, studied very hard and made balance of well-known comedian, a student, a father, a runner, who was running half marathon everyday. He said that he liked to learn, because he could be pure and enjoy it, when he was learning. I am agree with his opinion and I can understand he is thinking and doing at University as　similar age. It was very important to make the balance between Job, which I running my own company, study, volunteer, being father, swimming,　and practice English conversation, when I am in the MBA course.　

The final report, "International Accounting"

　　　I have submitted my last report about International Accounting of MBA course now.The theme of the report is convergence of IAS (International　Accounting Standards) in the European stock exchange market. It ordered the foreign companies to change their IAS from their own standard in your country. Quite many Japanese companies have already decided to retreat from European stock exchange market, because they have to pay a lot of cost to adjust their financial statements from their own financial statements. They are required to do this until 2009, because of benefit of stock holders to be easy for comparison of the financial　statements of different companies. Anyway, I finished to write this report about　6 pages of A4 today and then submitted by e-mail. I feel very relax now,　because  everything finished for two years course of MBA.

Service Marketing class

    Service marketing class is one of my last classes at MBA. This class has many assignments, such as group presentations and preparation for them ,four individual reports, the final report in a group at seven weeks. We have submitted our group final report today and finished this class completely. The theme of our group final report is about the deluxe hotel in Osaka. One of our group members comes from this hotel. I can't write the detail of this report on this weblog, but we learnt lots of things about hotel's "Internal and External Marketing". We had inspection of hotel and had lunch at hotel Chinese restaurant. It was so nice lunch and nice sunset view with our seven group members from the top floor of the hotel restaurant.

Rugby World Cup

　　　The former prime minister, Yoshiro Mori came to our University in Kyoto to have speech as the chairman of Japan Rugby Union at the symposium of　Doshisha University Graduate School of Policy and Management. This　university used be good at rugby in the university league. He is a good　speaker to make audiences laugh often. He said that Japan failed to　achieve the Rugby World Cup in 2011, 　because New Zealand succeeded to　get it finally. Rugby in Japan actually is not very popular like　baseball nor football. He went to many countries for negotiation in the　politics field during compete with other countries. But Japan lost two　points different from New Zealand. As you know NZ is very famous for　Rugby and all Blacks world wide known. As the chairman of Japan Rugby　Union, he would like to get next World Cup being held in 2014.

Group study

   Today, I went to my school in Kyoto to have a group study to prepare for the presentation of Service Marketing class. We have seven students in our group. The theme of the presentation is "Analysis of Hyatt Regency Osaka Hotel" . We have a staff from this hotel and we have analysis from the view point of Service Marketing and find the problems and their solutions. We did 7.5 hours discussion and preparation of Power point slides today. Finally we reached to the several solutions and prepared the writing role of the final report for all of us. How was your MBA class in your country, if you have graduated from it?

Today's seminar about BRIC's and VISTA

   As you know that BRIC's countries are developing rapidly very much about 8 to 9% increasing for GDP. This speaker who is one of the Japanese famous young researcher about BRIC's and invited to our University to have seminar said that five engines for support those countries to develop are 1.Enough natural resources, 2.Increasing working population, 3.Inviting foreign investments, 4.Expanding middle class, 5. Stability of political situation. After BRIC's, they are watching new countries for the next as "VISTA" which are Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Argentina, and those countries also satisfy more than four of five above onditions as engines of developing the country rapidly. What do you think about it?

Almost finish for my MBA course

     My MBA will be finished in Mar. of this year. It has almost passed two years. Japanese MBA has not long history compared with US and European countries. We try to create it in Japanese way, after learning from other countries'. I really enjoyed 21 classes which I have taken, such as Marketing, Accounting, Financial, America business, European business, law class and so on. Each of them are very unique because faculties are unique. Especially, I enjoyed classes in English, such as GHRM, International Marketing, Kyoto venture business, leadership and presentation and communication and so on. I learnt many different ideas and theories from overseas faculties in American and English MBA way. There are only two classes and two final reports left, after I have submitted the theses and finished the defence of my theses.

     At first when this course started two years ago, I have decided to do two things for every class. First promise to me is to take the front seat at center of the class and secondly I would say more opinion or questions than the other students as class participation. I think I have done most of all classes. I will write my plans after MBA on this weblog soon.

New class at MBA course

      Graduate School of Business, Doshisha University will start the new class "Global Innovation Cram School for Traditional Industry" next year. This is the unique program that four faculties from University and five lecturers who are specialist of traditional crafts from outside of University will have classes and support the crafts men students. The revolution will be expected through collaboration with the other crafts men and teachers. My role of this school is supporting them through the Internet skill to sell traditional crafts after innovation this this school by using the new way of the Internet Marketing. One of our purpose of the result of this school would be innovated traditional crafts would be introduced to the overseas market such as European countries, US, and Asia.
      There was the symposium of "Global Innovation Cram School for Traditional Industry" last Sunday. More than 150 people have joined, and faculties and lecturers had a presentation and discussion at Doshisha University in Kyoto. I am looking forward to meeting with new students and have creative activities in this class.
http://bs.doshisha.ac.jp/english/index.html (Graduate School of Business, Doshisha University)

Visit a venture company

     Few days ago, I visited the incubation center in Kyoto University in Kyoto. I am getting interested in a cluster and an incubation recently, after visiting University of Cambridge in UK. It was very helpful for the start up company to get working place and friend as same circumstance. The company which I visited at that time, he was graduated from this school and started the business based on the new high technology after getting investments from some angels. I think that he is an entrepreneur and I will research this company at "class of Kyoto venture business", which I have taking now.