A total of 14 Bangladeshi young government officials will leave for Japan next month to study for two years under Japan Development Scholarship (JDS), says a press release.
They will study in Japan for two years to obtain Master's degrees in various fields.
A send-off ceremony for the JDS fellows was held on Monday at the Japanese Ambassador's residence.
Japanese ambassador Tamotsu Shinotsuka encouraged JDS fellows to keep in mind that both Bangladeshi and Japanese people expect a great deal from them for the development of their own country through making the best use of knowledge and experience that will be acquired in Japan.
The formal title of the Scholarship is "The Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS)." It was established by the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh with the assistance of the Government of Japan in the year 2001.
JDS will contribute to enhancing the knowledge and skills of young Bangladeshi people so that they can play leading roles in the development of Bangladesh after completion of their studies.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=147690
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Vietnamese students fill niche at Japanese firms
Vietnam has been getting a lot of attention from Japanese companies thanks to its rising middle class and plans for large-scale development projects, such as nuclear power plants and railway systems. More and more Japanese companies are interested in hiring Vietnamese employees to do businesses in the country.
For such firms, there are potential employees already living in Japan, as an increasing number of students from Vietnam are studying here, helping to create a bridge between the two countries.
Last month, Tran Minh Hue, a postgraduate student at Kobe University, traveled all the way to Tokyo to attend a job event aimed exclusively at Vietnamese wanting to work for Japanese companies after completing their education this academic year.
The 28-year-old joined 15 other students who traveled to Shinagawa Ward from as far away as Fukushima and Kita-Kyushu. The event was unlike regular job fairs, where students visit booths for companies they are interested in. Instead, the Vietnamese sat at several desks and talked about themselves whenever they were approached by corporate recruiters.
"I'm a logical thinker and I'm comfortable speaking in front of others," Hue said in fluent Japanese during her presentation. She also discussed the variety of volunteer activities in which she has been engaged during her two years in Japan.
At the job event, the 16 students were brought together with four companies, with each interview session lasting 20 minutes.
Nguyen Manh Hung, a postgraduate student at Fukui University, said he wants to work in Japan "to take advantage of the cutting-edge knowledge I've acquired here." In the future, the 26-year-old added, "I hope to find a new business opportunity in my country and make it into something big."
The event was the second organized by G.A. Consultants Co. in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. The first one took place in April and attracted 15 students. Since its establishment in 1995, the employment agency has helped bring together graduates of Vietnamese universities and Japanese companies. In 2008, it started a business focusing on the increasing number of Vietnamese studying in Japan.
The number of students from the country reached 3,199 last year, double the number recorded in 2004, according to the Japan Student Services Organization. Although they accounted for just 2.4 percent of the overall foreign student body of nearly 133,000, they have now formed the fourth-largest group after China, South Korea and Taiwan.
The two events attracted a total of nine companies--from information technology to construction and real estate--most of which are already doing businesses in Vietnam or are keen to do so.
At the June event, Yoshinori Tamaki, president of Saitama Prefecture-based car dealer GlobanNet Co., was looking for his firm's first foreign employee. "I'd like to start up a business there, probably beginning with a restaurant."
The president has spent a lot of time visiting Vietnam, during which time he has discovered attractive factors such as its growing population and political stability. "I've also found the people are hard-working and really smart," he added.
Osaka-based Fine Co. also was looking for a candidate to manage an office it plans to open in Vietnam next year. The diet supplement manufacturer has been inspired by the country's rich natural resources.
"We'd like to develop ingredients for our products there," Executive Vice President Nobutsuna Sasaki said. "In China, ingredients have been getting more and more expensive recently."
Hung started his job-hunting in February. One difficulty he is facing is "finding the information I want among so many companies in Japan," such as which ones want to hire foreign students.
Vietnamese students also tend to struggle with a lack of Japanese-language skills and the peculiar job-hunting practices in Japan--such as starting efforts more than a year before graduation--according to Dang Quang Duy, vice president of the Vietnamese Youths and Students Association in Japan (VYSA) and a postgraduate student at Tokyo Institute of Technology.
VYSA, formed in 2001, organizes job fairs and briefing sessions on how to find work, while also posting employment opportunities on its Web site.
"Most Vietnamese students in Japan want to work here for a while before going back home," said the 26-year-old, who has received a job offer from a major Japanese company.
Yet the reality is that many of them have had to go home because they cannot find a job here--a situation that Masaaki Ando, G.A.'s general manager, describes as a "shame" for the country.
To help the two events bring about as high "matching rates" as possible, G.A. screened its applicants, narrowing them down to 31--based on factors such as their Japanese-language skills and personalities--and taught them how to make proper presentations during interviews.
More than half of the interviewees advanced to the next round of screening, and some from the first event eventually received a job offer.
"Although they're brilliant and willing to work as a bridge between [Vietnam and] Japan, many of them haven't been given a chance to do so," he said. "I'd really like [more Japanese firms] to give them a chance."
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20100715TDY15T02.htm
For such firms, there are potential employees already living in Japan, as an increasing number of students from Vietnam are studying here, helping to create a bridge between the two countries.
Last month, Tran Minh Hue, a postgraduate student at Kobe University, traveled all the way to Tokyo to attend a job event aimed exclusively at Vietnamese wanting to work for Japanese companies after completing their education this academic year.
The 28-year-old joined 15 other students who traveled to Shinagawa Ward from as far away as Fukushima and Kita-Kyushu. The event was unlike regular job fairs, where students visit booths for companies they are interested in. Instead, the Vietnamese sat at several desks and talked about themselves whenever they were approached by corporate recruiters.
"I'm a logical thinker and I'm comfortable speaking in front of others," Hue said in fluent Japanese during her presentation. She also discussed the variety of volunteer activities in which she has been engaged during her two years in Japan.
At the job event, the 16 students were brought together with four companies, with each interview session lasting 20 minutes.
Nguyen Manh Hung, a postgraduate student at Fukui University, said he wants to work in Japan "to take advantage of the cutting-edge knowledge I've acquired here." In the future, the 26-year-old added, "I hope to find a new business opportunity in my country and make it into something big."
The event was the second organized by G.A. Consultants Co. in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. The first one took place in April and attracted 15 students. Since its establishment in 1995, the employment agency has helped bring together graduates of Vietnamese universities and Japanese companies. In 2008, it started a business focusing on the increasing number of Vietnamese studying in Japan.
The number of students from the country reached 3,199 last year, double the number recorded in 2004, according to the Japan Student Services Organization. Although they accounted for just 2.4 percent of the overall foreign student body of nearly 133,000, they have now formed the fourth-largest group after China, South Korea and Taiwan.
The two events attracted a total of nine companies--from information technology to construction and real estate--most of which are already doing businesses in Vietnam or are keen to do so.
At the June event, Yoshinori Tamaki, president of Saitama Prefecture-based car dealer GlobanNet Co., was looking for his firm's first foreign employee. "I'd like to start up a business there, probably beginning with a restaurant."
The president has spent a lot of time visiting Vietnam, during which time he has discovered attractive factors such as its growing population and political stability. "I've also found the people are hard-working and really smart," he added.
Osaka-based Fine Co. also was looking for a candidate to manage an office it plans to open in Vietnam next year. The diet supplement manufacturer has been inspired by the country's rich natural resources.
"We'd like to develop ingredients for our products there," Executive Vice President Nobutsuna Sasaki said. "In China, ingredients have been getting more and more expensive recently."
Hung started his job-hunting in February. One difficulty he is facing is "finding the information I want among so many companies in Japan," such as which ones want to hire foreign students.
Vietnamese students also tend to struggle with a lack of Japanese-language skills and the peculiar job-hunting practices in Japan--such as starting efforts more than a year before graduation--according to Dang Quang Duy, vice president of the Vietnamese Youths and Students Association in Japan (VYSA) and a postgraduate student at Tokyo Institute of Technology.
VYSA, formed in 2001, organizes job fairs and briefing sessions on how to find work, while also posting employment opportunities on its Web site.
"Most Vietnamese students in Japan want to work here for a while before going back home," said the 26-year-old, who has received a job offer from a major Japanese company.
Yet the reality is that many of them have had to go home because they cannot find a job here--a situation that Masaaki Ando, G.A.'s general manager, describes as a "shame" for the country.
To help the two events bring about as high "matching rates" as possible, G.A. screened its applicants, narrowing them down to 31--based on factors such as their Japanese-language skills and personalities--and taught them how to make proper presentations during interviews.
More than half of the interviewees advanced to the next round of screening, and some from the first event eventually received a job offer.
"Although they're brilliant and willing to work as a bridge between [Vietnam and] Japan, many of them haven't been given a chance to do so," he said. "I'd really like [more Japanese firms] to give them a chance."
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20100715TDY15T02.htm
Japanese seen as 'critical' in U.S. language program
Thirty students from the U.S. traveled to Kyoto last month under a new U.S. government initiative to boost the country’s number of Japanese speakers, to make the country more competitive globally.
The student trip was sponsored by the U.S. State Department as part of its Critical Language Scholarship Program, known as CLS, a government initiative aimed at improving the foreign language skills of U.S. citizens.
The two-month program gives undergraduate and graduate students from across the country the opportunity to study Japanese in intensive, full-immersion environments at Doshisha University and Kyoto University.
Japanese was added to the CLS program for the first time this year since it started in 2006 under the administration of former President George W Bush, in line with the launch of the National Security Language Initiative, a scheme to increase the study of languages considered vital to U.S. national security.
In the program’s first years, scholarships were offered for Arabic, Pashtun, Korean and other languages that are rarely studied in the United States but are considered to be of strategic importance by the U.S. military and intelligence communities.
But the program has gradually expanded to include languages that are more broadly relevant to U.S. global interests, including trade and finance, and Japanese was chosen this year.
Susan Schmidt, an expert on Japanese language acquisition at the Association of Teachers of Japanese, believes that including Japanese in this year’s program reflects the changing attitudes of U.S. policymakers about what makes a language “critical.”
“I think what happened probably is that in the State Department, it was felt that that definition of critical, as in important for national security or national purposes, that that definition should be expanded a little bit, beyond the strictly military context,” Schmidt said.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs Alina Romanowski said that CLS selects “challenging, difficult languages in places where we know there’s economic opportunity, we have long-term bilateral security interests and where to be proficient in that language takes time.”
The program comes at a time that some describe as a fraught period in Japan-U.S. relations, when the outlook of bilateral ties has grown uncertain due to a change in Japan’s political leadership and a dispute over the fate of a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa.
The decision to include Japanese in the CLS program, however, was made well before the current tensions began, Romanowski noted. “It’s a very important relationship. . . . It made sense that we would end up including Japanese,” she said.
In fact, in its decision to add Japanese to the CLS program, the State Department seems to be riding a growing wave of interest in the study of Japanese within the U.S.
The number of American students studying Japanese has more than doubled over the last two decades and continues to increase steadily, according to a 2006 report on foreign language study in the U.S. conducted every four years by the Modern Language Association.
Schmidt believes this interest has been primarily driven by student interest in Japanese cultural exports, noting that ” ‘manga’ cartoons and animated films and the video games are a fairly big motivation for students.”
Once their interest has been sparked, Schmidt said, these students increasingly put their Japanese to use in their studies.
“A lot of students in the sciences now are interested in learning Japanese and studying in Japan,” she said.
Schmidt’s assessment was confirmed at an orientation session for the CLS program held in Washington in early June, where participants said that although Japanese culture was what initially interested them in the language, they see it as an important tool for their future, whether in international business, diplomacy or the sciences.
“Before the large ‘anime’ boom around the early 2000s, I had never even heard of Japan,” said Tiarra Beaver, a 19-year-old student at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, who now hopes to work with Japanese immigrants as they adjust to life in the U.S.
While not discounting the attraction of Japanese culture, Ryan Seebruck, a 27-year-old graduate student at the University of Arizona, sees the Japanese language as “critical” for a more pragmatic reason.
“Japan will undoubtedly remain a top economic power for a long time,” Seebruck said.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/japanese-seen-as-critical-in-us-language-program
The student trip was sponsored by the U.S. State Department as part of its Critical Language Scholarship Program, known as CLS, a government initiative aimed at improving the foreign language skills of U.S. citizens.
The two-month program gives undergraduate and graduate students from across the country the opportunity to study Japanese in intensive, full-immersion environments at Doshisha University and Kyoto University.
Japanese was added to the CLS program for the first time this year since it started in 2006 under the administration of former President George W Bush, in line with the launch of the National Security Language Initiative, a scheme to increase the study of languages considered vital to U.S. national security.
In the program’s first years, scholarships were offered for Arabic, Pashtun, Korean and other languages that are rarely studied in the United States but are considered to be of strategic importance by the U.S. military and intelligence communities.
But the program has gradually expanded to include languages that are more broadly relevant to U.S. global interests, including trade and finance, and Japanese was chosen this year.
Susan Schmidt, an expert on Japanese language acquisition at the Association of Teachers of Japanese, believes that including Japanese in this year’s program reflects the changing attitudes of U.S. policymakers about what makes a language “critical.”
“I think what happened probably is that in the State Department, it was felt that that definition of critical, as in important for national security or national purposes, that that definition should be expanded a little bit, beyond the strictly military context,” Schmidt said.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs Alina Romanowski said that CLS selects “challenging, difficult languages in places where we know there’s economic opportunity, we have long-term bilateral security interests and where to be proficient in that language takes time.”
The program comes at a time that some describe as a fraught period in Japan-U.S. relations, when the outlook of bilateral ties has grown uncertain due to a change in Japan’s political leadership and a dispute over the fate of a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa.
The decision to include Japanese in the CLS program, however, was made well before the current tensions began, Romanowski noted. “It’s a very important relationship. . . . It made sense that we would end up including Japanese,” she said.
In fact, in its decision to add Japanese to the CLS program, the State Department seems to be riding a growing wave of interest in the study of Japanese within the U.S.
The number of American students studying Japanese has more than doubled over the last two decades and continues to increase steadily, according to a 2006 report on foreign language study in the U.S. conducted every four years by the Modern Language Association.
Schmidt believes this interest has been primarily driven by student interest in Japanese cultural exports, noting that ” ‘manga’ cartoons and animated films and the video games are a fairly big motivation for students.”
Once their interest has been sparked, Schmidt said, these students increasingly put their Japanese to use in their studies.
“A lot of students in the sciences now are interested in learning Japanese and studying in Japan,” she said.
Schmidt’s assessment was confirmed at an orientation session for the CLS program held in Washington in early June, where participants said that although Japanese culture was what initially interested them in the language, they see it as an important tool for their future, whether in international business, diplomacy or the sciences.
“Before the large ‘anime’ boom around the early 2000s, I had never even heard of Japan,” said Tiarra Beaver, a 19-year-old student at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, who now hopes to work with Japanese immigrants as they adjust to life in the U.S.
While not discounting the attraction of Japanese culture, Ryan Seebruck, a 27-year-old graduate student at the University of Arizona, sees the Japanese language as “critical” for a more pragmatic reason.
“Japan will undoubtedly remain a top economic power for a long time,” Seebruck said.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/japanese-seen-as-critical-in-us-language-program
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Firms to boost foreigner hiring
Fast Retailing Co., Lawson Inc. and Rakuten Inc. are planning to boost hiring of foreign nationals by up to 50 percent of their new recruits in fiscal 2011, officials of the companies said Tuesday.
Because they are expanding global operations, especially in emerging markets in Asia, amid shrinking domestic sales, the three companies are accelerating operations to hire Asian graduates in their home countries and those studying at Japanese universities.
The firms hope to promote them to company executives in the future to lead their operations in the Asian markets, the officials said.
Fast Retailing, the operator of the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, said it is planning to hire about 300 foreigners, which would account for about 50 percent of its planned new recruits for the year starting next April.
The company hopes to hire people who can work on its plan to open more shops in China and those who can serve as shop managers in Malaysia and Taiwan, where it plans to open its first outlets.
President Tadashi Yanai said the hiring rate of foreign employees will be increased in fiscal 2012, with a plan for up to two-thirds of 1,000 planned new recruits to be foreigners.
Major convenience store change Lawson is boosting recruitment of foreign students graduating from Japanese universities. It will continue hiring about 20 percent to 30 percent of its new recruits from Asian countries, it said. It has already hired 66 foreign graduates in three years from fiscal 2008, accounting for 20 percent of all the new recruits.
Rakuten, which operates the largest Internet mall in Japan, said it will hire 150 foreigners among 600 new recruits it plans to employ in fiscal 2011.
It has agreed with China's top Internet search engine Baidu Inc. to form a joint venture to launch an online mall in China in the second half of this year and hopes to utilize Chinese engineers to come up with services attracting customers in the Chinese market.
Panasonic Corp. has also been boosting its employment of foreigners.
In fiscal 2011, it plans to increase the number of such employees to 1,100, up by 50 percent from the previous year, the company said.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100707a1.html
Because they are expanding global operations, especially in emerging markets in Asia, amid shrinking domestic sales, the three companies are accelerating operations to hire Asian graduates in their home countries and those studying at Japanese universities.
The firms hope to promote them to company executives in the future to lead their operations in the Asian markets, the officials said.
Fast Retailing, the operator of the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, said it is planning to hire about 300 foreigners, which would account for about 50 percent of its planned new recruits for the year starting next April.
The company hopes to hire people who can work on its plan to open more shops in China and those who can serve as shop managers in Malaysia and Taiwan, where it plans to open its first outlets.
President Tadashi Yanai said the hiring rate of foreign employees will be increased in fiscal 2012, with a plan for up to two-thirds of 1,000 planned new recruits to be foreigners.
Major convenience store change Lawson is boosting recruitment of foreign students graduating from Japanese universities. It will continue hiring about 20 percent to 30 percent of its new recruits from Asian countries, it said. It has already hired 66 foreign graduates in three years from fiscal 2008, accounting for 20 percent of all the new recruits.
Rakuten, which operates the largest Internet mall in Japan, said it will hire 150 foreigners among 600 new recruits it plans to employ in fiscal 2011.
It has agreed with China's top Internet search engine Baidu Inc. to form a joint venture to launch an online mall in China in the second half of this year and hopes to utilize Chinese engineers to come up with services attracting customers in the Chinese market.
Panasonic Corp. has also been boosting its employment of foreigners.
In fiscal 2011, it plans to increase the number of such employees to 1,100, up by 50 percent from the previous year, the company said.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100707a1.html
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