" Ritsumeikan- Keio Joint Workshop” was held at Shonan Fujisawa Campus of Keio University from Saturday June 1 to Sunday June 2, 2013. This is the 10th workshop sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Centre (JICE). This event has been held biannually since 2008 to work towards sustainable policies in Asian countries through research reports and discussion between students from English-based programs specializing public policy at both graduate schools . This time, 17 participants from several countries including Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, China, and Japan made 15-minute presentations including Q&A for each under the theme “Japan’s Policies, Asia’s Policies for the 21st Century”. I was the first person to give a research presentation.

Professor Toshiya Hoshino from the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) made his keynote speech entitled "Japan's Foreign and Security Policy Challenges under Prime Minister Abe." 　What impressed me was his comment that the security of North East Asia became visible by looking at a map from different viewpoints. Then, Professor Vesselin Popovski from the United Nations University Institute for Sustainability and Peace(UNU-ISP), commented on the keynote speech. His comment was useful to deeply understand what Japan has been doing for security at present.

The presentations this time were highly suggestive for how to deal with the issues which take root in local society and global ones. Among them, many focus on housing policy, agricultural land reform, and how to form regional community. I gave a presentation on “The process of the OSPREY deployment in Japan”. Since this was my first research presentation in English outside of school, I had difficulty from the start. However, I could enjoy myself due to my effort. I mentioned about Japan’s security and I could luckily get advice from Professor Hoshino.

This workshop was good for me to motivate my research and discover and improve my research goals through the advice from professors and exchange with other graduate students.  Above all, I learned that many Asian countries also share the same problem at the presentation. I could see my theme from different points of view hearing the questions and/or suggestions from other students of which research themes are relatively close and sharing the approach of each to solve their problems. I hope to further develop my "study” as a graduate student through the research presentation and cultural exchange at this joint workshop.

（Written by Akiko Ishimaru from Social Governance, Policy and Administration Unit, 4th year, College of Policy Science, Early advancement system student)