GRIPS conducted the Thai Public Administration and Leadership Training Program (PMLTP) for 12 days, from May 26 to June 6, 2014. The program has been held at the request of the Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC) of the Thai government since 2007. In this eighth year of the program, GRIPS welcomed 15 promising government officials selected by the Thai government in addition to one officer from OCSC as an observer.

During the program, participants attended a lecture given by Professor Masahiro Horie (PMLTP program director, senior professor, director of the Executive Development Center for Global Leadership) as well as lectures given by the following GRIPS faculty members: Prof. Yonosuke Hara (academic fellow), Prof. Mikitaka Masuyama (vice president), Prof. Hiroshi Ikawa , Prof. Hiroko Ōta (former minister for economic and fiscal policy), Prof. Shigeru Morichi (academic fellow), Associate Prof. Hideki Masui, and Prof. Hiroshi Nagano (lecturer). In addition, lectures and seminars were given by Mr. Tsuyoshi Yoshimuta (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications-MIC), Prof. Hideaki Tanaka (Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University), Mr. Yōichi Sugimoto (executive officer of SECOM Co., Ltd.), and Mr. Masaki Nishimura (administrative vice minister of MIC and former president of the Board of Audit of Japan).

Leadership workshops were held three times at GRIPS with young executives from the public and private sectors as well as with GRIPS students to exchange ideas and build networks. Prof. Horie, Prof. Shimomura, and Prof. Takada served as moderators.

In Tokyo, participants visited the Ōta City Industrial Promotion Organization, Kitajima Shibori Seisakusho Co. Ltd., the National Diet, and the Ministry of the Environment. At the Ministry of the Environment, they were given special lectures on the water environment administration of Japan, the movement of the aerial environment administration, and measures to prevent global warming.

The PMLTP participants also took a field trip to Nara Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, and Kyoto City to pay courtesy calls and receive briefings on the tourism policy in Nara, environmental policies in Kyoto, the Kansai innovation international strategy / the Kansai area’s international innovation strategy, and the tourism policy in Kyoto City. They also visited ROHM Co., Ltd., one of the leading-edge companies in Kyoto.

Participants completed the training program by writing and presenting concept papers on the following topics: “AEC: Leadership Requirement and Challenges for Thailand”, “Leadership for middle-level management under Thailand’s Public Human Resource trend”, and “Situational Leadership-Case Study From Petroleum Production Platform”.