From April 1 to September 30, GRIPS conducted Taiwan Young Leaders Program 2020.

This year was the first attempt to carry out all events online due to the effects of  COVID-19.

The purpose of this program is to develop human resources who can become leaders in various fields such as politics, public administration, and academia in Taiwan. In addition to conducting intensive research on specific themes, the participants attended lectures at GRIPS.

We had this program third time this year and welcomed 4 Taiwanese trainees who have been selected from a large number of applicants.

For the research activities, each participant wrote a research paper on specific topic such as “Highly-skilled foreign professionals acceptance policy and workplace issues”, “Comparison of obstacle factors in the ratio of female managers in Japan and Taiwan, “Problems related to employment of foreign students in Japanese companies” and “Study on the applicability of the Japanese-style centralized personnel management system in Taiwan”. Their research activities were mainly supported by the program director, Professor Kiyotaka Yokomichi (Vice President), Senior Professor Hiroko Ota, Professor Hirofumi Takada, Associate Professor Ayumi Kubo, and Associate Professor Norie Ichikawa.

In the field trip, we made a virtual visit to Fukushima prefecture. Through lectures from prefectural government officials, Fukushima Innovation Coast Organization and TEPCO, participants learned the situation at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake 2011 and the reconstruction situation after that.

In the internship, they learned about the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies from Associate Professor Ayano Nishihara of Rikkyo University.

They also took lectures from female executives who are active in the front lines in Aeon Co., Ltd. and Calbee, Inc. about their business outline and social contribution etc. In addition, they hold a workshop to exchange opinions or share ideas with Japanese students, which was a good opportunity to experience new perspectives and values.

On the last day of the program, trainees presented their final research papers. After receiving feedback and advice from participants, each trainees received a certificate of completion of the program.