Greetings,

I have taken over the Student Office as well as the Admissions Office directorships in order to improve the way we deal with matters concerning the Student Office and the Admissions Office and make our approach as integrated, strategic, and efficient as possible. To this end, we have launched a variety of new initiatives since I took over the directorships in April, and I would like to take this opportunity to announce two of these initiatives aimed at enhancing our capacity to better support our alumni activities and link our alumni and current students so that we can strengthen our alumni network in a smooth and efficient manner.

First, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the first international program we offered at GSPS in Saitama University in 1984. I would like to take this opportunity to invite alumni of the classes of 1984, 1994, and 2004 to come to GRIPS this summer to participate in Anniversary Homecoming celebrations—a series of events during the summer term that will culminate in the graduation ceremony of the current students in September. You may be able to attend the graduation ceremony to cerebrate your 10th, 20th, and 30th anniversary as well as give lectures and speeches at seminars and workshops we plan to offer during the summer term. These events are still being planned, so we welcome your ideas and suggestions to make our anniversary celebrations even more memorable. We hope to make these celebrations an integral part of our regular annual events and plan to invite alumni to return to GRIPS every ten years.

Second, we would like to boost our efforts targeting GRIPS/GSPS alumni by country, program, and year of graduation so that we can provide more useful information to you and let you know about what is going on at GRIPS. We welcome your ideas and suggestions in this regard as well as your initiatives for strengthening alumni networks.

I hope that GRIPS/GSPS marked the start of a great journey for you and I am grateful to you for keeping in touch with us.

Mikitaka Masuyama

Dean and Vice President

Professor, Political Science

homecoming@grips.ac.jp