Starting from early August to late September 2025, GRIPS held four rounds of its intensive summer program, "Understanding the Japanese Development Experience." This program, designed for Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) scholarship fellows, was organized by GRIPS in collaboration with JICA. The participants were students, mainly graduate students, from a number of universities in Japan. The rich program content included lectures, a study tour, a cultural event, group discussion and presentations. The program is intended to give the participants a broad perspective on the Japanese modernization process, and to encourage them to adopt a multi-faceted approach to engagement with the topics.
The program was held at GRIPS, Tokyo.

There were about 30 participants, diverse in region, career and specialty, in each round of the program. In the first half of the program, they attended a comprehensive series of lectures on the history of Japanese modernization. 
The lecturers included:
Prof. Andrea Pressello (GRIPS), who delivered a lecture on Japanese modern history;
Prof. Kaoru Iokibe (The University of Tokyo), together with Dr. Hayate Harashina (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Tokyo) and Asst Prof. Takanori Tsukame, (Tokyo Metropolitan University), as well as Adj. Lecturer Dr. Amiko Nobori (Keio University), who covered on Japanese political history;
Prof. Tetsuji Okazaki (Meiji Gakuin University) and Prof. Tadashi Yokoyama (GRIPS), who lectured on Japanese economic history.

Special lectures were delivered by: 
Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka, Special Advisor to the President of JICA (Visiting Professor of GRIPS);
Dr. Nobuko Kayashima, Senior Research Advisor (JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute 
for Peace and Development);
Prof. Emeritus Kiyotaka Yokomichi (GRIPS); and
Prof. Emeritus Izumi Ohno (GRIPS).

For the field trip, the participants visited the National Diet Building, Yokohama Port Museum and Sail Training Ship Nippon Maru. The participants also had meaningful experiences of Japanese tea ceremony and calligraphy to deepen their understanding of traditional Japanese culture.

＜Lecture by Prof. Andrea Pressello, GRIPS＞

The participants also had meaningful experiences of traditional tea ceremony and calligraphy to deepen their understanding of traditional Japanese culture.

＜Cultural Event: Calligraphy＞

In the second half of the program, the participants applied the knowledge and information they had acquired in the lectures to their exchanges in group discussions about Japan's development experience and about the lessons that can be learned from it. On the last day they made group presentations expressing their ideas about those topics and their views on some of the challenges that Japan is currently facing.

The participants had some unique and insightful experiences in the program. The group membership was rich; the participants, from Africa, South America, Asia, Middle East and Europe, had diverse professional backgrounds and graduate school specialties (including social sciences and engineering). That variety was reflected in the wide range of opinions and perspectives voiced in the group discussions. Although the program was only five days long, the participants had a precious opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Japan from various viewpoints--an important takeaway.

We hope that in this program the participants gained some insights that they can apply to their work and to the development of their countries--and that will enable them to contribute toward the development of ever stronger relationships between their countries and Japan.

<Group presentation>

<Closing Ceremony led by Prof. Hirofumi Takada>