Hiroshi Takai, President of KOSMIC

I am a third-year student at Keio University. I belong to the Faculty of Economics and specialize in finance. I am currently the president of KOSMIC.
I was born in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and I had lived there for 20 years. Kanazawa is a traditional city which has a lot of cultural places such as Kanazawa Castle, samurai residences, Kenroku Garden, and more. My life in such a traditional hometown for 20 years made me naturally come to respect the Japanese tradition. Even after I came to Tokyo and entered Keio University, this feeling has not changed. I feel happy and satisfied when I talk with international students about something representing Japanese culture such as food, sports, festivals, movies, or manga (comic books). Every day I spend most of my time studying and doing activities of KOSMIC. It is a busy life, but I am living a fulfilling life at Keio University.

－About KOSMIC
KOSMIC, which stands for Keio Organization of Student Member of the International Center, is a supporting organization for the international students in Keio University, assisting them from a student’s standpoint. There are mainly two purposes of our activities. First, we help international students get accustomed to school life at Keio University. Second, we create opportunities for Keio students and international students to get to know each other.
Our main activities are providing, “Conversation Partners” where we find a Japanese student for those international students who wish to practice or study Japanese; the Welcome Party; the annual Japanese Speech Contest for international students; counseling on club activity, and more. KOSMIC also holds many entertaining events such as the Halloween Party, Christmas Party, Summer Camp, and the Kamakura Trip. Through our activities, exchange students and Japanese students get to know each other and finally they can interact culturally.
KOSMIC Official Blog

－What made you decide to join KOSMIC?
When I entered Keio University, one of the things what I wanted to do was cultural exchange. I was looking forward to deepening and broadening my set of values by being meeting exchange students who came to study at Keio University, mainly because their values may be completely different from mine. As I was looking for a club on the basis of this idea, I came across KOSMIC. The president at the time said to me, “There are many clubs in which Japanese students discuss with exchange students in English and clubs where they hang out and go on trips with international students. On the other hand, the purpose of KOSMIC is to support exchange students. We put ourselves in their shoes and act. KOSMIC is a club which allows you to experience international exchange in a real sense.” That’s why I decided to join KOSMIC without hesitation. The activity concept of KOSMIC matched my idea that English and Japanese are just tools and it was most important to make friends with exchange students and to understand cultures, values, and ways of thinking with each other. In fact, I met many intriguing people in this club. One had enthusiasm to study languages and was a good speaker of English, French, and Korean. Another was so active that he created new events made on the basis of exchange students’ wishes. Above all, most of KOSMIC members became best friends with exchange students, sharing everything with them. This was the evidence that KOSMIC is a circle that gives people the opportunity to interact with exchange students without the language barrier. In addition, a lot of KOSMIC members seriously considered what they can do for exchange students. Organizing events or talking about the future of KOSMIC with such highly motivated people was stimulating and helped me mature. I have confidence that I made the best choice when I hesitated over which club to choose.

－What are the hardest things and the most worthwhile things as president?
I think that hardship and achievement go together. From my experience in KOSMIC, I realized that the more challenging a job is, the more fulfillment I get. Here is one story memorable for me. Today, KOSMIC is an exchange student support club which has 200 or more members. However, when I became the president of KOSMIC, it was relatively small scale club which had about 40 members. Because there was a limit on the number of members, our activity for supporting exchange students was often limited. Leaders including me in those days tried to make its scale larger and we achieved the goal. However, on the other hand, though we succeeded in its unprecedented expansion, less people came to attend events held by KOSMIC. To find the cause of this problem, we held a club meeting, and as a result, we concluded that the structure of our organization was not fitting for the number of members and members could not commit to KOSMIC actively. We systematized the organization structure to spread and assign all members a role and responsibility so that they can be actively involved in the activities of KOSMIC. Since KOSMIC has lasted for more than 30 years and is a traditional club, some people took objection to the reform at first, but after the discussion, we finally put our proposal into practice. Thinking backwards now, owing to the restructuring at that time, I now realize we can handle new events and jobs with flexibility.
It is really hard to lead 200 members. Maybe new various problems happen, but even in those situations, I will do my best to solve the problem. Above all, I have many friends I can really trust in KOSMIC. There are no difficulties to overcome if we join our forces. Through my job in KOSMIC, I experience many hardships but superior to that, I feel a sense of achievement and joy.

－What is your plan after you graduate?
My major is finance and I will probably start my career in the financial field taking this into account. However, what I think is most important is to develop my strengths and not to cling to the financial field more than necessary. Concretely, I would like to take advantage of my communication skills which I cultivated from various experiences in KOSMIC and the knowledge which I learned through my studies at Keio University. What I am looking forward to doing as my job now is to “propose” something to somebody. For instance, I would like to propose a strategy to a company which is so important that it will have a deep effect on the company’s future. KOSMIC gave me opportunities where I learned a kind of flexibility to work in diversity, the cooperativeness to further projects with team members and the joy of achievement and so on. I would like to play an active part internationally based on what I learned during my Keio life.