The Dean's Summer Vacation | Tomoyuki Kojima (Dean, Faculty of Policy Management)

2004.07.21

(For this issue, we have asked each of our deans to write on the theme of "The Dean's Summer Vacation" in the language of their choice.)

这几年，每到暑假，总要出国两次。这已成了惯例。一次是到中国东北的沈阳，在那里进行日中之间政策性的协调活动，主要是为改善环境而种植防风防沙林。另一次是到上海。每年9月我都要带学生去复旦大学，与复旦大学的学生一起召开国际研讨会。

每次去复旦大学开研讨会，我的研究班里都有25名左右的本科生参加。在与中国学生进行激烈辩论的过程中，他们除了认清外部世界对日本认识的不同之外，还切实感受到日本将来只有在东亚才能求得发展。而且，学生们一起在异文化世界，互相看到了平时仅在SFC无法看到的一面，从而进一步加深了团结合作。召开国际研讨会就给他们提供了这样一个最好的机会。

尤其让我深有体会的是，2001年9月在复旦大学召开国际研讨会时的经历。在9月10日、11日这两天召开的研讨会闭幕后，我们与复旦大学的学生共进晚餐。晚餐会结束后，我离开学生回到下榻的宾馆，打开电视，映入眼帘的是飞机撞击纽约世贸大楼的画面。那是关于9.11事件的现场直播。随后，我的学生们给我打来电话，告诉我他们对此感到很不安，还担心回国的航班。当时，几乎所有的学生买的都是来回5万日元以下的便宜飞机票，其中多数订的是从美国起飞在上海转机去日本的航班。由于美国机场关闭，我们不知道飞机什么时候飞到上海，也不知道什么时候可以回国。

（日本語訳）

For the past several years, two overseas trips during my summer vacation have become an annual custom. One is to Shenyang in northeastern China, where I am involved in Japan-China policy coordination aimed at environmental improvement, focusing on planting trees for wind and sand control. The other is to Shanghai, where my undergraduate seminar's "research project" holds an international joint seminar with students from Fudan University every September.

The latter event involves about 25 undergraduate students each time. Through heated discussions with the Chinese students, it provides an excellent opportunity for them not only to see how Japan is perceived differently from the outside but also to truly feel that Japan's future can only be secured within East Asia. Furthermore, by spending time together in a different culture, it becomes an opportunity for the students to discover sides of one another they could not see at SFC and to further strengthen their bonds.

The international joint seminar with Fudan University in September 2001 made me feel this especially strongly. After the two-day joint seminar on September 10 and 11 concluded, and after the dinner party with the Fudan University students, I parted with my students and returned to my hotel. When I turned on the television, the screen was filled with the image of an airplane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York. It was a live broadcast of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Immediately after, I received a call from my students, informing me that anxiety was spreading among them about how to handle the situation, including their return flights. Most of the students had purchased inexpensive round-trip tickets for under 50,000 yen, and many of these were for flights from the US mainland to Shanghai. Due to the closure of airports on the US mainland, we did not know when the planes would fly to Shanghai, and therefore, when we could return home.

I instructed them to book tickets for the ferry service, which runs twice a week, assuming that air travel would be unavailable for some time. Fortunately, among the seminar students were international students from China and students with experience studying in China, and they took the lead in handling the situation. The Fudan University students were also concerned and offered their cooperation. In the end, the airport closures on the US mainland were lifted shortly thereafter, and the students were able to return home sequentially, more or less on schedule. However, by sharing that anxious time and facing the uncertainty together, the bonds between my seminar students and the Fudan University students seem to have deepened even further. One of those students later came to study in the Doctoral Programs at SFC and is now a part-time lecturer in Chinese.

(Date Published: 2004/07/21)

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