JP Boston - Event Report
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K. Hirata
Feb 6, 2009, 11:18:03 PM2/6/09
to JASCPres...@googlegroups.com
JASC Presents Boston: "Internationalism in a New Age: Reflecting on 150 years of Japan-U.S. Relations"
Despite the cold and wintry Saturday afternoon in Boston, around 35 people came attend our event held at the Belfer Case Study Room (where the 61st EC elections took place) of Harvard University. Most of the audience members were Japanese students studying at universities in the Boston area, but we also had some American students come to our event.
Dr. Maxey, our keynote speaker, spoke about the various "identities" of Japan. This biased western view is especially seen in many Hollywood films (most recently "The Last Samurai") and fiction literature of historical Japan. He also discussed the strong image of "Japan = Samurai" held by many Americans, even though the Samurai class represented only a small percentage of the social class in the Edo Era. To this, he concluded that there is no defining identity of Japan; it is not the merchants, the samurai, the geisha, but that identities are a plural entity.
After a brief intermission, we began our panel discussion by 58th JASCer Jason Knudson, 61st AEC Yoshihiro Kanemitsu, 61st AEC Chair Colin Moreshead and 60th AEC Chair Sam Scully. Jason spoke on the bilateral relations of Japan-U.S. security issues and the 6 Party Talks, Yoshi spoke on the bilateral relations of environmental issues and the future of green technology, Colin spoke of the lessons learned from the Japanese bubble economy of the 90s and how it could be applied to the current global economic crisis, and Sam spoke on the evolution of the modern women, and how they had to give up their rights for their country during war times. This was followed by a 30 minute Q&A session, which both the audience members and the panelists thoroughly enjoyed. They received many questions and comments and replied to them enthusiastically.
After the event, JASCers and the audience members mingled, where they discussed further on Japan-US relations and we also saw the audience members mingling amongst themselves. We received a lot of positive response on the 61st JASC, and hope that they will apply this year.
We were also excited to meet JASC alums who came to our event from near and far (31st, 57th, 58th, 60th).
Overall, we conclude the first U.S. JP as great success, and look forward to future JP events. Thank you to all the JASCers who supported this event (whether you were physically there or in our minds) – this could've not been done without you!
--
Kayoko Hirata
61st Japan-American Student Conference
American Executive Committee, Treasurer
JASC Presents Boston, Event Coordinator
Cornell University, Class of 2011
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
Department of Urban and Regional Studies
JASC website: http://iscdc.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
JASC AEC blog: http://jasc61.blogspot.com/
Despite the cold and wintry Saturday afternoon in Boston, around 35 people came attend our event held at the Belfer Case Study Room (where the 61st EC elections took place) of Harvard University. Most of the audience members were Japanese students studying at universities in the Boston area, but we also had some American students come to our event.
Dr. Maxey, our keynote speaker, spoke about the various "identities" of Japan. This biased western view is especially seen in many Hollywood films (most recently "The Last Samurai") and fiction literature of historical Japan. He also discussed the strong image of "Japan = Samurai" held by many Americans, even though the Samurai class represented only a small percentage of the social class in the Edo Era. To this, he concluded that there is no defining identity of Japan; it is not the merchants, the samurai, the geisha, but that identities are a plural entity.
After a brief intermission, we began our panel discussion by 58th JASCer Jason Knudson, 61st AEC Yoshihiro Kanemitsu, 61st AEC Chair Colin Moreshead and 60th AEC Chair Sam Scully. Jason spoke on the bilateral relations of Japan-U.S. security issues and the 6 Party Talks, Yoshi spoke on the bilateral relations of environmental issues and the future of green technology, Colin spoke of the lessons learned from the Japanese bubble economy of the 90s and how it could be applied to the current global economic crisis, and Sam spoke on the evolution of the modern women, and how they had to give up their rights for their country during war times. This was followed by a 30 minute Q&A session, which both the audience members and the panelists thoroughly enjoyed. They received many questions and comments and replied to them enthusiastically.
After the event, JASCers and the audience members mingled, where they discussed further on Japan-US relations and we also saw the audience members mingling amongst themselves. We received a lot of positive response on the 61st JASC, and hope that they will apply this year.
We were also excited to meet JASC alums who came to our event from near and far (31st, 57th, 58th, 60th).
Overall, we conclude the first U.S. JP as great success, and look forward to future JP events. Thank you to all the JASCers who supported this event (whether you were physically there or in our minds) – this could've not been done without you!
--
Kayoko Hirata
61st Japan-American Student Conference
American Executive Committee, Treasurer
JASC Presents Boston, Event Coordinator
Cornell University, Class of 2011
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
Department of Urban and Regional Studies
JASC website: http://iscdc.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
JASC AEC blog: http://jasc61.blogspot.com/
Koji JIMBA
Feb 11, 2009, 2:46:51 PM2/11/09
to JASCPres...@googlegroups.com
Sam spoke on the evolution of the modern women
wow!!!
2009/2/7 K. Hirata <jasc6...@gmail.com>:
> done without you!
>
> --
> Kayoko Hirata
> 61st Japan-American Student Conference
> American Executive Committee, Treasurer
> JASC Presents Boston, Event Coordinator
>
> Cornell University, Class of 2011
> College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
> Department of Urban and Regional Studies
>
> JASC website: http://iscdc.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
> JASC AEC blog: http://jasc61.blogspot.com/
>
> >
>
--
>
> --
> Kayoko Hirata
> 61st Japan-American Student Conference
> American Executive Committee, Treasurer
> JASC Presents Boston, Event Coordinator
>
> Cornell University, Class of 2011
> College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
> Department of Urban and Regional Studies
>
> JASC website: http://iscdc.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
> JASC AEC blog: http://jasc61.blogspot.com/
>
> >
>
------------------------------------------
神馬 光滋 / Koji Jimba
------------------------------------------
第61回日米学生会議(2009年7月28日~8月21日)
於 東京－函館－長野－京都
------------------------------------------
財団法人国際教育振興会主催
第61回日米学生会議実行委員
広報／WEB管理／財務担当
国際基督教大学教養学部 2年
-k-j...@jasc-japan.com
-http://www.jasc-japan.com/
-http://ameblo.jp/jasc61/
Yoshihiro Kanemitsu
Feb 12, 2009, 11:54:46 PM2/12/09
to JASCPres...@googlegroups.com
Hello everyone,
My name is Yoshihiro Kanemitsu, a cordinator and a panelist of JASC Presents Boston.
I would like to take a moment to reflect on JASC Presents Boston Panel Discussion before the memory goes to depth of my mind.
As you all know, I spoke of the Japan-U.S. Environmental Security Alliance.
The two pillars of my argument is "Environmental Governance" and "Impact of New Technology".
I stressed the importance of the diplomacy through UN as Japan and the U.S. have financially supported UN.
Also, China, the second biggest emitter of GHG, has to be included in the post-Kyoto framework, and this involvement can be achieved only by the U.S. participating in the framework actively.
I was happy to get a question on this point from an audience member. The person asked me how the U.S. can convince China to join the framework. My answer was that through providing green energy technology the U.S. and Japan can make China a much greener nation.
I got several other questions and happy to answer those.
To the question, which is to prioritize security, women rights, economy and environment, I answered in this way.
1. security: as a Japanese I feel threatened by North Korea.
2. Economy: it affects directly my daily life.
3. women rights: since the enhancement of women rights will influence women in this age, I would say it is more important than environment protection.
4. Environment; we are working to protect the environment mainly because we want to protect the future generations. That said, for me who is in his 20's and will have died by the time the environmental degradation gets really worsened, protecting people in this age is more important than future generations. This may sound harsh, but faced with so many contemporary problems, it is natural for me to put more focus on people living in this age.
*However, if I were a representative of future generations, environment would have to come as No.1.
Answering this question, I once again realized that in this world full of issues (some of which are causing immediate damage, others are going to cause damage in future) it is difficult to make a decision to shift lots of efforts to environment protection from other more urgent things.
I thank again for having me as a panelist and giving me a chance to think of environment in a relative way, comparing with and discussing other issues together with the other panelists and the audience members.
--
Yoshihiro Kanemitsu
61st Japan-America Student Conference
American Executive Committee, Liaison
The University of Tokyo/University of Toronto
Department of Systems Innovation
Faculty of Engineering
Email: jasc61...@gmail.com
Phone: (+1)416-858-9101
(+81)090-2802-9286
Blog: http://jasc61.blogspot.com/
Web: http://www.iscdc.org/
My name is Yoshihiro Kanemitsu, a cordinator and a panelist of JASC Presents Boston.
I would like to take a moment to reflect on JASC Presents Boston Panel Discussion before the memory goes to depth of my mind.
As you all know, I spoke of the Japan-U.S. Environmental Security Alliance.
The two pillars of my argument is "Environmental Governance" and "Impact of New Technology".
I stressed the importance of the diplomacy through UN as Japan and the U.S. have financially supported UN.
Also, China, the second biggest emitter of GHG, has to be included in the post-Kyoto framework, and this involvement can be achieved only by the U.S. participating in the framework actively.
I was happy to get a question on this point from an audience member. The person asked me how the U.S. can convince China to join the framework. My answer was that through providing green energy technology the U.S. and Japan can make China a much greener nation.
I got several other questions and happy to answer those.
To the question, which is to prioritize security, women rights, economy and environment, I answered in this way.
1. security: as a Japanese I feel threatened by North Korea.
2. Economy: it affects directly my daily life.
3. women rights: since the enhancement of women rights will influence women in this age, I would say it is more important than environment protection.
4. Environment; we are working to protect the environment mainly because we want to protect the future generations. That said, for me who is in his 20's and will have died by the time the environmental degradation gets really worsened, protecting people in this age is more important than future generations. This may sound harsh, but faced with so many contemporary problems, it is natural for me to put more focus on people living in this age.
*However, if I were a representative of future generations, environment would have to come as No.1.
Answering this question, I once again realized that in this world full of issues (some of which are causing immediate damage, others are going to cause damage in future) it is difficult to make a decision to shift lots of efforts to environment protection from other more urgent things.
I thank again for having me as a panelist and giving me a chance to think of environment in a relative way, comparing with and discussing other issues together with the other panelists and the audience members.
--
Yoshihiro Kanemitsu
61st Japan-America Student Conference
American Executive Committee, Liaison
The University of Tokyo/University of Toronto
Department of Systems Innovation
Faculty of Engineering
Email: jasc61...@gmail.com
Phone: (+1)416-858-9101
(+81)090-2802-9286
Blog: http://jasc61.blogspot.com/
Web: http://www.iscdc.org/
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