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Experience sharing: The Kyushu Economic Exploration Program
 
As a prestigious research institution in Japan, Kyushu University has been actively collaborating with the private sector. That strategic university-industry partnership has enhanced Kyushu University’s research capacity and established its role as a vital center of competence to spur economic growth and address social challenges.
 
With that having said, the School of Engineering has partnered with the Kyushu Economic Federation (Kyukeiren) to initiate the Kyushu Economic Exploration Program (KEEP) for IUPE students. The objectives of KEEP are for us to understand more about the economy of Kyushu island, our future careers as engineers, and to find internship opportunities. Every year, a notable company is featured and our students will have chances to talk with prominent businesspeople from that company. TOTO LTD. was selected for KEEP 2016, and we were invited to join a fruitful discussion with TOTO staff.

During the event’s first section, our students participated in an informative workshop to explore more about economic activities in Kyushu through interactive games and group activities. We learned about the size, the components of Kyushu economy, and how Kyushu has been changing economically. Overall, Kyushu island has a diverse, vibrant and entrepreneurial friendly economy which is very welcoming to foreigners, including graduates from Kyudai.


 In the second section, our students delivered presentations about TOTO LTD. Each of the 4 group was responsible for a unique topic related to TOTO, ranging from Corporate Profile, CSR Activities to Evaluation by External Parties. After each 12-minute presentation, our distinguished guesses from TOTO would give us useful comments, and ask us interesting but not easy questions that really required us to think critically and entrepreneurially in order to answer.

Finally, our students had an opportunity to have face-to-face communication with those accomplished businesspeople. The topics were very diverse such as TOTO’s investment and manufacturing activities in our home countries, TOTO’s R&D activities, and the differences between doing business in Japan and in other countries. Through those short but fruitful exchanges, we had gained more knowledge and better oriented our future plans after graduation.