Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017
Twenty-one Japanese executives visited USJ-R and had a dialogue with its administrators and students yesterday afternoon as part of an official business trip.
Mr. Shiro Muramoto, adviser of the Muramoto Audio-Visual Philippines and head of the Japanese delegation, said the 21 executives who joined the “business mission” to the country had ranks raging from CEO, vice presidents and office heads of different private enterprises, government agencies and universities in Kobe City, Japan.
“We have come here with great interest in the Philippines,” he told the university’s administrators led by USJ-R President Fr. Cristopher Maspara, OAR through an interpreter at the Conference Room.
“We like to learn a lot and we would like to make this visit a good start of a relationship with you,” he added.
Mr. Ryuichiro Kobayashi, director general of the Kobe City Industrial Promotion Foundation, told Josenian students that Kobe — and Japan in general — need more young people in its workforce.
According to the 2015 census conducted by the internal affairs ministry of Japan published last year, the number of elderly Japanese has increased, while the average family has shrunk in size.
The report added that the number of elderly people aged 65 or older accounts for 26.7 percent of the 127.11 million total population, up 3.7 percentage points from five years ago.
Kobayashi said in-demand in Japan are engineers and information technology graduates. Moreover, he said, there are over 1,500 companies in Kobe that could offer good opportunities for graduates of non-engineering fields as long as they are willing to work in Japan and learn the language.
The Japanese executives in a photo opportunity with Josenian students in front of the College of Engineering office.
“What you learn in school is the basis for work. But when you work for the company, we want you to apply your knowledge to actual work,” Mr. Kobayashi said through an interpreter.
“We would like to welcome many industrial young people like you to Kobe,” he added. “There is a lot of opportunities for you in Kobe.”
Fr. Maspara told the visitors that this was the first time that a delegation from Kobe visited the school.
“The Philippines-Japan relation has fortified over the years, and such relationship has benefited many Filipinos here and abroad,” he said, adding that the Japanese government has opened a lot of job opportunities to many Filipinos especially here in Cebu City, and that many graduates USJ-R are currently working in Japanese companies.
College of Engineering dean Dr. Virgilio Abellana said USJ-R is not new to working with Japanese companies as his college has been working closely with Japan for two projects: the Saitama-Cebu Human Resource Monozukuri project and the Japan Science and Technology Sakura Science Exchange program.
The former is a comprehensive training for Josenian engineering students on Japanese manufacturing and business practices, making them ready for work in Japanese companies; while the latter enables Josenian students to be sent to Japan to personally experience and learn from modern Japanese technology and scientific researches.
“Hopefully this visit translates to us doing collaborative projects in the future,” Dr. Abellana said.
The Japanese delegates were in the country from Feb. 5 to 10. They spent three days in Manila where they visited the Japan International Cooperation Agency office and Philippine Economic Zone Authority; and two days in Cebu where, among others, they visited USJ-R and Tsuneishi in Balamban. IPA
