Category: Newsletter 19

At the Board meeting held on April 16, 2018, the FUTI Board elected Dr. Teruo Fujii, Executive Director and Vice President of the University of Tokyo, as a new Director. He is also the head of the Division of External Relations at the university. He succeeded Dr. Norio Matsuki, former Executive Vice President of UTokyo, who had been a FUTI Director since April 2017. Prof. Teruo Fujii received his Ph.D. degree in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering from the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) in 1993. After working at the RIKEN Institute, he was appointed as Associate Professor in 1999 at the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), University of Tokyo, and promoted to Full Professor in 2007. Currently he is Executive Director and Vice President of UTokyo in charge of External Relations. He also serves as President of the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS), which is the governing body of the MicroTAS conference, the most important scientific meeting in the field of Microfluidics. Note: The bio has been provided by Prof. Fujii’s office. Articles in this newsletter:

At the Board meeting held on April 16, 2018, the FUTI Board appointed Dr. Takatoshi Ito, Professor at Columbia University, Mr. Junji Takegami, managing partner at TIGER PACIFIC CAPITAL LP,  and Dr. Tai Hasegawa, President of the Silicon Valley Akamon-kai, as Member of the Advisory Committee. Prof. Hisashi Kobayashi, Chair of the Advisory Committee remarks “We are much delighted and thankful that Prof. Takatoshi Ito, Mr. Junji Takegami and Dr. Tai Hasegawa have kindly accepted our request to serve as new advisory members.  Professor Ito, a renowned economist, has helped FUTI by speaking already twice in our lecture series. We will count on his advice, if the scholarship committee receives applications for the FUTI scholarship from students who major in economics and other social science disciplines.  Mr. Takegami , in addition to be a regular donor, has graciously allowed us to hold our meetings in his company’s huge conference room, located near the Grand Central Station.  Dr. Hasegawa has built an active Akamonkai with over 200 UTokyo alumni in the Silicon Valley and Stanford Univ. region.  Together with Dr. Karasaki, the President of Akamonkai in the San Francisco and Bay area, Dr. Hasegawa’s participation will help us further increase our visibility in the West Coast.” The bios of the new Advisory Committee members are shown below as they are provided to FUTI. Takatoshi Ito Professor of International and Public Affairs, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Director, Program on Public Pension and Sovereign Funds; Associate Director of Research, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School Takatoshi Ito, Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, has taught extensively both in the United States and Japan since finishing his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University in 1979. He taught at the University of Minnesota (1979-1988), Hitotsubashi University (1988-2002), and the University of Tokyo (2004-2014) before assuming his current position in 2015. He held visiting professor positions at Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia Business School, and the University of Malaya. He has held distinguished academic and research appointments such as President of the Japanese Economic Association in 2004; Fellow of the Econometric Society since 1992; and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1985. Ito served as Senior Advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund and as Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance of Japan, and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. He is the author of many books, including The Japanese Economy, and more than 60 refereed journal papers. He frequently contributes op-ed columns to the Financial Times. In June 2011, the Government of Japan awarded him with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in for his excellent academic achievement. Dr. Tai Hasegawa is the president of the Henry Taube Institute, a non-profit organization founded in Palo Alto in honor of his mentor (1983 Nobel laureate).  Hasegawa-san obtained his BS, MS and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the U. of Tokyo, and did his research at the Institute of Physical Science, the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, until joining the Chemistry Department of Stanford University.  He got a tenured research professorship at the Institute of Molecular Medical Sciences, former Biochemistry division of the Linus Pauling Institute (Dr. Pauling is the only person so far to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, 1954 and 1962) before establishing the Henry Taube Institute. He likes to play various instruments including the violin, the viola, and the piano, and is an active member of Palo Alto Philharmonic and Choral Cosmo. He is the president of the Stanford Silicon Valley Akamon-kai, an alumni group of the U. of Tokyo for Stanford and Silicon Valley area members. He is also the president of the Silicon Valley Japan Association. Junji Takegami is one of the co-founders of TIGER PACIFIC CAPITAL LP, a New York based long/short equity hedge fund where he is responsible for its research efforts in Japan. Prior to founding TPC, he was a Managing Director at Tiger Asia Management, another  New York based long/short equity hedge fund, where he joined in 2005. Prior to Tiger Asia, he worked at the Industrial Bank of Japan (currently merged into Mizuho Financial Group) in the Project Finance and Corporate Finance areas. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo. Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, he spent five years of his youth in London. Articles in this newsletter:

Author, Professor Sadaoki Furui, is Professor Emeritus of the Tokyo Institute Technology and President of Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC). This article summarizes his presentation given in New York City on June 22, 2018. For details please visit https://www.todaitomonokai.org/イベント/?event_id1=6880 1. Recent Advancements in AI (artificial intelligence) technology Artificial intelligence (AI) is a fundamental series of technology where devices such as computers strive to artificially replicate the intelligence of humans. The basic neural network being used in recent AI is a simple format proposed around 1960 which had since undergone continued research by a small number of researchers but with little progress. Around 2006, Deep Learning came into fruition and rapidly became the go-to technology as it boasted a much more effective learning method utilizing the greatly expanded network hierarchy of the Deep Neural Network (DNN), supported by faster computers, faster internet speeds, gathering of big data, and the improvement of environment construction. Ever since a computer won in a game of Go against a professional Go player in 2016, there have been a series of winnings for Deep Learning enabled AI against master Go and Shogi players in 2016 and 2017, garnering wide public attention of its capability. As a result, there is now research outside of AI itself on societal matters such as the effects of the rapidly growing AI industry on employment, ethics and morality, human rights, or even risks from a security perspective. It is said that we are currently in a third AI era, following the second one in the 1980’s and the first one in the 1950’s and 60’s. 2. The Use of Deep Neural Network (DNN) Computers in the past required the input of programs and data through human intervention in order to process information like speech, images, video, languages, and Shogi or Go games. On the other hand, in DNN learning, as long as the input and goal output are given, network parameters including feature extraction are automatically optimized. In a matter of speaking, AI can now automatically comprehend the content and make appropriate judgments. Speech recognition, image comprehension, automatic-translation, information search, robots, autonomous driving, and medical diagnosis are all within the realm of AI and advancements are made in the use of the various mechanisms of DNN. Companies like Google utilize search result data by collecting user data from around the world; accumulating information on languages, speech, images, and video; connecting all this data together; and all the while constantly improving the various AI. Additionally, many research institutions use DNN for analyzing large volumes of documents, collecting and analyzing medical and genetic data, helping to further their research in disease prevention, diagnosis, early detection, treatment, and drug development. DNN is also increasingly being used in areas such as marketing and investment. 3.Progress of AI and Human Society 3.1 Technical Problems of AI Since it is difficult to conduct theoretical analysis of current Deep Learning, AI has a technical problem of relying heavily on experience and trial and error in executing analysis. DNN is characterized as a so-called black box. Therefore, it cannot explain why a certain output was obtained for the given input. For this reason, it is difficult to identify causes in the event of an error, and it is hard to predict how AI would behave when and if the “target” deviates from the data used for learning. We do not know yet why the current DNN works so well. In order to fill this gap in knowledge, recently, research has begun to come up with an explanation as to why and how a certain output result has been generated. The field is anxiously awaiting results. Even though the AI system has limitations such as a difficulty in providing an explanation, its superior performance allows for an increasing number of AI systems being released which surpass human abilities and intelligence. The AI system is able to copy its experience to many other AI systems. That is, AI systems are able to share and consolidate experiences. For example, it is possible to consolidate what 1000 AI machines/systems have learned into one system. By repeating such a process, AI can dramatically increase its learning speed. In order for AI to make an advancement, a large amount of learning data is indispensable. If the target world is clearly defined like Shogi or Go, it is possible for AI to create a new approach (data). Generally speaking, acquisition of a huge amount of data for learning is the key to significant progress of AI. The (AI) system cannot use data for learning unless it is given a desired output (an answer or “supervised data”). At present, a human provides such “supervised data”. However, human intervention is rather costly so there is a need to eliminate the process. While human beings can learn and recognize at the same time, currently AI cannot do so. It is important to develop a learning method for AI that can operate without being given supervised data. Human beings have an in-born capacity to develop wisdom, common sense, “a bird eye’s view” and to apply them to various situations. They constantly use “hierarchical knowledge” such as causal relationship, inclusion relation, contextual understanding and the like. An important research challenge going forward is to make these capabilities available for AI. 3.2 Future Impact of AI on Society and Academia With the development of AI in the future, computers will be able to form judgment based on data and knowledge better than a human due to the further improvement of the former’s performance. The convenience of life will improve in various situations. Based on enormous personal information, AI systems that match personal characters and preference will be created. In addition to corporations and IT companies that specialize in AI, small and medium-sized enterprises, farmers and others will start using AI to increase productivity.  Many tasks currently handled by attorneys, doctors, white collar workers, etc. will be handled by AI. Over time, AI may outperform human researchers engaged in inventions and…
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Friends of UTokyo, Inc. (FUTI) offers two types of scholarship programs: The Global Leadership Program and the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship Program. For more details regarding the programs please visit https://www.friendsofutokyo.org/grants-and-awards/ or https://www.friendsofutokyo.org/ito-foundation-usa-futi-scholarship/. The Chair of the FUTI Scholarship Committee, Dr. Shigenori Matsushita, comments about this year’s results, “I am convinced that each donor’s support encourages aspiring students to attain their goals and, as a result, helps, directly and indirectly, the globalization of UTokyo. We have high expectations for our award students.” He believes that these efforts ultimately contribute to the improvement of global and Japanese society. The following is a report on this year’s selection results. [FUTI Global Leadership Award] This year FUTI will award FUTI Global Leadership Awards to 12 students from U.S. universities planning to study at the University of Tokyo, and 6 students from UTokyo to study at U.S. universities, both in the summer of 2018. 2016 Final Number of Recipients 2017 Final Number of Recipients 2018 Final Number of Recipients U.S. → UTokyo 9 10 12 UTokyo → U.S. 6 8 6 This year we have seen the following trends with applications: The number of UTokyo students applying to FUTI programs remains static, whereas U.S. students interested in studying at UTokyo continue to increase.  A couple of interpretations are possible about the UTokyo students. The reason for the sluggish application trends may be that UTokyo’s study abroad program has substantially improved so that students no longer need support from outside sources, such as FUTI. If that is the case, the trend can be interpreted as positive. Another reason may be a calendar mismatch between summer school programs at U.S. universities and UTokyo. Many of the former start in July, while at UTokyo the spring term’s final exam period ends at the close of July. In this circumstance, UTokyo students aspiring to study at US summer schools may suffer from certain inconveniences, such as making an arrangement with the professor about missing/re-arranging the final exam timing. Two main reasons are conceivable for the increase of U.S. students’ applications to FUTI programs, which is a positive trend for the globalization of UTokyo. Students look for support from FUTI when they are not able to obtain sufficient financial aids from their programs. The University of California (UC) system is strengthening the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP). As a result, an increasing number of UC students signed up for the summer internship programs in science and engineering at UTokyo. In collaboration with Harvard University, UTokyo has recently established the International Research Center for Neurointelligence (IRCN). The program will host a number of Harvard interns at UTokyo this year and several UTokyo students at Harvard next year. [ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship] The ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship began in 2016 with financial support from the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A. The number of scholarship students from 2016 to 2018 is shown below. Current Program/Year in FUTI Program 2016 2017 2018 2018 Host Universities 2nd Year in Ito-FUTI Award Program － 4 3 UC Berkeley (UCB), Tulane, Princeton UTokyo Bachelor’s/Master’s Program 3 2 2 U of Washington, UCB (Soon to graduate from) UTokyo Undergraduate or Master’s Program 2 1 2 Princeton, MIT Alumni 3 1 1 Yale UTokyo PhD Program 1 2 2 SUNY-Stony Brook, U of Penn IF Ikuei Scholarship － － 1 UCB US student － － 1 UTokyo Total 9 10 12 We have identified the following trends. #1. From the pool of high-caliber applicants, we have so far selected 12 students for awards. Before the final decision, they were interviewed by members of the FUTI Scholarship Committee who found them all as having a clear sense of purpose in life and many speaking fluent English. They appear to be highly promising. #2. It was made clear to us that applicants were applying to more than one scholarship program to choose the offer most suited to their plans. This may be an indication that in Japan, financial aid for studying abroad has become more plentiful. Three of our award recipients also receive support from a program called “Tobitate! Let’s go abroad representing Japan.”  This program is managed by Nihon Gakusei Shien Kiko, a semi-governmental agency, which pools donation from for-profit corporations and provide financial support to students desiring to study abroad. #3. As shown in the second to last row in the table, we established a new category of scholarship programs, “IF Ikuei Scholarship.” IF stands for “Ito Foundation USA and FUTI.” The selection criteria of this program focus strongly on the clarity of purpose in life and leadership potential evidenced in the application as well as the recommendation. The applicant’s academic performance and English proficiency are not considered in the evaluation as long as sufficient aptitude is demonstrated for undertaking the proposed study. This program is open to UTokyo and non-UTokyo applicants, but this year we have selected a UTokyo student as he was most qualified in the application pool. Whether or not this new program and selection criteria have merit in view of the program goals is yet to be proven through the test of time.  Going forward, we are keen on finding answers to questions such as: “Does the student learn much from a study abroad?” and “Is our judgment of his/her character correct?” #4. The last row of the chart represents an Ito-FUTI award given to a U.S. student for the first time. The student, an undergraduate at Princeton, has been selected on the basis of our expectation for his contribution to the Japanese research community.  He believes that while the diversity of researchers is essential for cutting edge research, non-Japanese students/researchers can contribute to increase diversity and strengthen the global professional network. The student plans to study Japanese further and enroll himself in a graduate school in science at UTokyo. We will continue to evaluate carefully the role of non-Japanese students/researchers in the globalization of the UTokyo campus. Articles in this newsletter:

The ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A.- FUTI scholarship program began in FY 2016, funded by a grant from the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A. to FUTI. It primarily supports UTokyo students or alumni who plan to study one semester or longer at a U.S. university. For details, please visit https://www.friendsofutokyo.org/ito-foundation-usa-futi-scholarship/ In AY2017-18, 10 UTokyo students and alumni were selected as award recipients. They are currently studying at U.S. universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and Georgia Institute of Technology. Their concentration varies widely from politics, society/organizational psychology, film production, landscape architecture and aerospace engineering. They are enrolled in either undergraduate, master’s, or Ph.D. programs. FUTI has requested award recipients to send essays and photos about their life at the U.S. universities so that they can be posted on the “Report from the Scene” series on FUTI’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/friendsofutokyo). The award students’ reports show meaningful exchanges with students gathered from all over the world as well as local residents in the university area, which they find stimulating. Their reports indicate in detail what kind of experience they are having in an environment sharply different from Japan and how they are learning from it. We, at FUTI, feel it deeply gratifying to read their reports. This year, as Ms. Akiko Sokai is taking a leave of absence, Ms. Yasuko Tanaka (Economics, 2006) has undertaken the project of arranging the reports as a volunteer for us. We sincerely thank Ms. Tanaka for her support. Please visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/friendsofutokyo. If you have a Facebook account, it would be greatly appreciated if you “like”, share, or comment on the posts. We would like to share with you reports from our three students, Ms. Minami Goto, reporting from the Columbia University Film Department, Ms. Mihiro Nomura, discussing Harvard University experience, and Mr. Kazuhide Okamoto, enrolled in the PHD program of aerospace engineering at George Institute of Technology. For full reports please visit the recipient reports page on our website. Minami Goto University of Tokyo, Art History, 2015 Film/Creative Producing, Master’s Program, Columbia University. ＊＊＊＊ I am Minami Goto and a student at Columbia University’s graduate school of film. I came to the U.S. in the summer of 2015 and started graduate school in New York. Three years have passed in the blink of an eye. In my current and last year at Columbia, I am learning a great deal about the business of movie production. I am integrating what I have learned in class for the past three years into actual film production. This is truly a transition from a film student to a professional film maker. Last fall, I co-produced a short film in New York. My activity included fundraising for the production with an American film director. In January of this year, I managed to direct a short film which was shot in my hometown, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka.  Please see the attached picture which was taken when I paid a courtesy call to the mayor of the city. I was able to complete shooting of the film, “Breakers” last month whose plan won the 2017 Avec Digital Award. It is scheduled to be screened in Tokyo in June.  http://www.shortshorts.org/2018/topics/news/ja/2836) If any of you are in Tokyo in June, please join us. I have learned a great deal about filmmaking while working closely with professional filmmakers in the US and Japan and observed the different practices within the two countries. While it was fun at times, it was also challenging. For extra credit, I am joining a study tour of the Cannes International Film Festival in May, led by a Columbia professor. The festival features the screening of top notch films attended by prominent industry professionals from all over the world. It is a huge event where marketers, press, and film professionals converge. I hope to see, feel, and absorb many things there first hand. Last but not least, I am able to focus on studying and film producing in New York and elsewhere, because of the generous support from the Ito Foundation USA and FUTI. I feel enormously grateful. After graduating from Columbia, I wish to work as hard as I can so that I can contribute to FUTI and help future colleagues to study abroad. Mihiro Nomura University of Tokyo, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2017 Princeton University, Master’s Program, Civil and Environmental Engineering ＊＊＊＊ My name is Mihiro Nomura. In the spring of 2017, I graduated from the University of Tokyo, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences. And last fall, I started a master’s program at Princeton University in the Department of Environmental Engineering. Among the courses I have recently taken at Princeton, I found “Environmental Chemistry” to be especially interesting. In this course we analyzed various environmental issues and studied scientific perspectives to help us understand them. As the course’s last project, I undertook the modelling of the Toyosu pollution problem and quantitatively evaluated its risks on human health. I found it meaningful to apply the newly acquired knowledge to the Toyosu pollution issue. The experience gave me self-confidence. Inside and outside the university I participated actively in various events. Among them was a Christmas service at a small church in Princeton which was highly memorable. At the end of the service, participants from some 20 countries sang “Silent Night” in their respective mother tongues. I felt a sense of global solidarity transcending national borders. Recently I have been feeling uneasy about trends countering globalization such as Brexit and the election of President Trump, but with the chorus in some 20 languages filling the space with peace, hope and cooperation, I felt a warm feeling welling up in my heart. In the coming year, I will continue to do my best to study diligently and to grow as a person. In closing, I would like to thank the Ito Foundation USA and FUTI for giving me such a valuable opportunity to study at Princeton. Kazuhide Okamoto University of Tokyo, Master’s program, Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014 George Institute of Technology, Ph.D.…
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Ms. Eri Furusawa was awarded the American Institute of Certified Planners Outstanding Student Award in May 2018. It is granted to one student each year in the Urban Planning master’s program in Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), as in urban planning programs in other accredited universities, for “outstanding attainment in the study of Urban Planning”. This award was granted not only for high academic performance but also for leadership, teamwork, and the future prospects of contribution to the field of urban planning. This is the most prestigious award given to GSAPP Urban Planning program students. She is a recipient of ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A.-FUTI scholarship in 2016 and 2017, and has finished the second and final year studying urban planning in the master’s course in Columbia University in May. Starting this June, she works as an urban designer in New York City government. Ms. Furusawa comments, “I hope to learn as much as possible about how planning is conducted in the U.S., then use my experience to contribute to the field of urban planning in Japan. I am deeply thankful to ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A. and FUTI for their assistance and encouragement throughout my time at Columbia.” Dr. Shigenori Matsushita, chair of FUTI’s Scholarship Committee remarks, “we are very pleased that we could support her for two years of graduate work and are genuinely proud of her accomplishment.” Her position at Columbia granted Ms. Furusawa the opportunity to connect the school and her home country; Professor Ebru Gencer of Columbia GSAPP recently led a team including Ms. Furusawa on a study trip to Japan to discuss disaster-resilient urban planning with Kobe City officials, experts working for non-profit organizations in Kobe City, and academics in the University of Tokyo, Keio University, and Ritsumeikan University. The photo shows the group with Kobe City officials. Articles in this newsletter:

Author: Shig Matsushita (This is a partial translation of the original article written in Japanese.) The eighth annual “Go Global University of Tokyo Study Abroad Fair” presented by the Division for Global Initiatives was held on April 21 at the Komaba Campus. The goal is to promote and support study abroad programs, to advocate the importance of cultural exchanges and studying overseas, and to help initiate the planning process for the study abroad early on in the undergraduate years. The following is a report of my participation in this Fair. There were about 550 participants which include parents accompanying their child, or oddly enough in some 30 or 40 cases, parents alone without the student. Having 550 participants seems to be a successful event but considering that each class consists of about three thousand students at UTokyo, it only amounts to slightly less than ten percent of the student body on the Komaba campus. Although it was a weekend, it is still a little disappointing that only less than ten percent showed interest in the study abroad event. The event was an all-day affair lasting eight and a half hours divided into three sessions. The morning 75-minute session was an orientation meeting held in classroom Number 900, formerly a First Imperial High School (Kyuu Ikko) auditorium. The afternoon session which lasted five and a half hours gave participants the opportunity for private consultations at individual booths set up by supporting organizations including FUTI. During this same time, an orientation meeting was held at a separate location for students about to go on a study abroad. The Fair concluded with a social gathering where participants can mingle over a light meal and beverages with students who have either returned from or are about to embark on a study abroad through the International Exchange Group. [Orientation Meeting] The meeting began with a greeting from Prof. Yujin Yaguchi who was appointed Director of the International Education Support Office in April and is the key person to spearhead the University of Tokyo’s globalization efforts. He continues to teach English and American Culture courses even after assuming the directorship and has shown leadership throughout UTokyo, starting with the establishment of PEAK (a four-year program of courses taught entirely in English on the Komaba Campus) and integrating Komaba’s third and fourth year undergraduates and graduate students as if they were in an independent international relations college. The professor emphasized the following point. What began as almost a whim to do his graduate studies at a U.S. university ended up being a life-changing experience beyond his expectations. The environment he was used to in Japan which he had taken for granted as the same everywhere else was not the same at all. He discovered the many facets of America through the exposure of cultures, ethnicities, and perceptions he had never encountered before, and learned a great deal by immersing himself in that environment. This experience created the person that he is today. His wish is for everyone to have these experiences early on. [Individual Consultation Sessions] The entire afternoon was dedicated to individual consultations at booths. FUTI was one of the 24 booths set up. There was a desk manned by a few staff members from the Go Global Center who answered general inquiries or inquiries from newcomers and guided the participants who had more specific questions to the appropriate booths. The booth next door was hosted by UTokyo students who have study abroad experience and current UTokyo students who are from overseas. Other booths included those that bring back fond memories for me as a recipient years ago such as the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) and the Fulbright Program. (Currently the Fulbright program receives additional support from both the government and corporations in the U.S. and in Japan because the annual appropriation alone cannot sustain the program). There were also organizations representing the UK, France, and Germany, and representatives from universities in the UK, France, and South Korea. Next to FUTI was a booth run by an organization called the Schwarzman Scholars which was founded by an American named Mr. Schwarzman and promotes exchanges between China and the U.S. Their program which featured a generous offering of a fully sponsored one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University, trips within China, a computer, and a smartphone, apparently draws 4,000 applicants each year from around the world, of which only 140 are selected. It seems a waste of a fantastic opportunity since there were not that many visitors at the booth. Although I was present at the FUTI booth, we were fortunate to have Mr. Jun Sato and Ms. Hazuki Kase from the Office for External Relations (the Shogai Bumon) office take care of most of inquiries. The booths with the most traffic seemed to be FUTI and GEfIL. FUTI has reached a new record of 62 visitors to come and consult at the booth this year. Many of the students started with questions such as “What is FUTI?” or “What are the conditions for repayment?” but some had done their research ahead of time and had inquiries about details such as the selection process. For FUTI, this Fair was an important PR activity. Since many of the visitors were first-timers, there was a good deal of interest in how one can go about doing a study abroad. It is wonderful that UTokyo’s study abroad support system addresses this very question in full force. FUTI’s role in UTokyo’s system is to fill in financial gaps and to cover those that are difficult to be supported through the existing system alone. Those that cannot be covered by the UTokyo’s study abroad system could include 1) those wanting to attend a study abroad program that does not fit with UTokyo’s scheme; 2) those who have gone on to study overseas after graduating from UTokyo; 3) other UTokyo graduates/alumni; 4) doctoral candidates; 5) those who benefit from a more subjective evaluation beyond just their grades such as on their ambitions…
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