KTH Japan Day builds bridges through language, culture, and collaboration
When the Department of Language and Communication together with the Japanese Embassy in Sweden arranged KTH Japan Day on 27 November, a panel discussion was held in collaboration with KTH Climate Action Centre. The event attracted a wide audience – from fresh students to senior professors.
The aim for KTH Japan Day was to provide KTH employees and students studying Japanese or involved in Japan-related research with a platform to network and strengthen relationships.
“We place particular emphasis on providing young science and engineering students with opportunities to expand their connections with Japan through interactions with researchers and Japanese companies”, says Akiko Shirabe, Japanese Lecturer, KTH Language and Communication.
The Head of ITM school, Pär Jönsson, who personally has a lot of cooperation with universities in Japan gave a welcome note. Masaki Noke, the Ambassador of Japan to Sweden, talked about the importance of strengthening the relationship between Sweden and Japan. Tomoya Tanaka, the First Secretary at the Embassy of Japan introduced the Japanese Government Scholarship Program.
The two companies Mitsubishi Electric Europe Scandinavia and Senseair AB also participated in the event and presented their newly launched support for internships and degree projects for students taking Japanese courses at KTH.
The panel discussion in collaboration with the KTH Climate Action Center added an academic aspect to the event. The panels consisted of researchers Francesco Fuso Nerini and Dilip Khatiwada, both from the department of Energy Technology, several Japanese companies (Akihiro Kambara, Mitsubishi Electric Europe Scandinavia and Mitsuhiro Yamamoto, Sumitomo Corporation /Aimo Holding AB) and KTH-student Emilia Tidblad, from the Energy and Environment program – a good mix of people for discussing global issues. The panel was led by Professor Per Lundqvist from the department of Energy Technology.