 Welcome to Looking to the East. I'm your host, Steve Zercher. I'm a professor and dean at Kansai Gaida University in Osaka, Japan, where I'm located today. The last few shows that I've done, unfortunately I've covered kind of depressing topics over the last two years or so, the world has seemed to be filled with bad news, COVID, the Ukraine situation, the recent assassination of one of the most important political figures in Japan, that's former Prime Minister Abe. But today we're gonna focus on something that's much more positive. It starts out of a bad situation out of the Ukraine war, but this is a story, a very positive story, very upbeat story about how a small group of people with a very focused interest in supporting Ukrainian students have been able to work with the Japanese government and work with Japanese universities to bring in Ukrainian students and they'll be starting to study in Japan at various universities in just a few weeks. So I'm very honored and very pleased to have Paul Hastings with us today. So Paul, thank you so much for doing this for us. I really appreciate it. Paul is the CEO of the Japan ICU Foundation and that's the key group that's put together this initiative. There are other partners involved and we'll get into that as we discuss this in more detail. But first, Paul, I wanna find out a little bit about you. So this is a very interesting position that you're in. So can you tell me what led to this? Did you study this type of thing, nonprofit organizations or international support organizations as a student or tell me how you got to become the president and CEO of the Japan ICU Foundation? Great, well, thank you Steve for having me today. So I'm gonna give the short version because there's a longer version and we don't have time for that. The short version is that I grew up in Japan for most of my childhood. So I had a connection to Japan already and then my passion was sort of spurred by studying abroad but not studying abroad. So I went to college in the United States to Bowdoin College and while I was there, I studied abroad in Sri Lanka and that experience really opened my eyes to the world, to different cultures, different religions, different ways of living to the extreme inequalities in the world and to all of the amazing experiences also amazing people out there. So I felt very connected and interested in international education after that experience. And so I pursued a master's degree at Teachers College at Columbia University in international education. And I started working at a relatively young age at the Japan ICU Foundation and sort of worked my way up through the ranks. So when you graduated from your master's degree, you went directly into the Japan ICU Foundation? I was actually already working at the Japan ICU Foundation whose offices are right next door to Columbia University on Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City. And so I had a chance to pursue a master's and then continue with my professional journey. Why don't you describe what the Japan ICU Foundation is for? My Japanese viewers, of course, you've heard of the International Christian University ICU. It's one of the better private universities in Japan but you worked for their foundation. So why don't you describe the history of that briefly? How was that set up? And why has that group become interested in supporting refugee? Sure, so the Japan ICU Foundation is based in New York City. We are independent of ICU and we were founded actually one year before ICU was founded to help raise funds in the United States to establish ICU. Now ICU was founded in 1949 in West Tokyo, Mitaka, Tokyo. And it was a project of reconciliation. So ICU was a liberal arts college, firmly committed to global citizenship and to a bilingual education in English and Japanese. And so the Japan ICU Foundation was founded in the US at that time. Now fast forward 65, 70 years. Our mission currently is to nurture global citizenship in Japan and beyond. And we do that in partnership still with ICU but also now with other institutions in Japan. Wonderful. And how long have you been with the Japan ICU now? Now it's been 16 years. Oh my goodness. Wow, okay. Just as a plug to young people who might be watching this, I think most people move jobs quite a lot, especially right after college. I did have a couple of jobs before this but I've been now at the Japan ICU Foundation for 16 years and I think there's something to say about staying put and growing within an organization. So don't forget about that possibility as well when you are pursuing your career. And it has led to this very interesting project that you and others in your foundation plus other organizations I know have created for Ukrainian students. So why don't we talk about that? Now you and I met several months ago when you were still originating how this would all work. So as I recall, your foundation has a history of working with refugees in the past. So this is not, it's new for Ukraine but not necessarily new in terms of helping refugee students come into Japan, is that correct? That's right, Steve. So we started supporting refugee students in 2017 in a formal way. We had supported scholarships for refugee students in the past but sort of on an ad hoc basis. And in 2017 in response to the Syrian Civil War we launched a program called the Syrian Scholars Initiative and it was in collaboration with the Japan Association for Refugees Jar which is based in Tokyo and is one of the largest independent nonprofit organizations focused on refugees in Japan. And so we had this history of supporting Syrian students and when we started that program we didn't really know very much about the world of refugee higher education. And indeed we didn't even know the term complimentary education pathways which I'd love to explain a little bit more about today because that's what this Ukraine program is. But basically a complimentary education pathway is an opportunity for a refugee to travel from their country of asylum, a first asylum to a third country to pursue higher education. So this is part of UNHCR's education strategy. It's called the 2030 education strategy. And they have a goal of increasing the number of refugees who are able to pursue education from the current percentage which is 5% of refugees to 15% by 2030. And the way that they're doing this is by promoting what they call education pathways. It's complimentary to resettlement which is the more traditional way that refugees are resettled from one country to another country. I think most people are familiar with that. Right, so one of the amazing things that you and I have talked about this several times is that Japan historically has been very reluctant, very is not the right term, extremely reluctant to allow any refugees into this country. And that would be an interesting topic for a show in and of itself. But historically, I remember reading that the number of refugees that were accepted by Japan was less than 10 per year. It's really a small number historically. But in this instance, Japan official response, government response to the Ukrainian situation is completely different. So let's talk then about how this all got started. So you had the experience with the Syrian placement program and complimentary education. And then was it early this year that you thought, hey, there's gonna be a ton of Ukrainian students that are gonna be displaced obviously by what's going on there. So why don't we open up the program for them? Is that how this got started? Yeah, basically. So Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th and the reaction from the international community, from universities, from civil society was in sort of the quote unquote Western world was very supportive, of course, of Ukraine. And I was myself and my colleagues who we work with at Pathways Japan and my team at the Japan ICU Foundation, we were all seeing these kind of statements being put out by people. We, companies and corporations and universities, et cetera, about how they support Ukraine, stand with Ukraine, which is fantastic and it's great to have that type of support. But we felt like, well, we shouldn't just say something here, we need to do something. So we thought, well, okay, just like you said, there will be a lot of young people who are impacted by the war, whose educations are disrupted. And might there be an opportunity here to try to do something to create a program for Ukrainian students to travel to Japan. So what we did, the first step in all of this is sort of gathering more information. And so we very quickly networked with Ukrainian universities that have Japanese language programs. And we connected with some professors at these institutions and we asked them, do you have students who are being displaced and whose schooling is disrupted and who might be interested in going to Japan? Of course, that's a natural group of students who already have an interest in Japan, already studying the Japanese language. And the response we got was, yes, like we think that there would be quite a lot of interest in this. So we put together an application and a website and we started to advertise the opportunity through this network. So directly to the students themselves? Directly to the students themselves. I mean, of course, the other thing we did is that our partner ICU, who we worked really closely with, they said we would also, we would be interested in taking students. Very quickly, the president of ICU, Shoichi Iwakiri, he put out a statement and in conversations I had with him, he made it clear that ICU is very interested in supporting these students. So we had an interested university, we had the demand or the need. You're doing basic business analysis here. As a professor, I have to step in and I'm giving you an A so far. And you're assessing demand and you're looking at supply and trying to match those two things, that's great. Yeah, so we went forward and kind of created a pilot program and we were able to recruit five students very quickly who traveled to Japan in early May in to attend ICU as non-degree students initially. And then we started to have conversations with other universities. That's when we first met and we first spoke about the possibility of Kansai Gaidae taking students and through to that. I want to disclose that we are accepting two students in a few weeks here at Kansai Gaidae. We're a part of this program. But Paul, how did you know or how did you create the conditions for the Japanese government to allow Ukrainian students because as we talked about before, historically the Japanese government has been very reluctant to allow refugees in. And you're bringing them in under a quasi refugee status. Of course we have, our school has exchange programs. That's a normal way of doing things and the students, I get a visa that's hosted by the university. But in this case, that didn't apply to the Ukrainian situation because it was all such, it was last minute and I don't know how many Japanese universities had a connection with Ukrainian schools. We don't. So how was that handled? Were you guys involved in that? Or did you go to the government and say, look, this is what we're trying to do and in order to make this a success because we feel there's a lot of students who would like to do this. Will you allow whatever number of students in? How did that happen? It's a good question. So it was not all our doing by any stretch of the imagination. I think that to give credit where credit's due, Prime Minister Kishida and various different ministries within Japan very quickly responded to the Ukraine crisis and basically let it be known that Japan is willing to take Ukrainian refugees. It's not just students, but other students. And indeed, there was a Ministry of Foreign Affairs flight that was even chartered and bringing back Ukrainians very early on, if you recall. Yeah, I do remember that. Yeah. So I guess the answer to your question is that our close working partners, Pathways Japan, which is a sister organization of JAR, the Japan Association for Refugees that I mentioned earlier. So Pathways Japan was only founded last year with the specific function of supporting education pathways and other complimentary pathways for refugees to come to Japan. And so they were sort of in the right position at the right time. And they also have very good contacts with the government, with different ministries and the government with the immigration services agency, ISA and so they, yeah, you have to have those connections. And so they went to them and they spoke with them and they said, if we were to create this program, would you be willing to basically grant visas to the students? Because in the end, what differentiates I think an education pathways program from just a refugee traveling on their own or something to a country that it's a legal pathway. So this is a pathway that where there are visas in place, there is a sort of durable solution for the long term that's been thought through for the students. So the response by the Japanese government has been and the Japanese people has been really phenomenal. I mean, it's been really encouraging from my perspective to see this response. So it's been amazing. It's not just the government, the Nippon Foundation, they also have created a program, a very large program to provide financial assistance to Ukrainians who are coming to Japan. Universities have waived tuition for students, have agreed to cover dormitory fees or waived dormitory fees, there's been just a really great cooperative effort I think. Yeah, well, that's wonderful. So tell us what this has led to, how many universities are involved with this program now for the coming fall semester, which starts in a few weeks for us, and I think for most universities and how many students in total are coming in? What are the results as you see them today? So there are 12 universities participating taking students and 56 students have been placed. There is also another program that we're, that our partners Pathways Japan are running in parallel to the University Pathways Program, which is a language school pathways program. So these are Japanese language schools around the country that are accepting Ukrainian students. And for a two year language program as well. So for that program, there are 26 language schools participating and 50 students are being placed. So if you combine these two efforts, no 106 or so students from Ukraine are gonna be participating in this program. I think I'd like to also mention that there are other universities in Japan that have decided to take or accept Ukrainian students on their own independently of our program. Maybe they had a sister relationship with a Ukrainian university. Exactly, typically that's the case. But Todai also has, which I don't think Todai had a close sister exchange partnership, but they are also taking some Ukrainian students as well. Yeah, Todai for those that don't know is the University of Tokyo, which is the number one school in the country. And they're not current with their latest figures, but historically the number of international students at Todai is quite low. Yes. Something they're not happy with, but unfortunately it's like one or two percent. So this will help them grow that number, I guess. Now, you've met with the students, right? Yeah, so tell me about that. I mean, I'm looking forward to having our students show up in a few weeks here, but they must be overjoyed. Out of this terrible circumstance where they were looking at not completing their undergraduate degree, potentially, to now coming to Japan, which I'm sure for many of them was unimaginable before. So out of this horrible situation, they must be just so surprised and so overjoyed that now they're gonna become exchange students, just like you and I have been historically. And they're coming to this wonderful country, Japan, which you know and I know they're gonna have an incredible experience. So what's been your impression of the students so far and how is that aspect of it going? Well, that's the best part of this type of work is being able to get to know students and see their sort of how they can grow and the reactions that they have to these experiences. So I met the five students that I mentioned earlier who were part of that pilot. When they came to Japan in May, I happened to be in Japan for my first business trip to Japan since the pandemic. I was finally able to visit Japan and I met them on their first day on the ICU campus. So that interaction was, for them I think was very overwhelming because they had just arrived on campus. You know, they were talkative, but they were clearly a bit overwhelmed. That's just a general response of any exchange student. You know, that was my response when I came to Japan for the first time as exchange student. I was like, wow, this is so interesting. So I did have a chance to interview a lot of the candidates when we had the major, the larger application period. And that was really fascinating. We were targeting students who had some interest in Japan. We didn't require that they had studied Japanese before, but some of the universities that we were replacing the students did have some kind of language requirement and some didn't. And regardless, we were looking at like, is this a genuine interest in studying in Japan or how much do you know about Japan? They didn't have to have a long background in Japan, but they had to have some kind of interest that they could articulate. And that was just a fascinating experience. We conducted 99 interviews in total over Zoom, 20 minute interviews. And these students were in Ukraine, some of them were outside of Ukraine already. Many of them were internally displaced. Some of them were in the western part of the country, which is relatively safe compared to the eastern part of the country. So it really ran the gamut. Some had been, some had lost family members, some had lost their homes, others were almost kind of going along normally in some ways, though it really ran the gamut. But I think it's just going to, I'm really excited about what's going to happen 10 years from now from this group of students who have this experience of studying in Japan. Yeah. So I'm an example, I guess you're an example in a way. Those of us that develop a love of Japan through our educational exchange, we end up developing careers having to do with, in my case, international business and now with international education. So I've been here 11 years, it's probably of our normal students that are coming in and the Ukrainian students may be even more focused on developing careers after they graduate. But it's usually 20 to 30% that end up staying in this country. You're falling in love, that's one thing with a spouse or your partner or just the country itself or seeing the best career opportunities in this country as opposed to the home country or other locations. So I fully agree with you that it'll be interesting where this first cohort of students end up going as they develop their careers because they're getting this Japanese exposure right now and are going to graduate from a Japanese university. While we're running out of time, I knew this was going to happen because there's so many interesting things to talk about. So obviously what's going on in Ukraine and unfortunately it's continuing. It just seems like this back and forth war and both sides are hardened now. So I think when we first talked, there was the expectation that the war would be resolved and the situation would settle down and maybe normal life would return but that doesn't seem to be the case, unfortunately. So in terms of the foundation and pathways and jar these other organizations, are you guys beginning to plan for next year as well? So I mentioned 12 universities are taking students. There are actually 18 universities that had expressed an interest in the program but we weren't able to place some students at certain institutions, partly because of the higher Japanese language requirements of those institutions. So as I mentioned, there's this program for Ukrainian students to study at Japanese language schools in Japan. A lot of those students are going to want to go to university after they finish their language school. And so we are planning a kind of a second round of the application for next year. We don't know the details yet but basically the idea is that there will be students who are eager to participate. And like you said, unfortunately it seems like this conflict is going to be drawn out and it likely will not end soon. So I think the need will still be there. So we do want to continue this program. I also want to say just very quickly that we definitely want to expand the nationalities of students as well who can participate in these programs. So there are refugees from lots of different countries and the need is there. It's not just Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria continues to have a huge number of refugees, Myanmar. So we hope that Japan and the Japanese government and Japanese institutions will start to see the value in these programs because it's really positive for the long-term I think that you're helping to develop a cohort of students who will, like you said, they're going to be contributing to Japanese society for a long time to come. Right, exactly. So you think that perhaps this experience now with the Japanese government being more positive about supporting refugees, at least from Ukraine, may open up the door for other people to take advantage of the programs that have been developed and the goodwill that's developed through the Ukraine placement program, through your work and others. I certainly hope so. Yeah, all right, well that'll be interesting to see and of course, we'll be on an official basis or a business basis and kinds of guide it would be interested in those students as well. Thank you, Steve. All right, Paul, well, the half hour went by so quickly. Thank you very much for your clear description of how this program has evolved and congratulations on your great success. You mentioned you've been in this position now for many, many years, but I would imagine this particular experience has got to be the greatest one so far for you. Absolutely, yes. And thank you for having me on the show. Oh, it's my pleasure. All right, well, that's a wrap then. Thank you so much, everyone, for tuning in to Looking to the East and learning about this particular story of Japan and the Ukrainian students and the good work that Paul and his foundation and others have invested in getting these students to come to Japanese universities and just a few weeks they'll be starting. So very, very nice, very wonderful story. So thanks again, Paul. We'll be back on again in two weeks with another topic. Maybe we'll talk about baseball next time, trying to keep it more positive flow. We're looking to the East at least for the month of August. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.