On October 25, 2013, Polish exchange students from the University of Warsaw and the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology who are currently studying at Josai were invited to give a presentation to promote Japan-Poland exchange at the “Poland, Ireland Evening Reception” hosted by the household of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

As part of Josai’s Mid-term Target of strengthening international exchange to cultivate global human resources, our university has formed academic exchange agreements with a number of institutions worldwide. Josai is particularly focused on developing programs of exchange with Central European universities and is currently hosting 13 exchange students from three different Polish universities for a one-year program of study.

The invitation was extended by the wife of Prime Minister Abe, who had the occasion to tour the University of Warsaw and the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology during the Prime Minister’s visit to Warsaw in June, 2013. She requested that the exchange students “give a presentation at the ‘Poland, Ireland Evening Reception’ that introduces the charm of Poland and provides suggestions―from an exchange student perspective―as to how Japan and Poland can build even stronger relations.”

Eight Polish exchange students currently studying at Josai gave their presentation on the growth of exchange between Japan and Poland before an audience that included the Poland Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Janusz Piechociński, Ambassadors and their spouses from both Poland and Ireland, and Diet members from both the Japan-Poland and Japan-Ireland Friendship Parliamentarians' Union. During their presentation, the students explained how each of them became interested in Japan and used a bus as a model for their “mobile cultural center” to illustrate their proposal for the further advancement of Japan-Poland cultural exchange, receiving an enthusiastic round of applause from the audience.