On July 19, Ambassador of Sweden to Japan Lars Vargö visited Tokyo Kioicho Campus. As inaugural chair of the Department of International Administration’s Executive Program: New Global Society and the Future of Japan, Ambassador Vargö delivered a lecture entitled, “Sweden’s Globalization.”

Including students, around 60 people from fields such as economics, administration, and education attended Ambassador Vargö’s lecture, which encompassed wide-ranging topics like politics, economics, society, culture, and history. The Q&A session also addressed a diverse number of issues concerning Sweden (often known as “EU’s Japan”) such as gender equality, welfare, and tax administration. There were also many questions regarding comparisons to Sweden’s neighboring country of Norway in which cultural and social comparisons were made with the participation of Norwegian exchange students from the audience.

The auditorium was often filled with the sounds of laughter, making this a very refreshing environment indeed for the Executive Program’s inaugural lecture. With the content truly embodying the theme of its title “New Global Society,” the lecture concluded with a resounding round of applause.