Undergraduate years

At Waseda University, I was like a kid in a candy store. After studying mandatory subjects in high school with an unwavering focus on the all-important university entrance examinations, the freedom to choose subjects and learn what interested me most liberated my intellectual curiosity.

Determined to make the most of Waseda’s liberal, open-minded atmosphere and the opportunity to debate various subjects with independent thinking friends and faculty, I took my academic exploration well beyond the required coursework. I read and learned about history, philosophy, ethnology, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive science as well as political science, international relations and economics. The experience of self-directed interdisciplinary learning and extensive reading enlightened me, providing me with valuable reference points to view issues from multiple angles.

As one seeking to make an impact on the global community, I dabbled in foreign languages including English, German, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and French. I also took English language courses in Australia during the summer break as a freshman and audited classes on international relations at UCLA the following year. These experiences strengthened my international outlook and desire to work in the global arena in the future.

In my junior year I joined Professor Hideki Ohata’s seminar on theories of international politics, where I became one of the most active contributors in weekly discussion sessions. I chose to study Robert_Keohane’s institutional liberalism and John Steinbruner's cybernetic theory of policy making, which together made a profound impact on my thinking. They helped me to see both the forest and the trees in any organization or system: in other words, I learned the importance of attending to both macro and micro perspectives and appreciating the interdependence of relationships between the constituent elements.

Outside of my fundamental coursework, my involvement in the Ten Universities Joint Seminar on International Relations was the most critical contribution I made in my undergraduate academic experience. As chief of the Asian section, which was comprised of 30 students from ten universities in Tokyo, I created study programs, set the agenda, instructed other students on how to prepare presentations, and moderated weekly study sessions. Intensive discussions with other students with different specialty areas, such as development study, peace study, diplomacy, and international security helped to sharpen my interest in the issues of international social development and led me to choose public policy as the focus of my graduate studies.