Deadline: 7-Nov-21
The Embassy of Japan in the UK is pleased to announce MIRAI Programme to offer an opportunity to:
- promote mutual trust and understanding among the people of Japan and Europe to build a basis for future friendship and cooperation
- promote a global understanding of Japan’s economy, society, history, diverse culture, politics and foreign policy
- disseminate information on Japan’s attractions through communication tools including social media.
The Government of Japan launched the MIRAI Programme in 2015. It is a short-term youth exchange scheme set up to invite graduate and undergraduate students to Japan.
“MIRAI 2021/2022” is a short-term youth exchange program to invite 121 graduate/undergraduate students and young professionals from Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, who study Politics, Law, Security Policies, Economics, International Relations, Asian Studies, Japan Studies, Science and Technology or other related fields. The title of the program “MIRAI” (pronounced ”me-rye”) means “future” in Japanese.
The title of the programme, “MIRAI,” means “future” in Japanese and is also an acronym based on the first letters of the following keywords, as indicated: Mutual understanding, Intellectual Relations and Academic exchange Initiative.
Objectives
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) aims to outline the program would offer a great opportunity:
- To promote mutual understandings
- To enhance intellectual discussions
- To build strong networks among future leaders of Japan and the world.
- Also, MOFA would strongly encourage all participants to disseminate information about Japan’s attractions learned throughout the program through SNS (Social Network Services) (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube).
Program Outline
Themes and number of the participants:
- 6 groups under below-mentioned theme would be formulated from 121 participants (university / graduate school students and young professionals) over the age of 20:
- Group 1: Peace-building – 12
- Group 2: Politics and Security – 26
- Group 3:Economy, Business and Green – 26
- Group 4: Science, Technology and Innovation – 26
- Group 5: Culture and Art – 5
- Group 6: Rule of Law – 26
- Online Pre-exchange program (a couple of days in January – February)
- All participants are required to attend an online pre-exchange program in their countries before they, depart for Japan. The online pre-exchange program may cover the followings:
- Orientation including guidance on how to share their learning and finding about Japan by utilizing social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.,
- Lecture on the theme-related contents,
- Virtual exchange and discussion with Japanese students / experts
- All participants are required to attend an online pre-exchange program in their countries before they, depart for Japan. The online pre-exchange program may cover the followings:
- Visiting Japan program (6-day travel visit to Japan):
- To attend lectures on Japanese politics, society, history, and diplomatic relations to gain a deeper understanding of Japan.
- To visit education and research institutions, high-tech and traditional industries, fine arts and traditional crafts exhibitions, cultural heritage sites. Participants will interact and exchange ideas with people in these various sites through workshops and other events.
- Workshop and reporting session.
- To disseminate information about Japan’s attractions through the implementation of Action Plan .
Eligibility Criteria
All applicants should meet all conditions of the following criteria:
- Applicants must understand the aims of this program and commit to sharing and disseminating their experiences and the attractions of Japan through various communication tools including social media and/or their publications after the online pre-exchange program, during their stay in Japan and after returning to home countries. Publication results should be shared with Government of Japan’s Foreign Missions located in participants’ residential countries.
- Those who have an experience residing in Japan for more than 6 months are not eligible.
- Those who have participated in “MIRAI” and/or similar programs funded by the Japanese government are not eligible.
- Applicants must have a nationality of one of the following countries and do not have a Japanese nationality: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, North Macedonia, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan
- Applicants must be 20 years old or older (for Group 6, between 20 and 30.).
- Applicants can communicate and discuss relevant themes and topics with other participants in English without difficulty.
- Applicants must have good academic achievement with their academic record being within 20% of all students counted from the top.
- Applicants must be in good health both physically and mentally:
- If the applicant’s body temperature is 37.0 (98.6°F)or higher on the day of departure, the person will not be permitted to participate the Visiting Japan program.
- The Applicant should be physically capable of keeping up with the program schedule.
For more information, visit https://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/mirai.html