The 2021 KKC Fellowship Program for North American Social Studies Teachers was held online.

The online program consisted of four sessions. The first session was a meeting with Mr. Ichiro Fujisaki, former Ambassador of Japan to The United States (2008-2012), President of the America-Japan Society and President of Nakasone Peace Institute. They had an exciting discussion with the Ambassador on a wide range of issues covering trade and foreign policy, the Tokyo Olympics, Japan’s response to COVID, as well as labor and employment issues.

As a company visit, the fellows visited Sony Square, a special showroom in the world where Sony provides both in-person and remote tours to introduce Sony’s various business fields that represent Sony’s Purpose, “Fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology” (https://square.sony.com/?lang=en-us). They experienced and learned about Sony’s innovative technologies.

At the online visit to Senior High School at Otsuka, University of Tsukuba, the fellows had a chance to talk with Japanese students and exchanged views with Japanese teachers on various topics from school curriculum to the work-life balance of teachers. After the engaging discussions, they observed a 12th year Social Studies class where students studied the 5th Armitage-Nye report.

On the last day of the program, an online seminar titled “Collaboration Between Academia and Industry” was hosted by KKC and participants from academia and businesses attended. Mr. Tsutomu Togasaki, Director, Board of Education, Toda City, Saitama Prefecture presented his views on educational reform of making ICT an essential tool in the collaboration between industry, government and academia. Three of the fellows presented to share examples of collaboration between academia, education and industry in their communities.

We sincerely thank all the North American teachers who joined us and all the people who kindly supported us in organizing the online events.

About the KKC Study Tour to Japan