Cultivating program for overseas students in engineering major with Japanese manufacturing-style

(1) Industry-academia cooperating specialized education program

A core major subject comprised of the Japanese monozukuri (manufacturing) subjects and technology management subjects. For graduate students, a systematic teaching environment linking industry and academia that includes graduate studies is constructed. This includes the “construction of an implementation system for continuous collaborative research” and a “system for enabling industry technicians to collaborate in the research teaching as assistant tutors.”

(2) Business Japanese language and Japanese business education

The language education for the students is geared towards Japanese needed in the business fields. This trend is particularly found in the monozukuri (manufacturing) workplaces. With the AOTS program as the core, improvements have been made, and the “monozukuri (manufacturing) Japanese language education” required for unique manufacturing workplaces is conducted. In the business education, the MOT 5 “Japanese management" has been started to cultivate the overall business knowledge required in addition to the existing MOT subjects.

(3) Internship

Internship programs are being developed for international students to build upon the program for specialized education linking industry and academia and the business Japanese language/Japanese business education they have received. This program has the following four objectives:

-To practice business Japanese in an actual workplace.

-To experience the content learned in the program for specialized education linking industry and academia and the business Japanese language/Japanese business education in an actual workplace, in order to upgrade it to clinical knowledge.

-To practice the quality improvement/production improvement methods learned in the Japanese monozukuri (manufacturing) subjects in an actual workplace, in order to increase the problem discovery/resolution ability of the students, which is a critical ability for core technicians.

-To experience the issues researched in graduate study in an actual workplace, in order to obtain the basic knowledge required for graduate study.

(4) International student employment assistance

The employers of the international students that join this program include mainly Japanese corporations, some of which are operating in the home country of the international students, and some of which are planning on expanding their operations to do so. In particular, the purpose is to provide assistance for finding employment in the corporations participating in the consortium which are both inside and outside Hiroshima prefecture, and are connected with this program.

Therefore in 2009, an employment assistance committee will be created under the Japanese Monozukuri Global Human Resources Development Council that is implementing this program, for the purpose of creating a system for employment assistance. In 2010, employment assistance activities will be started based around the employment assistance committee set up in the previous year, with the objective of enabling each student to find employment in the corporation they desire.

This program invites exceptional international students from developing countries mainly in Southeast Asia to a first semester graduate school course where they will learn the theory and practice behind the Japanese monozukuri (manufacturing) process, and cultivate into human resources that can operate inside Japanese corporations. In addition to monozukuri (manufacturing) technology, the program also cultivates human resources that understand the basics of MOT, so that in addition to monozukuri (manufacturing) technology, they gain an understanding of Japanese business practices, enabling them to become key human resources in Japanese companies operating in their home countries.

Young people in developing countries who graduate from university or graduate school tend to be heavily "theory-laden," make light of "experience" and "communication with others,"wish to be "considered full-fledged" and to be posted to high positions immediately. On the other hand, as "Japanese-style production" involves a collaborative effort by a very great many people, "experience" and "communication with others" in addition to "theory" are important. After graduation from university or graduate school, several years is commonly required for someone to be treated as a central personnel within a company. The aim of this program is to have students overcome the aforementioned faults, understand the characteristics of Japanese companies, and cultivate foreign students capable of playing an active role within companies as central personnel.

Hiroshima University

Hiroshima University

TEL：082-424-4507

FAX：082-424-5461

E-mail：mtwest@hiroshima-u.ac.jp