Stanford e-Fukuoka is an online course for high school students throughout Fukuoka Prefecture in the southwestern island of Kyushu, Japan, that is sponsored by the Fukuoka Prefectural Government. Launched in spring 2022, it is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) in collaboration with the Fukuoka Prefectural Board of Education. SPICE is grateful to Fukuoka Governor Seitaro Hattori whose vision made this course possible. Stanford e-Fukuoka is one of SPICE’s local student programs in Japan. 

Having spent three wonderful years in Fukuoka Prefecture on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program after college, I welcomed the opportunity to teach “e-Fukuoka,” Stanford’s online course on U.S.–Japan relations, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and entrepreneurship. In Spring 2022, I had the pleasure of teaching 30 high school students from 16 public and private schools throughout Fukuoka Prefecture.

For the inaugural course, I invited the following guest speakers to our virtual classroom:

Yuki Kondo-Shah (former Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka)
Kondo-Shah introduced students to the concept of “soft power,” coined by political scientist Joseph Nye. Unlike “hard power,” which refers to military or economic might, she described “soft power” as the people-to-people relationships and grassroots student exchanges that enhance communication, deepen cross-cultural understanding, and strengthen U.S.–Japan relations. “Soft power” at times calls for engagement based on empathy and empowerment.

Miwa Seki (General Partner of MPower Partners)
Seki’s venture capital fund, MPower, is Japan’s first Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)-focused global venture capital (VC) fund. Seki, a Co-founder of the women-led VC fund, explained that even young entrepreneurs of global start-ups need resources to launch their businesses and that VCs like MPower provide them with this funding. Born and raised in Fukuoka, Seki showed students how she countered adversity at various stages of her career by “becoming the solution.”

Fred Katayama (former anchor and producer at Reuters; Executive Vice-President of the U.S.-Japan Council in Washington, DC)
Katayama shared his family’s transnational migration from Fukuoka to Hawaii and Los Angeles, and later to Belem (Brazil). He also traced his family’s wartime incarceration at Tule Lake (CA) and Gila River (AZ). Katayama reflected on his early struggles with his Japanese American identity. He explained that despite the discrimination that he experienced, the role models from his youth encouraged his pursuit of an international career in journalism.

Jan Johnson (owner of the Panama Hotel in Seattle; recipient of the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation)
Johnson grew more conscious of the need to preserve the history of buildings like the Panama Hotel (designed by a Japanese immigrant) after traveling to Italy in her youth. She challenged gender bias to purchase the building. She saw the importance of preserving a historic building and its sustainable practices before anyone else saw the value in doing so.

Each speaker shared their personal and professional journeys between and beyond the United States and Japan. They contextualized and localized the broad concepts of diplomacy, global finance, journalism, and immigration, respectively. Finally, they allowed students to see that these ideas are not foreign but rather are relevant to our everyday lives.

As a final project, each of the Stanford e-Fukuoka students identified a sustainability-related issue in their community that was meaningful to them. They conducted fieldwork and interviewed individuals engaged in the topic. They explored how their topics related to the global world around them and how they could make a difference through a change in perception, education, or innovation.

The two honorees from this year’s Stanford e-Fukuoka cohort are:

Kasane Horiuchi (Tochiku High School, Kita-Kyushu City)
Kasane explored recycling challenges at her high school and offered potential solutions that students can make to enhance conventional “reduce, reuse, and recycle” processes. She proposed the QR-coding of plastic bottles, suggested transparent collection bins, and looked into incentivizing sustainability through gamification.  

Mihiro Tomomatsu (Hakata Seisho High School, Munakata City)
Mihiro shared her mental health challenges and discussed the resulting discrimination and disruption of education that she endured. She suggested thoughtful ways to dismantle the stigma surrounding mental illness through empathetic, peer-based interventions. Mihiro encourages awareness and the creation of a culture of compassion that is sustained through mutual responsibility.

Students joined Stanford e-Fukuoka with varying degrees of English communication abilities. Yet each week, as they became more brave, they expressed their opinions through their writing, shared their thoughts in class discussions, and grew comfortable making mistakes. Students were especially inspired by the stories of personal struggle and resilience among our distinguished guest speakers. By openly discussing their vulnerabilities alongside their strengths, the speakers connected with the students. The presenters showed these high school students how we are more alike than different. No doubt, this was “soft power” at work.

I’d like to thank Chie Inuzuka (Director, Fukuoka American Center) for her positivity and support on the other side of my virtual classroom. I look forward to continue working together to create a meaningful learning experience for our Stanford e-Fukuoka students.

In 2022 SPICE launched the Stanford e-Fukuoka program, a new online course offered to high school students across Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. Stanford e-Fukuoka’s main themes revolve around U.S.–Japan relations, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and entrepreneurship. In the course, students engage in discussions with speakers on topics such as Japanese immigration to the United States, the historical preservation of cultural sites, and media representations of ethnicity.

Stanford e-Fukuoka is the latest of SPICE’s growing number of local student programs in Japan, which include other regional programs such as Stanford e-Hiroshima, Stanford e-Kawasaki, Stanford e-Kobe, Stanford e-Oita, and Stanford e-Tottori. These online courses are a collaboration between SPICE and local government and school officials in Japan and challenge students to think critically about global themes related to U.S. society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations.

The inaugural session of Stanford e-Fukuoka recently came to a close, and two students have been selected to be recognized as honorees for their outstanding performance in the course. Congratulations to the 2022 Stanford e-Fukuoka honorees on their excellent academic achievement!

Student Honoree: Kasane Horiuchi
School:  Tochiku High School
Project Title: Research on Plastic Bottle Recycling

Student Honoree: Mihiro Tomomatsu
School:  Hakata Seisho High School
Project Title: Break Invisible Barriers. Create the World that Everyone Needs

These students will be honored at a virtual event hosted by SPICE, Stanford University, this week. During the ceremony they will also make a formal presentation to members of the Stanford community, the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco, and the Japanese community in the San Francisco Bay Area.

SPICE also offers national online courses to Japanese high school students (Stanford e-Japan), to Chinese high school students (Stanford e-China), and to U.S. high school students on Japan (Reischauer Scholars Program), China (China Scholars Program), and Korea (Sejong Korea Scholars Program).

To stay informed of SPICE news, join our email list and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Applications opened recently for the Fall 2022 session of the Stanford University Scholars Program for Japanese High School Students (also known as “Stanford e-Japan”), which will run from the end of September 2022 through the end of February 2023. The deadline to apply is August 12, 2022.

Stanford e-Japan
Fall 2022 session (September 2022 to February 2023)
Application period: July 1 to August 12, 2022

All applications must be submitted at https://spicestanford.smapply.io/prog/stanford_e-japan/ via the SurveyMonkey Apply platform. Applicants and recommenders will need to create a SurveyMonkey Apply account to proceed. Students who are interested in applying to the online course are encouraged to begin their applications early.

Accepted applicants will engage in an intensive study of U.S. society and culture and U.S.–Japan relations. Government officials, top scholars, and experts from Stanford University and throughout the United States provide web-based lectures and engage students in live discussion sessions.

Stanford e-Japan is offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford University. Stanford e-Japan is generously supported by the Yanai Tadashi Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

For more information about Stanford e-Japan, please visit stanfordejapan.org.

To stay informed of news about Stanford e-Japan and SPICE’s other student programs, join our email list or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPICE offers separate courses for U.S. high school students. For more information, please visit the Reischauer Scholars Program (online course about Japan), the Sejong Korea Scholars Program (online course about Korea), and the China Scholars Program (online course about China).

At the APARC Japan Program, we are deeply saddened by the news of the assassination of Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan and still an influential political figure domestically and globally. We strongly condemn this senseless act of violence. We also sincerely hope that we will all strive to stop the 21st-century world from conjuring the memories of a pre-World War II days, bringing back the invasion of a sovereign nation for no reason (Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), violent attack on democracy based on disinformation (the January 6 uprising in the United States), and assassination of an influential leader of a stable democracy (the death of Abe). Having served longer than any other prime minister in Japanese history, Abe had his admirers and detractors. Regardless of one’s evaluation of his legacy, however, this act of violence needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms, and every effort should be made to prevent similar acts of terror.

Abe was one of the most transformative political leaders in modern Japanese history, whose foreign policy accomplishments made him a leading protector of the liberal international order at a time when China’s authoritarian model and the U.S.’s isolationist tendencies began to threaten the rules-based international order. He consolidated U.S.-Japan relations by deftly handling the polar opposite personalities of Presidents Obama and Trump during his second term. He made lasting contributions to international politics, having invented new influential concepts such as Free and Open Indo-Pacific and Data Free Flow with Trust, which were later embraced by many democratic allies in the region, most notably by the United States.

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Abe's diplomatic prowess was predicated on his domestic power base, evidenced by six straight victories in national elections during his second term. Even after stepping down as Prime Minister, he wielded powerful influence in national politics, particularly in defense and foreign affairs. His passing will change Japanese politics in a number of ways.

Most immediately, internal politics within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will be shaken up. The LDP was poised to win the Upper House election held on Sunday, July 10, but the margin of victory likely grew because of national sympathy for Abe’s death. With this victory, Prime Minister Kishida now has “the Golden Three Years” in which he does not need to hold any national election. This puts him in a position to execute his policy agenda.

In the economic realm, Prime Minister Kishida no longer has to go out of his way to defend Abenomics and emphasize that his economic policy is an extension of Abe’s. He also does not face the same level of internal pressure to increase the defense budget, take a strong stance against China, and work toward a constitutional revision. At the same time, with Abe no longer uniting the conservative constituencies for Kishida, they might become more critical of Kishida, pushing him to pursue Abe’s policy agenda such as constitutional revision.

Abe’s faction is the largest in the LDP, and it will have to find a successor who can keep it together and exert influence within the LDP. Prime Minister Kishida will likely be emboldened to shake up the cabinet and bring in people he finds useful. He no longer needs to consider Abe’s preferences, which he did to a certain extent in forming his first cabinet. This will likely lead to surprising appointments in the next cabinet shuffle such as a long-term partner of Abe’s becoming Kishida’s close ally.

The U.S.-Japan alliance will remain strong, and Americans should not expect any major changes that would impact them directly in the short term. A stable leadership in an important ally is always welcome, and somebody like Kishida who is sensible and careful, if not dynamic, makes for a reliable partner. Abe’s interpersonal skills are hard to replicate but the geopolitical environments will continue to push American and Japanese leaders to work closely and remain friendly.

One concern for Japan is that a copycat event is common after a violent incident like this. The fact that the gun used in the assassination was made by the perpetrator speaks to the efficacy of gun control measures in Japan but it also serves as a warning that others with similar skills and intentions could use hand-made guns for other acts of violence. Japan experienced a wave of political violence in the period leading up to World War II, and the political instability provided fertile ground for the destructive military expansion that resulted in the devastating defeat in 1945. It might seem too early to worry about such dire outcomes, but we can never be too careful in working to preserve our precious democracy. The United States is learning this lesson the hard way, as it has had to deal with all the demagogies and disinformation that seem to persist with no end in sight.

Shinzo Abe was killed while on a campaign trail in the last few days of the Upper House election period. While the assassin’s motivation was more personal than political, it is still alarming that election campaigns were the site of this violent attack. If this can happen in Japan, widely viewed as the least likely place for violence in general and gun violence in particular, then it could happen anywhere to undermine democracy. To honor Abe’s legacy, we all need to reassert our resolve to protect our democracy in Japan, the United States, and all over the world.