Director General Mrs. Kaneko lectures at Chemnitz University of Technology |
From September 27 to October 6, 2011, Mrs. Yumiko Kaneko, Director General
, visited Germany in response to two requests to deliver lectures. The
first lecture she presented was at the conference "Lifelong Learning
- Education for Elderly People and together with Young People" held
at Chemnitz University of Technology/Seniors College in Germany, and the
second was at a lecture meeting held by the Embassy of Japan in Germany.
Director Mrs. Yasuko Ubukata and two staff members accompanied Mrs. Kaneko.
Nomura Center received the invitation to speak at the conference at Chemnitz
University of Technology/Senior College after Prof. Dr. Roland Schoene
made a request to the Embassy of Japan in Germany to be introduced to an
organization in Japan that is currently focusing on issues related to the
elderly. On September 28, Mrs. Kaneko delivered her lecture on the theme
"The 21st Century - Live in an Unprecedented Era, Education in an
Aged Society."
The second lecture was held at the Japanese Embassy in Berlin as one of
many events since January in various locations in Germany to commemorate
the 150th anniversary of exchanges between Japan and Germany this year
(2011).
The plan for the two lectures developed during the preparatory trip for
the 10th Commemorative International Forum on Lifelong Integrated Education
held in November 2010. On a visit to the Embassy of Japan, it was suggested
that there was significant interest in lifelong education in Germany. Furthermore,
since the following year was going to be the 150th anniversary of exchanges
between Japan and Germany, the embassy proposed that Nomura Center hold
a lecture meeting in Berlin at that time. Around the same time as the Center
received an invitation from Chemnitz University of Technology/Seniors College,
it resulted in a lecture meeting at the embassy as well.
On October 5, Mrs. Kaneko presented her lecture on the theme "Lifelong Integrated Education - Education that Links Continuity of Life" at the hall of the Japanese Embassy.
On Wednesday, September 28 at 10:00 am, approximately 60 participants from
various countries gathered at the large lecture theater, the venue of the
meeting, and the conference began. Professor Christoph Fasbender, Acting
Chancellor of the University, opened the day's proceedings by welcoming
everyone and this was followed by an address from Mr. Thomas Rechentin,
Manager, Ministry of Culture and Sports, Saxony State.
Next, D.G. Kaneko took the platform as the first of four speakers and started her address by expressing her deep appreciation at being invited to the conference to join in the commemoration of the university's 175th anniversary.
After her lecture, Prof. Roland Schoene, who was serving as the chair,
praised D. G. Kaneko for her wonderful presentation, saying that it also
made him want to review his own values. He then invited questions from
the floor.
Dr. Peter Luder, President of Schweizer Vereninigung der Senioren-Universitaten in Basel, Switzerland, was the first person to raise his hand. After commenting that he thought Mrs. Kaneko's talk was very interesting, he said that he was well aware of the differences in Japanese and Western education, in view of the fact that education in Japan was approached from a holistic perspective. His question was whether that approach in Japan still persisted or whether it was a thing of the past.
During the reception after completion of all lectures, Dr. Peter Luder
from Switzerland, who posed a question after the lecture, told Mrs. Kaneko
that he found her talk the most interesting of all the lectures during
the day, and he listened intently to her talk about the Nomura Principles
and the Center's activities.
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Details of the lecture by Mrs. Kaneko and Q&A session are on our English
newsletter "Nomura Center News No.61".
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