Winter 2003 Feature

Japan in June

At the invitation of Dr. Masahide Shibusawa, president of the Jogakkan Schools for Women (TJK) in Japan, President Gloria Nemerowicz and Executive Assistant to the President Eugene Rosi spent the first week of June in Tokyo, speaking to faculty and staff there and conducting workshops on the principles and theories of an educational system based on inclusive leadership and social responsibility. In 1999, TJK partnered with PMC when it opened its own college for women using PMC’s philosophy and mission as guidelines. Dr. Shibusawa, the grandson of the founder of the Jogakkan Schools, embraced the PMC educational model for the new women’s college and is modifying the curriculum of all TJK schools—elementary, middle, high school, and college—to reflect the ideas of inclusive leadership and social responsibility. Nemerowicz and Rosi spent an entire day in the elementary school working with fourth- and fifth-graders and conducting leadership exercises with them as demonstrations for their teachers. Although it was feared that the Japanese students might not respond because passivity and self-restraint are emphasized so much in their training, the children were very interested and became totally involved, responding much like American children. Currently, TJK sends students from its middle school to PMC’s Summer Leadership Camp. Beginning in 2003, TJK college students will spend a semester at PMC, and PMC students will have an opportunity to attend TJK College as a result of a new student exchange agreement between PMC and TJK College.

Like people even when they are different.

Nemerowicz and Rosi also gave a presentation to the Joshi Kyoiku Shoreikai (the Japanese Society for
Women’s Education and Leadership), met with the faculties and staff of other leading women’s educational institutions in the metropolitan Tokyo area, and spent time on the campuses of the Showa Joshidai Schools and University, which runs the Showa Institute in Jamaica Plain, less than a mile from PMC’s campus. Discussions with members of the Joshi Kyoiku Shoreikai centered on the fact that Japan’s future depends on women participating in all levels of society and their need to be prepared to do so. Japanese women are seeking higher education as never before and have begun to apply for management and leadership positions in business and industry, but the glass ceiling is very low in Japan, and women are underrepresented in every segment of public life, including government, where only 7 percent of the management positions are currently held by women. Conversations with Dr. Kabira, president of Showa University, and his staff focused on the importance of women’s education and the future role of women in Japanese society. Meetings with Nobuo Takahashi, president of Musashino Junior College, which has a prominent international liberal arts division, started discussions about student exchanges between PMC and MJC in the future.

Do what's fair

One of the brightest highlights of the entire trip was a luncheon with PMC alumnae at the Sho-An tempura restaurant in the Chinzanso Hotel. The gathering was hosted by Akiko Shimada ’79 and was attended by 18 alumnae, as well as Eiko Shima, who spent the fall of 2002 on campus as artist-in-residence and has become a catalyst for PMC alumnae in Japan. The alumnae are a vibrant group and serve as wonderful ambassadors of PMC and of empowered women. They are strong role models.

Try to help the earth more.

PMC has ties to Japan dating back to the College’s founder, Helen Temple Cooke, and her interest in the Far East. Japanese students were the first international students admitted to PMC, and there are currently more than 300 PMC graduates living in Japan, with more than 250 concentrated in the greater Tokyo area.