Collaboration Area Professor Kyoko Kuwashima

Graduated from Kyoto University College of Literature, and completed a Master's course in East Asian Area Studies at Harvard University Graduate School of Humanities. After graduating from university, he joined JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). He was involved in various aid projects and development research, mainly in China and Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Cambodia, etc.). After leaving JICA, he became a professor at this university. His specialties are "International Cooperation Theory," "Social Development Theory," and "Public Policy Theory." He is mainly interested in improving the government capabilities and public services of developing countries. He is trying to find the factors behind success and failure from cases of human resource development and system building that can maintain and operate social infrastructure and provide it as a sustainable social service. His regional interest is East Asia. He is also interested in Japan's development experience, how it has developed since its developing days. Japan's approach to aid is deeply connected to its own history of development.

My work so far

- Involved in practical aid work and research, mainly in China and Southeast Asia. Interacted with Japanese and international students at various universities.
(Photo: JICA's report on corporate kaizen support for Ethiopia is presented to the late Prime Minister Meles)

After graduating from university, I joined JICA just as aid to China was about to begin. For 36 years, I was involved in planning, implementing and evaluating official development assistance projects for China and other Asian and African countries, as well as in research and studies on development issues. When I first joined the company, my responsibilities were mainly related to people-to-people exchanges, such as accepting trainees from China and dispatching Japanese experts. It's hard to imagine now, but at the time, China had just adopted an open-door policy and economic reforms, and its economic standard was low. For many people, it was their first time visiting a capitalist country like Japan, and their first time accepting foreigners.

From Japan, I not only eagerly learned specific technologies and knowledge, but also learned the basics such as values and rules related to the market economy, and work efficiency and productivity. Five years after I started working, I became a resident at the Beijing office. It was a time when China was about to undergo a historic transformation and aid from Japan was expanding rapidly, so I think I was able to be involved in aid to China at a very interesting time.

(Photo: Commentator at a seminar co-hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and JICA Research Institute (JICA press release))

The projects I was in charge of during my tenure spanned East, Southeast and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, but I was particularly involved in numerous aid projects to China and Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Cambodia, etc.). The assistance provided included industrial promotion, human resource development and organization/system building for regional and urban development, as well as the development of legal and judicial systems and human resource development. I was more involved in soft-side assistance, such as human resource development and organization/system building, than hard-side assistance, such as infrastructure development. I was also involved in research into Japan's aid strategies and in studies to draw lessons and experiences from examples of soft-side assistance.

Besides working at JICA, I have also taught international cooperation, governance and development at the University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University, Ritsumeikan University, etc. I was also seconded to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore as a research fellow.

This is what's interesting about my classes

- The main purpose of assistance is to enable people to think for themselves and solve their problems.

The thing I want to convey most in my classes is that development aid is not just about "raising economic standards," "expanding the size of the economy," or "providing funds and technology." The most important thing is for the recipients of aid to think about what they need and be able to solve their problems. Aid should be approached on the premise that it will eventually disappear, and I believe that the donors should step aside as soon as possible and think about how to help the recipients become independent.

To get students to think about this, we use examples from developing countries in our classes. For example, there is the water supply in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Currently, Phnom Penh has tap water of the same quality as developed countries, and it is available at low cost. However, 25 years ago, reddish-brown water was only available for about 10 hours a day. With the help of aid, this was improved piece by piece over the course of more than 10 years, but what was the process that was followed? There are many lessons that could be useful in other countries.

In addition, the experience of Thailand, which has made remarkable progress, is also a useful example when considering the spread of education. Currently, the enrollment rate in junior high schools in Thailand is over 95%, and the enrollment rate in high schools is about 70%, but until the end of the 1980s, less than 40% of children went on to junior high schools. There are various reasons why children who go to elementary school do not continue on to junior high or high school, including not only facilities such as a lack of schools, but also economic reasons such as not being able to pay tuition fees or finding it more important to help with housework, regional reasons such as not being able to find a good job even if they go on to higher education, the content they learn being non-practical and useless, and value issues such as not needing to study further because they will soon be married. I aim to use these various examples in my classes to help students think about why education is not widespread and how to improve it.

Message to prospective students

- From now on, international cooperation will not be a one-sided approach to aid, but a partnership in which we work together to solve Japan's own problems.

The image of international cooperation that has taken place up until now has been that countries with higher economic power, knowledge, and technology unilaterally assist those with lower economic power, knowledge, and technology, but this will not necessarily be the case from now on. In fact, there are countries in Asia that have similar problems to those faced by Japan.

For example, the declining birthrate and aging population is not an issue unique to Japan. A society is said to be aging when the population over 65 years old exceeds 7% of the total population, and aged when it exceeds 14%. China will soon become an aging society, and Thailand is already an aging society. Looking at how rural areas in Thailand are dealing with this issue, although there is little progress in pension systems and other security, they are taking an approach that is completely different from Japan, such as elderly people actively participating in the promotion of One Village One Product and ecotourism.

Therefore, I would like students to view developing countries not only as recipients of aid, but as partners with whom they can learn and develop together. I believe that School of Global Studies and Collaboration is a faculty that fosters this kind of empathy.