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The Virtual Summer Program kicks-off!

The day has finally arrived for the launch of NUCB Undergraduate School’s Virtual Summer Program, Leading Through a Crisis! With 29 participants (from NUCB Undergraduate School and its partner schools) of 14 different nationalities, we have a very diverse group that strikes a great balance for the various discussions and group activity to be carried out throughout this week. This program was designed in a unique way: opposed to having certain popular or niche themes taught in separate courses, we brought together independent themes into a single course by having Japan and the COVID-19 pandemic as the anchors that hold them all together.


NUCB Undergraduate School’s Institutional Relations & Program Coordinator began the day with a Program Orientation, explaining in details how the numerous learning objectives will be achieved in this week with the different types of sessions. As our Virtual Summer Program will be based on our Participant Centered Learning model, with the lecture & discussion sessions using the Case Method, participants discovered more about the pedagogy that is widely used in our institution. There was also time for all the participants to introduce themselves briefly, getting to know each other a bit and to facilitate future networking as they will be engaging themselves in an important group activity on the last day.

The first lecture & discussion session was delivered by Prof. Frendy, Associate Professor of NUCB Business School, and it was about the Japanese culture and society. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Prof. Frendy gave a general illustration of Japanese culture and society before showing how this pandemic has impacted it. Everyone then engaged in discussions to explore further developments in the society.



Participants had an article about Toyota’s corporate culture (and how it is rather contradictory to the society’s) to read and during the session, they had to identify the relevant cultural dimensions for Toyota and analyze the changes that could be brought by the pandemic. Upon reflecting at the end of the sessions, participants believed to benefit from the diversity of group which brought insightful discussions, comparing various cultures and expressing how mindsets were different elsewhere. They also found it eye opening how certain post-COVID-19 examples illustrated great differences with what the cultural dimensions were showing in 'normal' times.

Coming up tomorrow, Prof. Katagi will be delivering a keynote session on ‘Effecting Change in Japan: Traditional Culture and its Adaptation’, connecting to today’s session by bringing his extensive experience in senior management and executive roles in Japan. He will introduce a framework he has built to explain key elements of Japanese (corporate) culture through 4 pillars and how it is possible to bring changes to what is thought to be a hard-to-change society.

Read about the Day 2 here.