The students of Insubria University fly to Japan

Twenty Insubria University students will go through the intense experience of a cultural and institutional travel to Japan. Among the study trip projects in 2015 intended for the students of the “Dipartimento di Diritto Economia e Culture” (Didec) (Department of Law, Economics and Cultures), the project named “Il Didec va in Giappone” (Didec goes to Japan) and promoted by Professor Giorgio Maria Zamperetti, resulted to be the first one in terms of interest and amount of financing established by the Department Board in the last meeting in September. The trip will be from 19^th to 30^th May 2015 and is intended for students in Como and Varese attending the degree courses in “Law”, “Tourism Science”, “Linguistic Mediation” and “Law Courses”.

The project was greatly appreciated by the students since its presentation, since as many as 168 of them sent the pre-registration form in the last months, and this proves what a fascinating travel destination Japan is for the students attending the degree courses of the Department. Japanese language has indeed been offered as a class at the Insubria University since 2007 on the initiative of Prof. Zamperetti and thanks to the vision of the manager of the Tourism Sciences course and now pro-vice-chancellor, Prof. Giuseppe Colangelo.

The trip, intented as a “circulating event”, received the prestigious support of the “Fondazione Italia – Giappone” (Italy – Japan Foundation) a body set up in 1998 on the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the aim of developing and enhancing the relations between Italy and Japan and to promote the image of Italy in Japan via initiatives in the fields of science, culture and economy. The first president of the foundation was Umberto Agnelli.

Besides traditional cultural trips and naturalistic trails in the Tokyo – Kyoto – Hiroshima – Osaka route and typical Japan lifestyle experiences such as taking part to a tea ceremony, a sumo match, or a bath at an onsen (a thermal spring), several institutional meetings have been arranged aimed at promoting the image of Insubria University and Didec abroad. Prof Zamperetti presented the project during the recent reception given in Milan by the Consul General, Mrs Kyoko Koga, for the birthday of the Emperor of Japan (see picture).

Students will be received first by the Italian Embassy, where, besides the top representatives of our Embassy they will meet Prof. Corrado Molteni who was born in Como and who is the person in charge of culture at the Embassy and who will lecture the students on “The developments of cultural and diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan”.

Then, always in Tokyo, at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Italian Institute of Culture) the group of students will meet Prof. Giorgio Amitrano who translated into Italian some renowned Japanese writers such as Banana Yoshimoto and Murakami Haruki. In the end, the group will visit Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, where the students of Insubria University will have the nice opportunity to get acquainted with the Japanese students who are studying Italian language and culture, thus familiarizing with a Japanese degree course which is akin to the one they attending.

After that, the Como-Varese delegation will move to the cultural capital of Japan, Kyoto, where apart from visiting the noteworthy artistic locations, they will have a meeting with Mr. Tsuyoshi Maruyama, who is the Public Prosecutor of the town and who will present several aspect of the administration of justice in Japan. This meeting will be particularly interesting especially for the students of the law degree course. The Italy – Japan Foundation eventually managed to arrange a meeting between the delegation of students and the mayor of Kyoto, Mr. Kadokawa Daisaku and a meeting with the mayor of Hiroshima a few days later. This is a tangible sign of the institutional importance of the trip which also is a great opportunity for the Insubria University to gain in fame.

After Kyoto, the group will move to the marvellous island of Miyajima which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and which hosts the ancient Itsukushima shrine (593 AD) which is partly built on the water. This island is considered sacred by the Japanese and birth and death in the island are forbidden. The students will stay in a traditional Japanese hotel (ryokan) and the naturalistic view will be the setting of an evening dedicated to poetry with the reading of haiku. On the last day of the trip, students will visit Hiroshima and the Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Museum which houses some appalling testimonies of the bomb that destroyed the town on 6^th August 1945 causing 70,000 deaths.

To conclude, this initiative is another sign of the great vitality of the Department of Law, Economics and Culture and of its attention towards the goal of developing an international dimension as concerns the human studies and law courses offered by the Department. This approach has significant consequences on the possibility of employment of the students who graduate from the University every year and who receive an excellent education.

Useful information

Students who are interested in the initiative must apply by 20^th January 2015 by sending an e-mail to giorgio.zamperetti@uninsubria.it. To provide all information, an open meeting directed to whoever might be interested will be held on 15^th January at 1.00 PM at S. Abbondio (class S.01). Should the number of applications exceed the maximum availability (20 people), candidates will be selected on the base of an interview. Selection will be made in order to try to represent all degree courses of Didec, every year of the courses, and selecting from those courses which have the lowest number of students. Selection of candidates will end by 31^st January  2015.