6th International Student Symposium Held “Talk together! Working and Living in Kumamoto”
A symposium entitled, Talk together! Working and Living in Kumamoto was held at the Kumamoto Kenmin Koryu Kaikan-Parea on December 20, 2009. This event has been held by Kumamoto Foreign Student Exchange Promotion Regional Conference which consists of universities in the Kumamoto that accept international students. This has been held annually since 2004 to deepen mutual understanding between international students and local residences.
The future careers of international students was the main topic of the first session and was followed by an International Tea Party. The participants enjoyed teas and cakes provided by the international students that were representative of their home countries.
In the second part of the symposium, Heart-to-Heart Talks from International Students was held. In this time slot, international students were able to raise topics of interest or concern to them and they were able to talk freely about anything on their minds.
One 24 year old student from China, in his senior year in Kumamoto University, shared his experience of getting a job offer from the foreign division of a major company.
He explained, “The hardest part was that the entire process of how you find a job in Japan is very different from my home country. What made it even harder was that, from my experience here, few Japanese companies are interested in hiring foreign students.”
He emphasized that to find a job in Japan, it is important to get used to the job-hunting process here by exchanging information among students as well as attending orientation meetings held for prospective employees.
This annual symposium allows for great information exchanges and provides support for international students to voice concerns and gather information. This year valuable information for prospective job hunters was covered and gave the students a positive forum for discussion and sharing information about living and working in Kumamoto.
