Interview with Mr. Eisuke Kudo, Senior Advisor and Mr. Takeshi Mizunari, Research Fellow at Ocean Policy
Research Institute

What kind of educational institution is WMU?

Mr. Kudo: WMU is a graduate university that was established in Malmö, Sweden in 1983 by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of the United Nations. In the early 1980s, with the rapid development of the world's maritime industries and technology, new international agreements had to be enacted and frequently revised. At the same time, there were many countries, especially developing ones, that were unable to implement these international regulations. Ships around the world are not be able to navigate with mutual peace of mind unless the administrative capabilities of developing countries are raised to the level seen in developed countries. Accordingly, the university was established to address the need for human resource development. That philosophy remains the same today.

Mr. Mizunari: WMU offers master's and doctoral programs, but the OPRI project applies only to the master's programs. Personnel in maritime and ocean-related fields from mostly developing nations receive specialized training for 14 months. There are seven courses: Maritime Education and Training (MET), Maritime Energy Management (MEM), Maritime Law and Policy (MLP), Maritime Safety and Environmental Administration (MSEA), Ocean Sustainability, Governance and Management (OSGM), Port Management (PM), and Shipping Management and Logistics (SML). Upon returning home, students are expected to utilize the knowledge and experience they acquired at WMU for policymaking, deliberations at the IMO, and the development of national legislation to support the implementation of international agreements.

Please provide an overview of the Sasakawa Fellowship Program.

Mr. Mizunari: At the end of April every year, a selection committee meets to choose about 30 scholarship recipients. Students taking English supplementary courses enroll in WMU in June, while all other students enroll in September for the basic course. From January of the following year, the students are divided into specialized courses to conduct research and field studies (visiting sites around the world), write dissertations, and then graduate at the end of October.

In addition to these academic activities, the program features three independent annual events: a training session in Japan in May, an orientation in September that brings together former and new scholarship students, and the WMU Sasakawa Fellow Certification Ceremony held the day before the graduation ceremony at the end of October. While enrolled, students are called WMU Sasakawa Fellowship Students, but after the certification ceremony, the students who graduate become WMU Sasakawa Fellows.

How was it to see the training in Japan get cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Mr. Mizunari: Unfortunately, the training had to be canceled for two consecutive years. Even so, this year we managed to provide an opportunity for scholarship students to speak with SPF Honorary Chairman Yohei Sasakawa individually through an online meeting held in October, which connected participants in the WMU auditorium with The Nippon Foundation.

What were some difficulties and challenges you faced in running the WMU Sasakawa Fellowship Program during the pandemic?

Mr. Mizunari: I think that the WMU Sasakawa Scholarship Program is about making friends all over the world who you can talk to about ocean-related matters, in other words, network building. Face-to-face is the best way to build a relationship of trust, so we wondered what to do to follow up with the scholarship students since we couldn't meet in person because of the pandemic.

On the other hand, the pandemic also brought some good opportunities that otherwise would have been missed. As one example, a scholarship student who was scheduled to graduate in 2020 had to suddenly return home due to family reasons. Before the pandemic, it might have been difficult for that student to come back to school. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the online lectures offered by WMU since last year were available from the student’s home country, and the student was able to graduate successfully in 2021.

What is the best part of being involved in this project?

Mr. Kudo: The part that brings the most joy to me is receiving letters from graduates providing updates on their lives. I receive dozens of these letters every year. Of course, it’s nice to hear when someone becomes a director or receives a promotion after returning home, but these status updates don’t necessarily need to be something grand. I love hearing feedback like, "Thanks to my education at WMU, I was able to speak out at a meeting," "I was able to accompany my boss to fulfill an important role at an international conference," or "I met up to have drinks with my classmates during an overseas business trip."

Now graduates can search for and contact each other through our website, but in the old days, people would often reach out to me to ask if I knew what certain graduates were up to. The reason I was able to connect graduates together is because I worked at OPRI, which is part of the same maritime field. The best part was that I, and more broadly SPF, could serve as a bridge to connect these graduates.

In closing, please provide a message to WMU Sasakawa Scholarship Students and Fellows.
 
Mr. Kudo: Please rely on our network to receive strength from other fellows and share that strength with your close friends and coworkers. In addition to WMU, WMU Sasakawa Fellows are connected to graduates of the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI) through The Nippon Foundation. Furthermore, I hope that they will go on to serve the world beyond the boundaries of WMU Sasakawa Fellows.
 
Mr. Mizunari: I see our activities as grassroots activities. We are planting seeds that may grow up in the future. They may not all become large trees, but I'm looking forward to hearing success stories of WMU Sasakawa Fellows being the ones that become those large trees.
 

(Translated from the original Japanese article)