Moamenla Jamir
National Women’s Education Center (NWEC) Japan was founded about 30 years ago with the collective effort of Women in Japan who approached their Govt that they need a separate center for learning for women. The Govt of Japan responded and NWEC was born. Today NWEC is a place for learning not only for women but also for men and young people too.
The amazing thing about NWEC is 82% of their fund comes from the Govt and the rest from other sources. It has constantly expanded over the last 30 years addressing and meeting the need not only for the people of Japan (women and children in particular) but also providing platform of learning and exchange of ideas, challenges, Internationally too.
My contact with NWEC Japan began in the month of June 2010 when an email from them asking for applicants to apply for “FY 2010 empowerment seminar for women leaders in Asia Pacific Region” was forwarded to me by Women Development Nagaland. I thank Ms Ela of Prodigals of Home Dimapur for proposing my name to the department, my deepest appreciation to Madam Neilavo, Jt. Director of Women Development Nagaland for calling me personally to ask me if I am interested to apply and her diligent sincerity in forwarding my completed form via email to NWEC on time.
The criteria of NWEC that applicant should be below 35 years, who have made achievement in the field of women and children must have been a draw back for many interested women from applying from Nagaland. NWEC had been conducting this seminar for the last 4 (four) years on different theme and this was their final year which is one of the reason why they not only extended the days of the seminar but also made it more intensive and age criteria was included and participants had to be physically fit to attend the seminar.
With less than a week in my hand to meet their date line to download their application form, print it, fill it out, scan it and upload it, not forgetting the many question which must be answered written and uploaded in the specific format which they have given including the Country Report Presentation which I will be required to present for 15 minutes in that seminar if I am selected by them.
Filling the form, uploading it alone took working late till the wee hours in the morning for 3 (three) consecutive days (with the co- operation of light going off every now and then and the slow connection of the internet was a big bonus) nevertheless with God’s grace and the ever present help of my dear older brother Manen, staffs of Mother’s Hope, I was able to meet their date line for submitting the application with all the required assignments and reports. I said to myself “I have given my best shot, God I leave it into your hands”.
In the month of July I received reply from NWEC Japan that they have been me selected to represent India this was God’s divine favor. During the seminar I was told that the President of NWEC Madame Michiko Kanda selected me out of several applicants from India. They had to be very choosey in selecting each participant from 11 (Eleven) Countries of Asia Pacific Region because this is funded by the Japanese Government costing them nearly 5 (five) million yen for hosting this 10 (ten) days seminar. For NWEC and seminar participants this was their first time coming to know about Nagaland.
The Japanese Government through NWEC sponsored my entire expenses and very efficiently, smoothly took care of my round trip flight ticket, visa and had it delivered to me on time. They hired travel agency who were there to assist us individually from the moment we got off the plane in Japan till the time we boarded the plane to leave for our country. Receiving that VIP treatment was such an honour.
By the way in Japan, Hotel check in time is 16:00 hrs and check out time is 10:00 am. In the lobby of the Hotel I was handed my T.A and food money for the 10 days. I found this practice to be very convenient both for the seminar participants and NWEC as well. By midnight of 30th September all the participants had arrived from 11 (eleven) countries, 14 participants checked into the Hotel at Tokyo. Philippines, Korea, China, had two participants each, one from research institute and one from the Government.
Next morning 31st September we checked out, by 8:30 AM we were on Bus to NWEC Saitama, International Program Manager of NWEC Helen briefed us during the Bus Journey when we are expected to arrive at NWEC, within such time we will stop by mini departmental store for 15 minutes we are asked to buy what we will need during our stay in NWEC.
We were also briefed that they have official photographer who will take all our pictures through out the seminar and the same will be given to us in USB and will be uploaded in NWEC website. We were requested to refrain from taking photos. This was to save time and keep the attention of the participants focused at all times.
Once we arrived in NWEC our luggage were handed over to the reception, each of us were given a tag for our luggage and after a brief photo session which lasted for less than 5 minutes, we were escorted straight to the conference room where the seminar began straight away. We checked into our individual room only during lunch time.
Officially we journeyed into three different cities Saitama, Shizuoka, Tokyo and one day to Kawagoe (this was a pleasure trip). In Tokyo we visited the Cabinet office and paid courtesy visit to the Director General of MEXT (Ministry of Education, culture, Sports, Science and Technology) where I was selected to give a speech lasting about less than 10 minutes which was translated by the President of Diplomatt Inc Ms. Fuji Hara official translator hired by NWEC (she has accompanied the Emperor and Empress of Japan on several official visit to foreign countries).
Last two days of the seminar was spent preparing our presentation for the International Forum in Tokyo. NWEC brought in three professional ladies (two working with UNICEF and one with UNESCO) to assist us with their expertise in preparing us for the forum. The seminar culminated with the participants taking part in International Forum in Tokyo, poster presentation on best practice of our organization in relation to promotion of gender equality. This forum was attended by Diplomats both from Japan and oversea, researchers, government officials and university students.
NWEC sent the schedule of the seminar, including the timing of transportation to different cities, meetings, interaction time, two months ahead of the seminar and the exact time was amazingly managed during the whole 10 days, right on dot for everything not even a minute more and not even a minute less.
The purpose of the seminar was to build networking among women leaders working with women and children in international level in relation to women empowerment through education and leadership development. The President of NWEC Michiko Kanda said during our graduation day that “relationship between countries first begin through personal contact and I believe this strong network will grow and bring better relationship and strong network not only among the participants but between our countries as well”.
We were provided opportunity not only to learn to learn from Japanese system of Formal education, non formal education, but also provided perfect platform among the participants to learn from each others country.
Having the age bar for the seminar was good because we the participants within such a short span of time connected so well and enjoyed learning from each other so much that when the time came for us to leave we had tears in our eyes.
Few important things which I have observed and learned:-
After the infamous WW-II (1939 to 1945) and massive destruction by two atomic bombs, Japan was reduced to ground zero but today after the span of 65 years this same country has achieved the higher quality level that many countries might be dreaming in the future.
1. The determined focus and step of the Japanese Government is towards bringing gender equality even in the area of research, science and technology. Their plan is to bring up the ratio of women in science and technology to 30% as at present it is less than 10%.
Every university, life long learning centers, education and research centers we have visited are passionately working towards this goal.
Education Centers with the financial support of the Govt. are running summer school for female students and their parents introducing and exposing them to the importance of science and technology and they are greatly encouraged and supported.
The seriousness of the Japanese Government in achieving this goal is proved by their working closely with private entities and the system of every sector working together towards this very common goal and objective.
2. Research institutes have come up with programs and modules which are friendly towards young mothers in the field of research. These institutes allow women Researchers to have Research Assistant. In this way even in the case of young mothers needing brief maternity leave the research work do not take even a pause. Even after delivery the institute has a day care center within the institute so that the young mothers can continue her work without any disruption. The young mother having her baby being cared for close to her work makes it easier and secure for her to continue with her work.
3. Japan continues to hold the title of ‘the longest life expectancy in the world’ as most of the senior citizens there in average can live over 90 years. Still then the two main challenges Japan facing today can be ‘ageing society’ and ‘low birth rate’.
Due to the rising economy and lack of support in the social system, more people are making choice of staying single and that is resulting in rising of ‘one person household’.
The expenses involved in having family, children and raising them with no availability of helper, more and more women/men are refraining from not only getting married but also refraining from having children in order to continue with their career. Japan is also very strict about allowing their citizens to bring in Domestic helpers from other countries.
The challenges faced by Japan today can be due to the rapid progress made towards being a developed nation.
4. Through out my stay there I rarely saw foreign tourists, even in the tourist spots but remarkably I saw many local Japanese tourists, and that made me conclude, ‘tourist industry in Japan grows due to good response from their own home tourists’.
5. In each of the centers we visited they were requesting us for more critical response rather than appreciation. This shows their potential for further growth and development.
6. Each of the service provider centers whether run by government or NGOs have very strict evaluating system for every service they provide this keeps them constantly on track updating themselves for providing the best service to women as per their specific need.
Even for the two hours International forum, they had evaluation form which was filled out by participants at the Forum.
7. Japanese women have made remarkable achievement in every field, yet they continue to be soft spoken, gentle, polite, kind, and helpful. Their achievement, femininity is beautified even more through their social life character especially the way of their presenting and conducting themselves.
8. “Make best use of time” must be important Japanese work ethics or for them spoken words are very serious because, there translation is good profession. Be it English or any other International language, translating it to Japanese or vice versa with the skill of ‘simultaneous translation’ is no doubt doing commendable job to all.
Through out my sojourn interacting with Diplomats, high government officials from other countries I was constantly thankful for the far sightedness of our Naga leaders for making English (one of the most important International language) as the medium of learning in formal education system. Big Thank you to them! (Not that our dialect is least important).
Learning to speak English properly, developing the ability to communicate, express your thoughts/points clearly and verbally is like a tool that will make one’s journey in life more convenient or at least have less communication problem if compared to other people without the knowledge of English language.
I was also reminded that the family support system that we have today, may one day disappear (even if we take for granted that it may exist in Naga society always) as we move towards being developed society. May be one day if we reach the level of Japan’s developed society we may helplessly miss our today’s society in terms of family/social support.
To know more about NWEC please visit their website http://www.nwec.jp/en/ who knows for some readers this might be your connection to do your research or an opportunity to enlarge your thoughts, your views and your perception in general.
