Seminar Report: “How to promote Japan: public diplomacy and soft power”
On Friday, October 26, the “RCAPS Onigiri Seminar” entitled “How to promote Japan: public diplomacy and soft power” was delivered by Mr. MONJI Kenjiro, Japan’s former Ambassador to Canada.
Please see the APU Official Website for more details of this seminar.
https://en.apu.ac.jp/home/news/article/?storyid=3047
[Report by Professor YOSHIDA Kaori (APS) as the Seminar Organizer]
The speaker, Mr. Monji, discussed the importance of public/cultural diplomacy and the role of soft power therein, as well as an approach of the Government of Japan towards pubic diplomacy in promoting Japan in the world. The lecture took quite an engaging manner in which he presented a wide variety of examples and photos from his own experiences of serving as a former diplomat.
His lecturer is attractive and inspiring, also because of his way of presenting not only academic arguments on public diplomacy and soft power but also numerous concrete examples based on his personal experiences as a diplomat. In this manner, the audiences were able to deepen their understanding of the issues discussed (e.g. soft power, hard power, smart power, and their exact operations, etc.) Through his lecture, both students and faculty members learned the role of different types of diplomacy to promote Japan and its culture with concrete examples.
After the lecture a fair number of questions were raised, most of which were very well-thought and indicated the fact that the audiences were indeed very inspired by the lecture. In fact, even after the lecture session, some of the audiences approached Mr. Monji for further questions and discussions on the subject matter.
I am convinced that this lecture was a great success for both our students and faculty members.
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