Report on the Musha Shugyo Program
Hi, I am Hasegawa. Over the past three weeks, I participated in the Musha Shugyo Program, an overseas research program organized by the Graduate School of Engineering.
The Musha Shugyo Program is designed to offer travel support to students, enabling them to organize their own visits to prestigious overseas research laboratories. This program encourages students to present their research findings and receive reviews from leading experts in various fields. The goals are to solidify their position within the international research community, boost research motivation, and potentially initiate international research collaboration (quoted from the application guidelines).
During the first half of the program, I had the honor of visiting Prof. Fosgerau at the University of Copenhagen. In the latter part, I travelled to the University of Bern to visit Prof. Ehrlich. My connection with Prof. Fosgerau was established through Prof. Fukuda, who had worked in Denmark about 15 years ago. Furthermore, Prof. Ehrlich’s research on the post-evaluation of place-based policies in the EU significantly influenced my undergraduate thesis. Hence, I took the opportunity to request a visit, and I’m grateful that he kindly accepted my request, despite it is hard to be accepted.
Both professors invited their colleagues during my presentation, so I received many questions and comments from their professional standpoints in urban and spatial economics. Particularly, their recognition of my research on the revitalization of rural areas in Japan through multi-habitation, a topic I have been researching, was highly significant and motivating for my future research.
Furthermore, during interactions with the students at the host institutions, we discussed our personal backgrounds, current research, and insights into our respective countries. It was a good opportunity for me to view Japan and Tokyo from an external perspective and rethink our daily lives in the city.
Although it was a short period of time, each day was very exciting for me. These three weeks also made me clear where I need to improve. I look forward to utilizing this experience to advance my future research and hope for the opportunity to share my research findings with the professors someday!
[Hasegawa]
