【留学レポート】PIASS受入 パトリックさん

ルワンダのプロテスタント人文社会科学大学より2022年9月から2023年7月まで本学に留学していたPatrick MUHIRWAさんが、留学していた1年間についてのエッセイを書いてくれました。ぜひご一読ください！

Patrick MUHIRWA
Studying in Japan

September, 2022 to July, 2023; One year down studying and living in the high and subway country, the home for displined and popular martial arts of karate, kempo, aikido, kendo, naginata to mention but a few. It is an environmental friendly to convenient lifestyle and the delicious okonomiyaki’s farm-side. This is Japan and I am Patrick Muhirwa from Rwanda nicknamed “a country of a thousand hills”, and a student of the Peace and Conflict Studies department. From Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences [PIASS] in Rwanda all along to the prominent Tokyo University of Foreign Studies [TUFS] has been a value adding experience to both academic and professional settings of my life to which I learned, excelled, and grown.

Why Japan?

Deep interests have driven my selection to study abroad in Japan and basically at TUFS. In fact, joining PIASS which already been in partnership with TUFS has put me in good position to learn more stories about Japan especially from the joint online events organized by the Inter-University Exchange project (Africa)-TUFS that often times took place and also interaction points with the Japanese students who stayed in Rwanda for their academic exchange programs.

My curiosity since then grownup in areas of Japanese History, culture, and development because by looking to the transition journey of Japan from the very tragic past of wars and the experienced bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the present incredible economic and technological progress, I thought that onsite learning would be more rewarding and beneficial in terms of getting first-hand knowledge that provides takeaways to contextualize in my country [Rwanda] which is also on its path to recovery and reconstruction after the 1994 Genocide.

School Life

Following my days-long trip from Rwanda to Japan; I did the fall semester registration in several departments of the school under the special guide meant for exchange students which is an English-mode provided by the student exchange division of TUFS. I have then enrolled to the classes relevant enough to connect my interests such as the social movements and democracy in Japan, post-war Japan foreign relations, topics in Japanese films, Japan’s politics and economy, global development and local society, international organizations and the sustainable development plus the helpful Japanese language [Integrated Japanese language program] which supported my daily interactions and research life in Japan.

In addition, I have been in conducive environment to participate and engage in various seminars organized at the TUFS and especially the consistent events of the African Studies Center (ASC-TUFS) where from a group of experts visiting the university and the center in particular gained crucial knowledge and skills for transformational mindset, plus also increase of my active role in the next research and career adventures of life. As most of these seminars focused on success stories, issues and effective solutions on African continent context of development and Peace was value adding exposure to my daily course work in the field of peace-building and development. Examples of some research seminars I participated in includes: The Indigenous Knowledge of People on Nature with Case Study of Ethiopia, The Africa’s Industrialization with Focus on Triggers and Enablers in Distinct Time Periods, Forced Migration and Refugee Issues in the Great-lakes Region among Others. Besides, I participated in sessions of international organizations who partners with TUFS in research, trainings and