2017 Activity Report
March Activity Report
31 March 2018
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
March was full of cultural events. The main of them was VMU Asian Week 2018 organized on March 5-9 in various venues of VMU and other public places of Kaunas. This was a one week-long cycle of events dedicated to Japan and other East Asian countries. The event, organized since 2014, is aimed to introduce general public with the East Asia region through the presentation of culture, languages, martial arts, cuisine. This year’s event was extremely successful, attracting wide range of spectators. Only the Day of Experiences alone was participated by around 500 guests, including schoolchildren of schools of Lithuania, students and elderly people.
More than 20 institutions and more than 100 volunteer students (including ~30 international students) were involved into the preparations. Global Japan Office became one of the partners of the event for the first time.
Link of the event: http://asc.vdu.lt/2018/01/vmu-asian-week-2018/
Poster of the VMU Asian Week
Pictures can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/VDUAzijossavaite/
Another event of this month was Kimono Show on March 12, provided by a famous Japanese kimono designer Nobuaki Tomita. During his presentation Mr. Tomita explained the history and principles of Japanese kimono and dressed 5 participants with very beautiful kimonos.
Ms. Chen who is studying at VMU for the second semester has started internship at the Centre for Asian Studies. During next 4 months she will be working with the Japanese-Lithuanian dictionary (nihongo.vdu.lt) project.
To make the dictionary more useful, it will obtain a new function. Detailed descriptions of Lithuanian sightseeing objects will be added to the data basis and will become usable by Japanese tourists as an electronic guide. After entering some sightseeing object to the dictionary (such as トラカイ城 or 杉原記念館), tourists will be able to see detailed description.
Ms. Chen will be participating in the first (pilot) phase of the project and she will create the descriptions of the sightseeing objects in Kaunas. Supposedly, this activity will help her to understand better Lithuanian culture. She has already selected 40 objects to describe. The internship activities are planned to finish by the end of June.
During March, GJO was coordinating 3 big projects of this year:
? Creation of the documentary about Kaunas and Japan. As shooting in Japan and Lithuania is over, creators are editing the movie. After discussing with Toshiba International Foundation, the release date was fixed for April 26. The 4 minutes promo version was created for Japanese audience, and it has been already spread to some Japanese municipalities (Gifu Prefecture, Tsuruga city, etc.) for promotion. The GJO is one of the creators of the movie. Thus, its logo appears in the end roll of the promo version, and will be in the final version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsNU7lAtrc8&feature=youtu.be
? Sugihara Week 2018 is planned for September 3-8. Several big concerts, Symposium on Humanism, and planting of Sakura Alley in Kaunas are planned among other events. The event is organized by VMU Centre for Asian Studies, Kaunas Municipality and Sugihara Group. GJO will be one of the partners of the event.
? EAJRS Conference 2018 is planned for September 12-15. We are proud that Kaunas and VMU was selected as a place for the annual conference of European Association of Japanese Resources Specialists (EAJRS). This is a big academic event, attracting scholars of Japanese studies from all the world. It is the first such conference in the Baltic States. Global Japan Office and VMU Library will be the partners of the event.
Link: http://asc.vdu.lt/2018/02/2018-eajrs-conference-in-kaunas/
February Activity Report
5 March 2018
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
February marks the beginning of new Spring semester at our Vytautas Magnus University. 25 students from Japanese universities started their semester. Some of them met together on February 12, when we introduced the activities of the Centre for Asian Studies and Global Japan Office to them.
The student from TUFS, Ms. Chen Jiahui started her new semester at Vytautas Magnus University. She met me in mid-February and we have discussed her plans for the new semester. Ms. Chen is also invited to join the internship of the Centre for Asian studies. She will contribute for to the creation of the descriptions introducing the main sightseeing attractions of Kaunas to Japanese people. These descriptions will add new function to the online Lithuanian-Japanese dictionary and will be useful for the Japanese tourists.
February 9, the screening of exchange students who are willing to study in Japan for a one-year exchange (starting from Fall semester of 2018) was concluded. During the selection procedure, 8 students were selected to study at Japanese universities.
We did not have any cultural events this month. However, it was dedicated for the preparations for our biggest cultural event of the year: VMU Asian Week (Global Japan Office is one of the partners of the event), where the introduction of Japanese culture will play a key role. More than 20 institutions and more than 100 volunteer students (including ~30 international students) are involved into the preparations.
Ms. Chen was also very positively involved as a volunteer in the preparations for a Japanese language reading contest. She was helping the Lithuanian students to prepare their speeches.
Link of the event: http://asc.vdu.lt/2018/01/vmu-asian-week-2018/
During February, GJO was coordinating 3 big projects of this year:
- Creation of the documentary about Kaunas and Japan. As filming in Japan and Lithuania is over, creators are editing the movie. The release is planned in late April. The 4 minutes promo version was created for Japanese audience, and it has been already spread to some Japanese municipalities (Gifu Prefecture, Tsuruga city, etc.) for promotion. The GJO is one of the creators of the movie.
- Sugihara Week 2018 is planned on September 3-8. Several big concerts, Symposium on Humanism, and planting of Sakura Alley in Kaunas are planned among other events. The event is organized by VMU Centre for Asian Studies, Kaunas Municipality and Sugihara Group. GJO will be one of the partners of the event.
- EAJRS Conference 2018 is planned for September 12-15. We are proud that Kaunas and VMU was selected as a place for the annual conference of European Association of Japanese Resources Specialists (EAJRS). This is a big academic event, attracting scholars of Japanese studies from all the world. It is the first such conference in the Baltic States. Global Japan Office and VMU Library will be the partners of the event.
Link: http://asc.vdu.lt/2018/02/2018-eajrs-conference-in-kaunas/
January Activity Report
5 February 2018
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
25 students from Japanese universities will be studying at VMU during Spring semester. Despite January is vacation period, the majority of Japanese students reached Kaunas and VMU in the end of January. The meeting with all Japanese students who newly arrived is planned on February 12.
In December, VMU started screening of VMU students who are willing to study in Japan for one year exchange (starting from Fall semester of 2018). During January, the students could choose from the list of 16 partner universities (including TUFS) the most suitable for their studies. Thus, GJO was actively promoting the bilateral exchange program and consulting the possible candidates regarding the universities. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies was also introduced for to university students. The final selection procedure is planned on February 9.
During January, GJO was coordinating 4 big projects of this year:
- Creation of the documentary about Kaunas and Japan. As filming in Japan and Lithuania is over, creators are editing the movie. The release is planned for late March. The 4 minutes promo version was created for Japanese audience.
-
VMU Asian Week is one of the biggest events of VMU, and this year it will be on March 5-9. It is organized by the Centre for Asian Studies (CAS) at Vytautas Magnus University together with the students’ clubs “Hashi”, “Wu Wei” and “Hallyu”, while the partners of the event are Global Japan Office, Embassy of Japan, Embassy of Republic of Korea, etc. VMU Asian Week is a one week-long cycle of events dedicated to East Asian countries: Japan, China and Korea. The event is aimed to introduce general public with the East Asia region through the presentation of culture, languages, martial arts, cuisine. Events organized last time were a great success and attracted a lot of attention from general public and media.
Link: http://asc.vdu.lt/2018/01/vmu-asian-week-2018/
- Sugihara Week 2018 is planned for September 3-8. Several big concerts, Symposium on Humanism, and planting of Sakura Alley in Kaunas are planned among other events. The event is organized by VMU Centre for Asian Studies, Kaunas Municipality and Sugihara Group. GJO is one of the partners of the event.
-
EAJRS Conference 2018 is planned for September 12-15. We are proud that Kaunas and VMU was selected as a place for the annual conference of European Association of Japanese Resources Specialists (EAJRS). This is a big academic event, attracting scholars of Japanese studies from all the world. It is the first such conference in the Baltic States. Global Japan Office and VMU Library will be the partners of the event.
Link: http://asc.vdu.lt/2018/02/2018-eajrs-conference-in-kaunas/
December Activity Report
5 January 2018
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
During December, GJO coordinator Aurelijus Zykas continued his visit in Japan and mainly conducted filming activities. Together with the camera man, Kristijonas Jakubonas, in 10 days of shooting they visited 10 cities (including Tokyo, Nagoya, Gifu, Yaotsu, Tsuruga, Kobe, Kyoto, Yokohama, etc.) and conducted more than 20 interviews with scholars and opinion leaders in Japan. The documentary supported by Toshiba International Foundation will cover the prewar history of the relations between Japan and Kaunas. The film screening is planned in late March.
In December, VMU started screening of VMU students who are willing to study in Japan for one year exchange (starting from Fall semester of 2018). Presently, the students can choose from the list of 16 partner universities (including TUFS) the most suitable for their studies. During December, GJO was actively promoting the bilateral exchange program and consulting the possible candidates. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies was also introduced to our university students. The final selection procedure is planned in mid-February.
Ms. Chen Jiahui, an exchange student from TUFS at VMU, successfully finished the one semester study program of Lithuanian language and culture. She was among 3 students (out of 28) awarded for best academic achievements.
November Activity Report
7 December 2017
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
During November, the coordinator of GJO Aurelijus Zykas was visiting Japan due to the implementation of two Japan-related projects implemented by GJO.
The first one is the creation of documentary about the relations between Japan and Kaunas (supported by Toshiba International Foundation). Thus, Aurelijus Zykas was preparing for filming, checking the documents in archives and meeting the scholars. He was actively keeping in touch with such institutions as Fukuzawa Memorial Centre, Diplomatic Archive, Yaotsu Town, Tsuruga City, Kobe City, etc. to be prepared well. Filming in Japan started on November 28.
The second project is the Sugihara Week 2018, which was settled on the first month of September, and the financing was already secured from Kaunas Municipality. Therefore, while being in Japan, Aurelijus Zykas met with the representatives of different institutions (such as Japan Sakura Association, Japan-Lithuania Friendship Association, Japan-Lithuania Economic Communicy, etc.) to negotiate regarding the successful implementation of next year’s Sugihara Week.
As Aurelijus Zykas was on his business trip in Japan, he also used this opportunity to visit some partner universities. Among them was International Christian University and TUFS. In both universities, Aurelijus Zykas met the highest representatives and had opportunity to talk about future development. In ICU, the major topics were about strengthening teachers’ exchange and joining Erasmus+ network, and continuing successful students exchange in BA, MA and doctoral level. In TUFS, the coordinator briefly introduced the results and achievements of the first months of development of GJO Kaunas.
September Activity Report
2 October 2017
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
This month was the busiest during this year. Sugihara Week (Global Japan Office took place in its organization as partner) of September 02-08 was a big festival consisting of various events in various spaces of Kaunas, which attracted the audience of approximately 4000-5000. The main organizers of the event were the Centre for Asian Studies, Kaunas City Municipality, Sugihara Foundation and the Embassy of Japan.
Among the honorable guests of the festival were Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone (Member of Parliament), Mr. Hajime Furuta (Governor of Gifu Prefecture), Mr. Masanori Kaneko (Yaotsu Town mayor), etc. The event also attracted numerous researchers and artists from Lithuania and Japan. In total approximately 200 participants from Japan joined the activities.
The event was extremely well covered by Lithuanian media. At least 20 articles and interviews (including those in National TV and Radio) were conducted.
20 students from Japanese universities are presently studying at Vytautas Magnus University for a new semester and academic year. This is the biggest number of Japanese exchange students in VMU’s history.
Ms. Chen Jiahui is a new exchange student from TUFS at VMU and has successfully started her studies. She met the me on September 21 and had a talk together about her studies and challenges in Lithuania. Ms. Chen is actively participating in the classes and is very eager to learn new things, including very difficult Lithuanian language.
On September 13, the detailed orientation about exchange possibilities for VMU students who are studying East Asian languages was conducted by the International Affairs Department and GJO. Approximately 50 Lithuanian students of first and second year were participating in the orientation. Also, the contest for bilateral exchange was announced. Therefore, I was consulting the students who are willing to study in Japan. The interviews are planned on October 03.
In Summer, GJO proposed to help the Sugihara Museum by translating the texts from English to Japanese which will be used as explanations of exhibition in the Sugihara Museum of Kaunas. As the translation work was successfully conducted thanks to the enormous help of TUFS, this fact was widely promoted during Sugihara Week.
It was announced by the Ambassador of Japan during the Opening Ceremony (where c. 700 people participated). Later, during the Press Conference of the event, Sugihara Museum awarded the Letters and Gratitude dedicated to the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and to the Global Japan Office in Kaunas. On behalf of TUFS, GJO coordinator received the Letters.
During September, I paid two visits to European universities, where I also briefly introduced the activities of the Centre for Asian Studies and GJO. The first visit took place in Oslo University on the occasion of EAJRS (European Association of Japanese Resources Specialists) conference on September 15. The second visit was to the University of Latvia as part of Nord Plus teaching visit on September 22-27.
Besides, this month was also active because of one Japan-related project implemented by GJO. We are creating the documentary about the relations between Japan and Kaunas (supported by Toshiba International Foundation). September was mainly dedicated for shooting the spaces of Kaunas related to the stories (as well as some events of Sugihara Week), while in October the shooting will be continued in all Lithuania. For the project, shooting in Japan is planned in December.
※ユダヤ人画家による版画：ユダヤの伝統的なオイル?ランプを表している。ランプは、光の象徴で、杉原氏の功績を世界の中で光のように広げることを表現している。
August Activity Report
2 September 2017
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
This month was University’s vacation. Semester officially started on August 28.
Therefore, 20 new students from Japanese universities arrived to Vytautas Magnus University in the end of the August for a new semester and academic year, including Ms. Chen Jiahui form TUFS. This is the biggest number of Japanese exchange students in VMU’s history. On August 31st, GJO coordinator Dr Aurelijus Zykas met the majority of them in the office, introduced the activities of CAS(Center for Asian Studies) and GJO, and promoted Sugihara Week.
Moreover, during August, CAS and GJO was very active in youth exchange in school level, helping Lithuanian schools to develop exchange programs. As very successful examples, visit of 20 schoolchildren from Yaotsu schools and of 15 children from Shonan Gakuen could be mentioned. Both projects will have continuation in future. During the visits, GJO coordinator shortly introduced the activities of GJO in Kaunas for the Japanese and Lithuanian children.
This month was extremely active because of several Japan-related projects implemented by GJO:
Preparations for Sugihara Week, which will be held in Kaunas on September 2-8. This will be very big event, which will attract not only Lithuanians, but also Japanese and Jewish tourists and mass media. Among the honorable guests, Y. Nakasone (Member of Parliament), H. Furuta (Governor of Gifu Prefecture) and other honourable guests are planning their visit to Kaunas. As the Centre for Asian Studies is one of 4 organizers (including Kaunas Municipality, Embassy of Japan and Sugihara Foundation), Global Japan Office will become official partner of the event.
Program: http://asc.vdu.lt/wp-content/uploads/Lankstinukas_EN.pdf
The Facebook of the event is https://www.facebook.com/Sugiharaweek/
Creation of documentary about the relations between Japan and Kaunas (supported by Toshiba International Foundation). The August was mainly dedicated for research needed for this project and shooting already started.
July Activity Report
1 August 2017
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
As this month coincided with University’s vacation, no events were organized this month. 15 students from Japanese universities who studied at VMU during 2016/17 academic year successfully returned to their home country.
However, four students from TUFS participated at Lithuanian Language Summer School organized by Vytautas Magnus University. During their stay in Lithuania they had intensive Lithuanian language classes, learned about Lithuanian history, culture and society and had some sightseeing activities. They also were met by Vice-Rector Ineta Daba?inskien?. I met them at the Global Japan Office and introduced our activities (see picture).
Previously GJO proposed to help the Sugihara Museum by translating of the texts from English to Japanese which will be used as explanations of exhibition in the Sugihara Museum of Kaunas. The translation work was successfully conducted thanks to the enormous help of TUFS. This fact will be promoted during August and September (especially during Sugihara Week) and will become very important contribution of TUFS to the development of Japan-Lithuania relations.
This month was active because of several Japan-related projects implemented by GJO:
Preparations for Sugihara Week, which will be held in Kaunas on September 2-8. This will be very big event, which will attract not only Lithuanians, but also Japanese and Jewish tourists and mass media. Among the honorable guests, Y. Nakasone (Member of Parliament), H. Furuta (Governor of Gifu Prefecture) and other honourable guests are planning their visit to Kaunas. As the Centre for Asian Studies is one of 4 organizers (including Kaunas Municipality, Embassy of Japan and Sugihara Foundation), Global Japan Office will become official partner of the event.
Promotional baner is as follows:
The Facebook of the event is https://www.facebook.com/Sugiharaweek/
Creation of documentary about the relations between Japan and Kaunas (supported by Toshiba International Foundation). The July was mainly dedicated for research needed for this project and shooting already started.
June Activity Report
30 June 2017
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
The biggest cultural event co-organized by GJO this month was a public lecture and discussion with Japanese Zen master Shodo Harada Roshi, which took part at VMU Big Hall.
Moreover, Vice-Rector of VMU, Prof. Ineta Daba?inskien? visited TUFS during late June. She met with the authorities of TUFS and participated at the international symposium on the Baltic and Slavic languages organized by Sophia University. Ambassador of Lithuania in Japan, Mr. Egidijus Meilūnas, made a welcome speech during the Symposium. On June 20, teacher of TUFS, Dr Eiko Sakurai was awarded a special award for developing Lithuanian studies in Japan by the Embassy. Vice-Rector also joined the ceremony.
Vice-Rector’s visit was announced by the Lithuanian MOFA: https://jp.mfa.lt/jp/lt/naujienos/lietuviu-kalba-susilauke-japonijos-kalbininku-demesio
As a new project, GJO proposed the initiative to translate an amount of texts from English to Japanese, which will be used as explanations of exhibition in the Sugihara Museum of Kaunas. Sugihara Museum is lacking substantial funding, thus needs external help. The Museum recently became well known in Japan, and attracts some funding for the repairs of the building itself. GJO proposed to help the Museum by translating of the texts, which will be volunteered by the students and teachers of TUFS. Translation work is supposed to be finished by mid-July.
Topic of the month: ?. Sugihara as an important part of the work of GJO Kaunas
As this Summer is mainly dedicated for the preparations of Sugihara Week and creation of Documentary “Kaunas the city of Sugihara”, more should be said about the personality of Chiune Sugihara, who is the main tie between Kaunas and Japan (also between TUFS and VMU), thus is very important for further development of the projects.
Chiune Sugihara was vice-consul of Japan, appointed to Kaunas (which then was the capital of Lithuania) during 1939-1940. He lived in the city of Kaunas, and during very short period saved the lives of at least 6000 Jewish refugees, by issuing famous “Visas for Life”. These transit visas helped the Jews to escape Lithuania and to reach Japan via USSR. Later they reached their final destinations in USA, Australia, Canada and China.
After 1990s Sugihara became world famous, especially in Israel, Lithuania and Japan. Since then, quite many books on him are being published, and the memory of Sugihara is becoming more and more important. In Lithuania, there are quite many places related to him, including Sugihara Park, Sugihara Street and the Monument “Moonlight” in Vilnius. In Kaunas, the building of the former Consulate survived and became a Museum of Sugihara. Kaunas Tourism Office created Sugihara Route oriented to Japanese tourists, which includes the Museum and other related places: Metropolis Hotel (where Sugihara issued the visas), Kaunas Station (where he was issuing them from the window of train), etc. Recently, with the active participation of GJO Kaunas, Sugihara Group for the Development of Relations between Kaunas and Japan was created. Moreover, there are plans to create Sugihara Street, Sugihara Square and even Sugihara Stairs in Kaunas. The last but not the least, this year Sugihara’s list became a pretendent to be inscribed into the List of World’s Memory by UNESCO.
In this context, GJO Kaunas is very active in using the name of Sugihara for building closer cooperation between Lithuania and Japan, and also between VMU and TUFS. One of the initiatives is the Sugihara Week, which will be held on September 2-8, and will attract Lithuanian, Japanese, and Jewish artists, participants and mass media.
May Activity Report
30 May 2017
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
The biggest cultural event organized by GJO this month was a Kabuki and Japanese Buyo performance, co-organized on May 12 and supported by the Embassy of Japan in Lithuania. This became be the second on-stage kabuki performance ever in Lithuania and attracted nearly 700 people.
Moreover, this month, the MoU with Hiroshima University was signed. The ceremony was held on May 8th, and the Memorandum was signed by Rector of Hiroshima University Prof. Mitsuo Ochi and Rector of VMU Prof. Juozas Augutis. Throughout the same day the delegation visited the Centre for Asian Studies and the Faculty of Humanities. The Vice-Rector Prof. Toshiyuki Sato also delivered a lecture about kanji for VMU students and was appointed as visiting professor of Vytautas Magnus University. More information with photos can be found here:
http://asc.vdu.lt/2017/05/agreement-with-hiroshima-university-signed/
During May 15-20, I also visited Stockholm and had negotiations with Stockholm University regarding the cooperation. During the meetings, the activities of Global Japan Office in Kaunas were presented.
Topic of the month: On the developing academic network in Japan
As this month marked a new partnership in Japan with Hiroshima University, more should be said about the expanding network of partners of Vytautas Magnus University in Japan.
The partnership with Japanese universities in VMU started from 1997, and the first partner of VMU in Japan was Kansai Gaidai University. Initially, the expansion of the network was quite slow, but during last 6 years it has expanded from 4 universities (in 2011) to 18 universities in 2017. Presently, Japan is the number one partner of VMU, as it has the biggest number of active bilateral agreements (more than in USA, France or Germany). The majority of the agreements were initiated by the Centre for Asian Studies. For comparison, VMU has 10 partners in South Korea, 7 in People’s Republic of China and 4 in Taiwan.
With Japanese partners, different types of cooperation were developed. First of all, there is very active students’ exchange, and every year 15-25 students are being exchanged with Japanese universities. This academic year, 14 students from Japan are studying at VMU (including one student from TUFS), and 10 VMU students are studying at Japanese universities. 9 VMU students were already sellected for studies in Japan from Autumn.
Japanese universities are also organizing short term fellowships for students to visit VMU, when they spend several days or weeks in Lithuania and Kaunas, learning culture, languages and communicating with local students and communities. Such programs were organized for Showa Women‘s University, Bunkyo Gakuin, etc.
Besides, teachers‘ exchange and joint research is also implemented successfully. Among the cases, for instance, teaching visits from Osaka University, Meiji University, Showa Womens‘ University, etc. were implemented, while I was invited to teach at Meiji and Saga Universities. Japanese professors are invited to Next month, VMU Vice-Rector Prof. I. Daba?inskien? is planning to visit TUFS and to make a presentation during the conference.
The highest level of cooperation was achieved this year in the framework of Global Japan Office between VMU and TUFS. This framework should further enhance the cooperation in all levels, including students and teachers exchange, joint research and other activities for achieving better mutual understanding and cooperation, not only between two universities, but also between two countries.
April Activity Report
April 2017
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Aurelijus Zykas
Topic of the month: On the developing of relations between Kaunas and Japan
Although this month was not rich by events related to Japan, it marked several important isues in the development of Japanese studies in Kaunas and Lithuania. GJO Kaunas of TUFS is socially active in developing Kaunas-Japan relationships, and this month was very important in this aspect.
Kaunas, a city in the middle of Lithuania, has many symbolic relations with Japan. The story of diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who issued visas for life in Kaunas during 1939-40 is worldwide famous. However, there are several other interesting stories that should be remembered and further promoted. For instance, the first Japanese ever to visit Lithuania were the First Japanese Embassy to Europe (第１回遣欧使節) of 1862, who visited Kaunas on their way from St. Petersburg to Warsaw. A young translator Y. Fukuzawa was in the Embassy then and wrote nice memories about Kaunas. The Lithuanian politician, Mr. S. Kairys, who wrote the first Lithuanian books on Japan in 1905 also spent long time and left imprints in Kaunas.
To make these and other stories more popular in Lithuanian and Japanese societies, the Documentary on this topic is being created (supported by Toshiba International Foundation), and April marks the start of the project (it must be finished by April, 2018). Therefore, during April, GJO coordinator spent several weeks in Japan to make the initial research and to prepare for filming activities (in Japan they are planned for late Autumn).
Another important step this month was the establishment of the Sugihara Group for Kaunas-Japan Relations Development (supported by Kaunas Municipality) on April 24. The main purpose of the Group is to bring together a range of organizations and active Kaunas residents, who are contributing to the relations between Japan and Kaunas. The group is formed by representatives of different organizations responsible of different fields. Deputy Mayor of Kaunas, Mr. S. Kairys was appointed as a chairman, and me (GJO coordinator) was appointed as deputy chairman. The members of the group are Dr. Arūnas Gelūnas (Member of Parliament), Mr. R. Garbaravi?ius (Chairman of the Board of Sugihara Foundation) and various representatives from the sectors of tourism, business, culture, education, etc.
The establishment of the Group was covered by media in the following article: http://kauno.diena.lt/naujienos/kaunas/miesto-pulsas/kaunas-stiprins-draugyste-su-japonija-808858
VMU mainly raises 5 objectives for the development of Japanese studies: conducting research; expanding library funds; developing the international network with partner institutions; developing Japanese language, culture and society education; organizing cultural events.
Presently VMU has ~85 students studying Japanese language in 6 levels, and 18 partner universities in Japan. For students‘ exchange, every year 15-25 students are being exchanged with Japanese universities. As for TUFS, one student is presently studying at VMU.