Chubu
Return on Event : Presentation J'imagine Japan
On December 10, the Chūbu Office of the CCIFJ had the pleasure to organize in collaboration with the association J’imagine Japan, a seminar held at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. The event brought together around twenty students and faculty members, with the aim of raising awareness among students about international mobility and its key challenges.
Until now, J’imagine Japan had focused primarily on promoting mobility opportunities for French-speaking students in Japan. During this seminar, the association presented and promoted its new program, which takes the opposite approach by offering internship opportunities in France to Japanese students.
Well established in the Kansai region, J’imagine Japan has for many years been actively strengthening ties between France and Japan in various ways. In particular, the association has provided French students with internship opportunities within Japanese companies, as well as immersive internships centered on Japanese culture, including courses at Japanese language schools.
The French model of long-term internships (lasting several months) remains largely unfamiliar in Japan, which explains why corporate internship opportunities for foreign students are relatively rare. This issue had already been addressed last year during a dedicated seminar. In addition to supporting French students, J’imagine Japan is now tackling the issue from the other direction by raising awareness among Japanese students, starting at the university level, of the benefits of the French internship model and by offering them the opportunity to experience it firsthand. We hope that this long-term effort to promote immersive, extended internships will ultimately help bring about a shift in mindset on this issue within Japanese society.
The students showed strong interest in the internship opportunities, which would allow them to stand out in their academic paths, even though such experiences remain uncommon in Japan.
This unique opportunity to gain international professional experience was met with great curiosity from the students, who asked numerous questions not only about the internships themselves, but also about Martinique, the home island of François Régina, a representative of J’imagine Japan, which remains largely unfamiliar to them.
Personal feedback and experiences were also shared, notably through testimonials from French students who had come to Japan for a language exchange or to undertake internships within Japanese organizations. These testimonials took the form of videos in which they described their individual paths. The testimony of a Japanese student from Kyoto Universitywho had completed an internship in Martinique was also particularly impactful, especially due to the sense of closeness it created with the students present in the room.
Finally, the last part of the session consisted of a presentation on the cultural differences between France and Japan in the professional environment, followed by the sharing of a personal internship experience in France. This oral presentation aimed to provide as clear and concrete an understanding as possible of how an internship in France would unfold.
The presentation concluded in a friendly and warm atmosphere.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to J’imagine Japan for its participation in the event, as well as to Nagoya University of Foreign Studies for hosting the seminar.
