The World Bank Public Information Center (PIC Tokyo) held 40 events, including 30 “coffee hours” featuring global development issues and developing countries, 7 photo and panel exhibitions and 5 musical performances during the second half of 2008. At the weeknight coffee hours, PIC has hosted experts in the field of development to make easy to understand presentations on the relevant topics. Some of the recent coffee hours include the IDEAS (JETRO Institute of Developing Economies Advanced School) development issues series, the “Earthquake Preparedness” series with Building Research Institute, African Ambassador coffee hours and seminars with the TICAD Civil Society Forum, “Disability and Development” series with JANNET (network of Japanese NGOs engaged in disability issues) and Japan Foundation, and JICA’s Global Plaza Talk Salon series featuring the overlap between domestic and international issues.
Temple University Japan Campus students reporting on their trip to India
Keiko Miwa, Assistant to the World Bank President, speaking about her career
Ambassador Mokehele Likate of Lesotho, speaking about his country
Development Issues Seminar with JETRO-IDE's Development School (IDEAS)
As part of “Career Series” coffee hours with the World Bank and other international development financial institutions, Japanese nationals at such organizations discussed their experiences and career paths. Over the second half of 2008, World Bank guest speakers in this series included Kenichi Ohashi, Country Director for Ethiopia and Sudan (Dec 4); Keiko Miwa, Assistant to the President (July 10) ; Akiko Maeda, Sector Manager for Health, Nutrition, and Population in the Middle East and North Africa (Aug 15) and Hiroaki Suzuki, Lead Operations Officer, in Urban Development Department for East Asia and Pacific Region (July 3). In October of last year, marking the birth of New JICA, a panel exhibition as well as a career-related coffee hour was held on October 16.
A number of other forums were held by World Bank PIC Tokyo, including workshops on writing resumes (Sep 19 and Oct 16) and a business seminar (9/29) with ECFA (Engineering and Consulting Firms Association of Japan), the video conference seminar “Knowledge-Based Society – Implementing an Economic Framework” with the Hitachi, GIIC (Global Information Infrastructure Commission) Nikkei Digital Core (Oct 23), and a symposium “Issues of Diversity in Governance” with the Partnership for Democratic Governance of Japan (Sep 27), and the Japan Water Forum’s “Water Assistance – MoFA and NGOs Meeting” (Aug 29, Dec 12).
In the second half of 2008, World Bank PIC Tokyo expanded on its collaborations with artists, organizing several events. HIV/AIDS education was at the top of the list, as the collaboration well-known jazz bassist Teruo Nakamura continued. Nakamura is an advocate for AIDS awareness who has been standing up to face the HIV/AIDS crisis for 13 years running by combining unique live jazz performances with lectures and presentations by HIV/AIDS experts at his shows. He has played an outdoor HIV/AIDS Awareness Concert at Hibiya City in central Tokyo (July 28), a concert at the United Nations University (Nov 30), Nagoya and Chuo Universities (Dec 1), at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto (Dec 2), and at Yamaguchi University (Dec 3) co-organized with PIC Tokyo. In November, World Bank PIC Tokyo displayed the beautiful Japanese calligraphy of Ms. Kaori Tsukikaze, inspired by her 3-month journey on motorbike in the Sahara in Africa, and in December the works of visual artist Mitsunori Sakamoto, whose photographic work was influenced by his 8 years living in Indonesia, including deep in the Indonesian rain forest for two years. Ms. Tsukikaze also participated in a calligraphy workshop via videoconference connected to Tokyo, Kazakhstan, and the Kyrgyz Republic in collaboration with JICA Global Plaza. (Nov 26)
Kaori Tsukikaze Fusho Exhibit: "Wind of Africa"
AIDS Awareness Concert in Kyoto
Group visits from junior high schools, high schools, and university students to World Bank PIC Tokyo continued through the second half of 2008. In all, students from 27 schools all over Japan visited the World Bank Tokyo Office, where they learned about global development issues and the role of the World Bank, and also had a chance to take a tour of the World Bank office and the Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) with its videoconference facilities on the 10th Floor of the Fukoku Seimei Building in central Tokyo.
27 schools visited PIC Tokyo
World Bank Group booth at the Global Festa
The second half of 2008 also saw World Bank PIC engaged in several international cooperation events and career fairs, where the Bank participated with a booth 6 times. These included the Global Festa in Hibiya Park (Oct 3-4), the One World Festival in Osaka (Dec 20-21), and the Mainichi Communications’ MyNavi Global Career Fair, where job-hunting graduates and young professionals interested in careers at international institutions heard from World Bank staff about scholarships, employment, and career paths at the Bank. 8 career seminars were also held to provide information about careers at international organizations such as the World Bank, IMF, and ADB.
We plan to continue the expanded schedule of events, coffee hours, art and panel exhibitions, and related activities through World Bank PIC Tokyo through 2009. If you have a comment or idea about future events, feel free to contact us at World Bank PIC Tokyo by email (ptokyo@worldbank.org) or by phone: (03) 3597-6650.
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