Mar 30 2021

Two Niigata University student teams from the Faculty of Economics won the Jury's Special Award and Encouragement Award in the Second Future Leaders Program (FLP) - Future Scenario of North East Asia, sponsored by the Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA), an association that has a partnership agreement with Niigata University.

This contest is held to educate and discover future opinion leaders by cultivating students' wisdom and deepening their global interest in the future of Northeast Asia, which has great economic development potential, but at the same time has political and social instability. Various proposals were made regarding the long-term future of Northeast Asia by undergraduate and graduate students inside and outside Niigata Prefecture. This year, for the first time, the presentation contest was simultaneously translated into five languages (Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean and Russian) and played for five Northeast Asian countries on the Internet.?

The final selection was held on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at Toki Messe Snow Hall, Niigata City with five groups from four universities inside and outside Niigata Prefecture attending. The participating students played fair and square, presenting their innovative ideas, and were confident in answering incisive questions from the strict judges that consisted of the consulates from each country in Niigata, the media and government officials. After careful consideration, one team from a student group from the Faculty of Economics of Niigata University won the Jury's Special Award and another team from the same group won the Encouragement Award.

Special Jury Award

"Northeast Asian Aviation Alliance"
Hina MIYAKAWA, Kaoru SAWAGUCHI, Seiya KARINA and Chiori KATO from the Hamada Seminar of the Faculty of Economics

Encouragement Award

"Intercultural Exchange Easily Enjoyed with 5G and Five Senses"
Kaisei SATO, Tatsuki ITO and Kaede HARIGAYA from the Hamada Seminar of the Faculty of Economics

At the award ceremony, Mr. KAWAI, the Representative Director of ERINA, the chairperson of the judges, gave an encouraging message saying, "The presentations were excellent. They were informative about recent situations such as COVID-19 and DX, digital transformation. We hope that you will continue to do your best as future leaders in Northeast Asia."

Niigata University will continue to contribute to the development of local communities through projects such as nurturing individuals that play active roles from a global perspective by making proposals for solving problems related to East Asia.