March 2023
Prof. O’Riordan (VP for Global Engagement) attended the signing ceremony of the MOU between Showa Women’s University and UCD Smurfit School of Business
The MOU between SWU and UCD Smurfit School of Business was signed on the campus of Showa Women’s University (SWU) in Setagaya, Tokyo on 7 March 2023. The UCD delegation consisted of Professor Dolores O’Riordan (Vice President for Global Engagement), Prof. Don Breden (UCD Smurfit School of Business) and Ms Carol Deering (UCD Smurfit School of Business / former member of the UCD Japan Group). The MOU between SWU and UCD Smurfit School of Business was prepared over a period of time, and due to the pandemic, the signing ceremony was postponed a few times.
Prof. Mariko Bando (Chancellor) and Prof. Natsuko Kohara (President) welcomed the UCD delegation, together with the director and his team of the Center for International Exchange at SWU.
(Photo courtesy of SWU)
The partnership resulted from JaSt’s Centre Launch event in February 2021 (https://www.ucd.ie//newsevents/ucdcentreforjapanesestudieslaunchwebinarseries/).
Prof. Bando gave a special talk entitled “Why Women Leaders?”. Prof. Mariko Bando is a prolific author of more than 40 books, including Toward a Gender-Equal Society and The Dignity of a Woman, which has sold more than 3 million copies. After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1969, she embarked on a path-breaking career that began as the first woman to be employed at the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office as a career bureaucrat. In 1998 she became the first woman to serve as Japanese Consul General in Brisbane, Australia. From 2001-03, she was Director-General of the Bureau for Gender Equality under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Prof. Kohara (D.Eng., Tokyo Tech) has been the President of SWU since 2020, and is a woman pioneer in the area of fiber chemistry.
The history of Showa Women’s University began in September 1920 with five instructors and eight students. SWU has grown into an educational institution with a kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, university, and graduate school, where approximately 9,000 students study. Prof. Kenji Kaneko, the first president of SWU was a student in a Greek-Irish/global writer Lafcadio Hearn's English classes at Tokyo Imperial University, and published a book of his translations, Koizumi Yakumo zenshu, vol. 11, Shosatsu-shu (The Complete Works of Lafcadio Hearn, vol. 11, Letters / 『小泉八雲全集 第11巻 書簡集』（第一書房、1931年）).
The signing of the MOU is also recorded in Chancellor Bando's Blog (in Japanese) here (9 March 2023). (opens in a new window)http://content.swu.ac.jp/bandomariko/
Special thanks to Chancellor Bando, Prof. Kohara, Directors of the Center for International Exchange (Kano-sensei and Yamazaki-sensei), Ms Kawasaki and the team at SWU for their omotenashi/heartfelt hospitality.