AOTS Journal 2018 AUTUMN No.13 (ENGLISH)

16/18

JOURNAL14 News from AOTS Alumni SocietiesOne of main activities of the AOTS Alumni Societies is to organize local seminars for the promotion of excellent technologies as well as management techniques used in Japan.Although seminars featuring instructors from Japan attract more attendees and such seminars can be good opportunities for publicity with more attention of local news media, the Alumni Societies are experiencing difculty in inviting instructors from Japan by themselves due to the cost. A ‘Lecturing Tour’ is a kind of collaborative program between AOTS and the Alumni Societies where several Societies jointly plan such seminars while AOTS dispatches lecturers who travel to several venues and cities; AOTS and the Alumni Societies share the expenses thus lowering the nancial burden on the Alumni Societies.In February 2018, a Lecturing Tour for Iran and Egypt was organized by inviting Mr. Genji Tanaka, representative of Dolphin Training & Consulting, as lecturer. The seminars were planned by the Iranian and Egyptian Alumni Societies. IranIran has various industrial bases in the Middle East. Automobile production has been widely active in this country, including parts production with 90 percent local content already achieved where Japanese corporations are also locally assembling cars with technical tie-ups with local automotive assemblers. While this trend will continue, more investment from the Japanese manufacturing sector can be expected. They have a greater need for industrial human resource development especially in supporting industries. A two-day seminar in Iran covered two subjects meeting these needs: ‘Production Management’ on the rst day and ‘Quality Control and HRD’ on the following day. Most of the attendees took part in both days, and the instructor from Japan was greeted by frequent questions from the oor. This two-day seminar became a very active event as many participants talked with the instructor and explained their own cases for his comments during coffee breaks. EgyptOwing to price hikes and economic stagnation due to ination, Egypt could not send trainees to programs in Japan as often as previous years. To reactivate their activities, the Egyptian Alumni Society had requested that it be able to organize a Lecturing Tour in Egypt. This seminar, titled ‘Productivity Enhancement through Facility Maintenance,’ was warmly welcomed as a solution to reactivate the economy and business; the seminar focused on quality enhancement, a key to increase exports and accepted as a timely subject by almost 120 attendees. Many members of the Egyptian Society are Japanophiles, most notably Dr. Mohamad Bahaa El-Din Zaghloul, who was awarded The Order of the Rising Sun from the Government of Japan in 2017, and they are dedicating themselves to their Society’s activities. AOTS wishes to see more planning and execution of such seminars in years to come.The European Federation of AOTS Alumni Societies (EFAAS) organized its meeting in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, on June 6, 2018. Representatives from Czech Republic, Macedonia, and Turkey were hosted by Romania AOTS Alumni Society. They presented their activity updates and discussed future course of cooperation with the AOTS and among themselves. Mr. Takeshi Ichikawa, Director of the AOTS, invited them to create action plans for their presentation at the 10th World Convention of the AOTS Alumni Societies next year. Romania’s presentation about “Public 5S”---an extended application of 5S practices in public space management for civic education---aroused the interest of the visiting representatives. The explanation centered round the “Kaizen by Harmony” concept and the “learning by doing” principle. The former resembles the AOTS’s mission Report on AOTS Lecturing Tour in Egypt and Iran 5S practices in public spaces: Activities of Romania AOTS Alumni SocietyEFAAS meeting group photo-from the third from the right, President of Romania AOTS Alumni Society, Director of the board Mr. IchikawaMr. Tanaka instructing Egyptian participants