Cosmo Takagi
The Next Generation Global Leaders Program "Ship for World Youth Leaders" (2015) Japan
- Position at the time of participation
- Local public servant / Graduate student
- Current status
- Local government / Meiji University Graduate School of Governance Studies
Brief history
Born in Tokyo
Graduated from the School of International Politics and Economics, Aoyama Gakuin University
Joined Environmental Non-Profit Organization in Japan
Joined Local Government in Japan
Enrolled in Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University
* Participated in SWY28
Q. Why did you participate in the SWY program?
I was originally planning to apply to The International Youth Development Exchange Program (INDEX) because I was interested in bilateral development aid between Japan and developing country. In addition, it was difficult for me to take leave for over a month due to my work. However, when I joined a youth exchange program between Japanese youth and Korean youth, I met a Japanese girl who cannot speak Korean language, and nevertheless she communicated with Korean youth as if they were friends for a long time. She was a member of the SWY26 program. She told me “Even though the global talent is required, only western values and English are praised in Japan. I think we should broaden our views, since there is more diversity in cultures and languages in this world.” This wonderful encounter made me decide that I should take part in SWY program to improve myself in the forum where participants from 11 different countries with diverse values and abilities come together for the same purpose.
Q. How was your experience? What did you gain?
I got great experiences more than I expected through SWY program. Although I had 7 years working experience when I participated in SWY28, I wanted to think about my future career, and SWY program gave me enough time to think about it on the board. Any other SWY 28 participants who have working experiences have more or less some problem with their career. The time to face myself is really meaningful for me on board where I cannot use mobile phone and internet. Interaction with other participants who have different cultural background and values widened my point of view. For example, interaction and training course for intercultural exchanges allowed me to understand my prejudiced opinions which derived from my stereotyped values. These experiences gave me a huge impact and changed my view.
Q. How did your participation influence your life (career) after SWY?
The experience that I tried to understand different cultural background and diverse values made the quality of my work better. It is really important for me because I am working as a public servant in a city which has a lot of international residents. For the future, I would like to support any local government in developing countries by using the experiences that Japanese local government have stored. I would like to do so through contributing myself in Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers or any other way possible.
Q. What is your intention and goal of your life?
I am studying politics and governance in master course at a graduated school on Saturday and Sunday also after working on weekdays. Especially, I focus on the academic field of evaluation. There is almost no specialist in evaluation in Local Government in Japan. Therefore, the staff of Local Government doesn’t care about the outcome of their policies and also improvement of the policies. As a result, implementation of the projects on time is regarded as the purpose of the projects and not the result or improvement of the government policies. I would like to contribute to not only Japan but also all over the world with my profession of evaluation.
Q. Please write any episode or words that you remember from your SWY experience
“Why don’t you try to change the angle of the things by just one degree, without being noticed by anyone?”
It is possible for me to feel the influence of projects to the beneficiaries when I work at the project site. However, the project direction is defined by the program level which is above project level. Therefore, it is difficult to reflect opinions of the beneficiary to the projects, even if I tried to do as much as possible. I am thinking that my work is imitative deception to show the trace of effort by the government. The word that the Sub National Leader gave me at that time cleared my mind and defined what I should do as my work. I decided to tackle on supporting suffering people in front of me over my life.