Upon completing the Graduate School of FBS, I joined a private company instead of pursuing an academic career, and after failing in starting a business, I got a job at an international agency, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), thanks to the network of the Graduate School. At UNDP, I am exploring how to create a sustainable society for future generations.

At the Graduate School, I was a member of the lab of Professor Keiichi Namba, where I was allowed to conduct research quite freely as I liked, supported by Associate Professor Toru Minamino and senior colleagues. I think the Namba Lab is one of the few labs in the world that give so much freedom to students to pursue their research interests (and also extracurricular activities).

The work I am doing at the UNDP, which will be my lifetime’s work, does not require the expertise I gained at the Graduate School at all, but I firmly believe that, like me, the skills you learn in the free research environment there, namely to develop original hypotheses, explore possibilities, and work toward a goal, will be valuable wherever you are in the world. My only regret is that I did not pursue my academic interest fully, otherwise I could have conducted more interesting graduate research. Let me share my lessons at the end.

Lessons Learned

1. Be 100% responsible in your research & career path from the very beginning.
2. Don’t be trapped by dogma and other’s opinions. But you had better fully expose yourself to the outside world and ask for feedback.
3. Talk to many different people & collaborate with others.
4. Don’t overestimate what you can accomplish in a year, but don’t underestimate what you can accomplish in a decade (or 5 years for PhD studies…).

Good Luck!