update：March 28, 2023

Under the theme of “Cultivating Empathy Through Learning from Our Neighbors: Practitioners’ Exchange on Common Issues in Asia,” the international grant program has been based on the method of direct mutual visits between practitioners as the foundation of the program. However, as the coronavirus pandemic from the beginning of 2020 has reduced the number of opportunities to meet others face-to-face and much communication is now done online. There is a need to reconsider the significance of mutual exchange, which is the foundation of the program, as well as the empathy expected from it.

Against this backdrop, under the theme of "Let’s Talk about Empathy - Conversations Between the Grantees," series of dialogues featured discussions on how to understand empathy through projects and how to use it to solve social issues, etc. as well as reports on the outline of grant projects in the categories of Education, Power of Design, and Health and Care.

The full archive (approx. 90 min., Japanese only) and digest versions (approx. 10 min., English dubbed) of the dialogues are available on our YouTube channel.

【Outline of the Dialogues】
Session 1: Education
Speakers
・Kanako Kusanagi (Assistant Professor, The Center for Advanced School Education and Evidence-Based Research(CASEER),
Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo) Project: D20-N-0084
・Sayaka Hashimoto (Visitor and Sales Team Officer, SALASUSU) Project: D20-N-0101


Session 2: The Power of Design
Speakers
・Ryota Kamio (Senior Director, Re:public Inc.) Project: D21-N2-0026
・Masataka Mori (Director, issue+design) Project: D21-N1-0006


Session 3: Health and Care
Speakers
・Jun Sasaki (CEO, Yushoukai Medical Corporation) Project: D18-N-0199
・Hirotake Mori (Associate Professor, Department of General Medicine, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine; Visiting Professor,
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University) Project: D21-N2-0029