Since its establishment in the mid-1980s, the JDZB has made it its mission to promote and deepen German-Japanese and international exchange at all levels of business, science, culture, society and politics. Against the backdrop of current developments and challenges, the JDZB is setting new accents in 2022 across its portfolio of offerings:
This year, for example, we will be focusing intensively on the megatrend of “knowledge culture,” which we will be examining from various perspectives across cultures and generations as part of a theme week.
In selecting topics for our diverse analog, digital and hybrid conferences and meetings, we are also guided by issues that are equally important to Japan and Germany, such as “global responsibility,” “sustainability and the environment,” “digital transformation,” “state, economy, governance” and “demographic change”. We already opened the year with several virtual panel discussions on the transformation of communication – with a view to cutting-edge technologies,but also to interpersonal aspects.
As part of the cultural program, we plan to increasingly attract young artists to the JDZB through “Open Stage” initiatives. In the future we will regularly open our building with its exhibitions and the Japanese-German “Info Lounge” (previously: “Library”) outside of the usual hours for interested parties (starting in May, for example, on every first Monday of the month also as part of an #Open-Monday into the evening hours). In addition, we will send young people on interactive “discovery tours” in various cities in Japan and Germany at the same time and then share their experiences with you digitally.
Our online courses (currently mainly calligraphy and Japanese lessons) are particularly well received by professionals and people outside of Berlin, which fortunately greatly increases our reach. We therefore plan to expand this offering even further after the pandemic.
The current travel restrictions are probably the biggest hurdle for the implementation of exchange programs. Although not an adequate alternative, virtual formats will again serve as a useful supplement to face-to-face offerings this year. We are particularly grateful for the creative commitment of our alumni. In order to fully develop our potential, we will consciously open our doors to widen our future reach to even more people who would like to actively contribute to the shaping of Japanese-German relations: With this in mind, we are specifically looking for synergies with partners. We are also currently working on a co-working concept, under which you will be able to make use of our common spaces and our postal address for a fixed monthly fee. Informal networking salons are also being planned!
To keep you up to date with our plans, we continue to develop our website with its blog, our newsletter offering and our social media presence. Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and, as of now, LinkedIn.
Dr. Julia MUENCH
JDZB Secretary General
This text is extracted from the Issue of jdzb echo Nr. 138, March 2022.
Photo: Dr. Julia MUENCH & KIYOTA Tokiko (JDZB Secretary Generals 2022)