The Sejong Korean Scholars Program (SKSP) is an online course for high school students sponsored by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and the Korean Studies Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Annually, around 25 exceptional high school students from throughout the United States are selected to engage in an intensive study of Korea.

Celebrating its inaugural year in 2013, SKSP provides students with a broad overview of Korean history, literature, religion, art, politics, economics, and contemporary society, with a special focus on the U.S.–Korean relationship. Ambassadors, top scholars, and experts throughout the United States provide online lectures and engage students in live discussion sessions. Students also complete readings and weekly assignments, with the coursework culminating in an independent research project. Final research projects are printed in journal format. Students who successfully complete the course will earn Stanford Continuing Studies Program (CSP) credit and a Certificate of Completion from SPICE, Stanford University.

Selected students participated in 8–9 "virtual classes" via the Internet with the course commencing in February 2013. From 2014, two courses will be offered per year. Students should expect to allot 3–6 hours per week to complete the lectures, discussions, readings, and assignments. Since this is a distance-learning course, however, students can structure most of the work around their individual schedules. Although intensive, this program will equip participants with a rare degree of expertise about Korea that may have a significant impact on their choice of study and future career. Students do not need to know the Korean language to participate in this course, and there are no student fees.

Sejong Korean Scholars Program Award Event

This year, 3 students will be honored for their exceptional performance in the SKSP program. The finalists were chosen based on their final research papers, which were reviewed by a committee, and their overall participation and performance in the course. 

SKSP Finalists:

Madeleine Han, Dougherty Valley High School, CA

Katie Lee, Choate Rosemary Hall, CT

Andrew Pester, Lawrence Free State High School, KS

The finalists will be presenting their final research papers during the Hana-Stanford Conference on Korea for Secondary School Teachers on July 31st.

Japan Studies Program at Shorenstein APARC has received a grant from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Japan for the New Channels project.  The project aims to broaden the dialogue and understanding between the United States and Japan and to reinvigorate the alliance with a focus on 21^st century challenges faced by both nations.

Under this multi-year project, the center will lead a new bilateral policy dialogue on U.S.-Japan relations in the 21^st century.  The annual dialogue will be held alternately at Stanford and at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo, between Japanese scholars, entrepreneurs, and policymakers and their American counterparts, mostly from the West Coast of the United States, with an emphasis on engaging the rising experts in both countries. 

The dialogue will be supported by creation of a Sasakawa Peace Fellowship in U.S.-Japan Relations at Stanford University, based at Shorenstein APARC.  This fellowship will bring top notch scholars or policymakers to Shorenstein APARC for extended visits with responsibility for organizing the annual dialogue. 

The close U.S.-Japan relationship has endured for 60 years, a tribute to the shared interests and friendship forged in the aftermath of World War II between the two former foes.  It now must reinvigorate itself in the new century to face not only the traditional challenges of security but also common concerns that both countries are now facing in the era of globalization.  Stanford University and the Shorenstein APARC look forward to taking on the challenge of creating New 21^st Century Channels between the U.S. and Japan.

Dr. Dominik Mueller, hosted by SEAF in 2013, is back in the Department of Anthropology at Goethe University in Frankurt.  His revised dissertation will be published in January 2014 as Islam, Politics and Youth in Malaysia: The Pop-Islamist Reinvention of PAS.  A recent article by him on this topic is linked on this site under "Publications."

Update:  In the elections held on July 21, Hirofumi Takinami was voted in as a member of the upper house.  Takinami won the Fukui District, garnering over 70 percent of the votes, which is the largest vote margin in the history of the district.  Takinami is not only the first non-incumbent to be elected in 18 years, but also the youngest candidate ever to be elected in the district.

The forthcoming Japanese upper-house election scheduled for July 21 will determine whether the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition, which returned to office last December, can gain a powerful majority in both houses of Japan’s parliament. But the election will also have a particular interest for the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Hirofumi Takinami, one of the LDP candidates for the upper house, running in the Fukui Prefecture, is a proud alum of Shorenstein APARC. Takinami spent two years (2009-2011) at Stanford as a visiting fellow in the Corporate Affiliates Program at Shorenstein APARC while he was employed in Japan’s Ministry of Finance. During his time here, he worked closely with APARC faculty, including former Ambassador to Japan and Shorenstein Distinguished Fellow Dr. Michael Armacost and Dr. Phillip Lipscy, on research that focused on the political economy of the financial crises in Japan and the United States. Takinami also co-authored a paper with Dr. Lipscy comparing financial crisis response in Japan and the United States, which is forthcoming in the Japanese Journal of Political Science.      

Over the past few months, Takinami has been busy travelling all over Fukui Prefecture, which has received attention in recent years due to a city that shares its name with the current U.S. president, Obama. On some days Takinami might travel two hundred miles, visit more than ten different places, and meet a thousand people, but Takinami feels that the hard work will all be worthwhile. 

When asked what inspired him to run for office, Takinami replied:

Starting from 1989, the ruling party of Japan has been annoyed by its weak power in the upper house. Thus, the upper house has been the center of a “political war” in Japan, which was one of the major reasons for the delayed policies of Japan during the “two lost decades.” In order to regain a decisive and progressive Japan, I determined I would run for the election.

Should Takinami be successful in his campaign, his term as a member of the upper house, or sangi-in, will be six years.  Lipscy commented that Takinami’s chances for victory are very high: “Not only is Takinami well-qualified for the position, but the LDP is traditionally strong in Fukui and riding high on the popularity of Abenomics,” referring to the economic growth policies being pursued by the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Should Takinami win office, we hope his experience here at Stanford will help to contribute to his goals for Japan.