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Japanese Center at Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM) was founded in March 2003 as a nonprofit organization. The main activities of the Japanese Center are oriented towards education, training, collecting and providing information, research and publishing in order to connect Croatian and Japanese academic, cultural and business community. Along with many other languages, students at Zagreb School of Economics and Management can choose Japanese language as an elective course taught by Professor Emi Kusumoto Sulimanović. In spring 2004 a new elective course, Introduction into Japanese Studies started, its goal is to provide better understanding of Japan through various fields – geography, history, society, economy, politics, foreign affairs etc. The course is taught by the Director of Japanese Center, Zoran Stiperski with many guest lecturers: Yasuo Yamamoto (adviser of Japanese Center), Kaname Ikeda (former Japanese ambassador), Junko Ikeda (former ambassador assistant), Tetsuhisa Shirakawa (current Japanese ambassador), Hiroyuki Fujimura (professor at Hosei University) and Goran Krizmanić (general director of Toyota Croatia). In February 2004 Japanese Center organized a conference about the possibilities for Croatian-Japanese business cooperation. A month later the Center cofounded Croatian-Japanese Business Club in cooperation with Embassy of Japan in Croatia and Croatian Chamber of Economy to improve Croatian-Japanese economic relationships. To familiarize Croatian business community with the secret of Japanese economic success, the Center is continuously organizing Kaizen seminars. Program helps Croatian community to understand Japanese management philosophy which promises great results through continuous incremental improvements. Some companies, with the help of the Center, successfully accepted and implemented kaizen. One of the activities of the Japanese Center at ZSEM is publishing. Zoran Stiperski, Yasuo Yamamoto and Đuro Njavro, Dean of Zagreb School of Economics and Management, are the authors of the book Samurai and Knight, How Japan Succeeded in its Economic Development – the Croatian Road to Success. It indentifies the reasons and the factors of Japan’s success and failure which may provide a useful basis for comparison with Croatian society. _ e book is written on the basis of talks and discussions of the authors who are involved in business, science and politics. The Center also helped in translating first tourist guidebooks in Japanese (Croatia, Zagreb, National park Plitvice Lakes, Croatian Coast, and Mostar). In 2006 and 2007 the Center organized two-week study trips to Japan. Students had the opportunity to see many places which are normally closed for tourists, like Japanese Parliament, Embassy of Croatia, local governments, Tokyo Stock Exchange, universities, factories Nissan and Panasonic), but also many temples, shrines, medieval castles, villages and national parks. |
