Mr Hayato Sakamoto (completed EU Studies Graduate Diploma Programme in Fall 2021)
■Affiliation at the time of completion of the programme: Graduate School of Humanities, Kyushu University
■Career after graduation: Employment in local government in Kyushu
I remember that I first heard about the EU Studies Diploma Programme when I was enrolled in the Master’s programme. Having researched broad European history for my bachelor’s thesis, I found the programme to be a perfect fit to me.
Looking back, I feel that my time as a graduate student was very fruitful, thanks to my enrolment in this programme. Not only did I gain a lot of knowledge through the variety of lectures, but I also found it very easy to commit to the events organized by the EU Centre.
My master’s research theme of unraveling European regional history from the perspective of Franco-German relations was born out of such out-of-the-box learning. In the summer of my first year as a master’s student, I went to Germany to collect historical documents, and looking back on it now, I feel that I was encouraged in large part by the learning and stimulation I received through the programme.
The research paper required for the completion of the programme took an enormous amount of time and effort, and I almost lost heart many times, but I was able to complete it thanks to the historical documents I actually collected in Europe.
Coincidentally, in Japanese society today, EU issues are becoming more and more familiar. I can only hope that learning and studying about Europe in this country of Japan will be a solid step toward building a better world.
