Exchange Student Program Soka University is presently engaged in academic exchange agreement with
96 universities throughout the world. In the Philippines, U.P . had entered
into such an agreement with Soka University in 1988, and De La Salle in
1996. Every year, two exchange students from each university are being
dispatched for the said program.
Aside from that, because this is the only English speaking country in Asia,
many Soka University students come here to study at their own expense.
Furthermore, short term language training program is also launched in Kalayaan
College where Dr. Abueva, a close friend of SGI President Ikeda, serves
as its principal.
File 046: December 2010
Shinichiro Kawachi (Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro City)
Hello! My name is Shinichiro Kawachi!
I am a senior student majoring in business administration at Soka University in Tokyo, Japan. In 2009,
I stayed in the Philippines for 10 months, in my first 3 months, I learned
English at BECI (Baguio English Communication Institute), and then, I studied
Business at Capitol University (CU) in Cagayan de Oro City (CDO) for 7
months.
My Life in the Philippines
with University's President Juarez and
his wife Dr. Juarez
with University's Lotus Sutra Research
Group members
with SGI members in Cagayan de Oro City
Since I entered Soka University, I had a dream of going abroad in the future.
Fortunately, I got a chance to visit some Asian countries such as Malaysia,
Singapore and China for 2 weeks as a member of the Global Program offered
by Soka University when I was a sophomore. At that time, I was able to
spend precious moments and broaden my outlook on things. Thanks to this
experience, I was determined to go abroad in my 4th year at Soka University.
First of all, let me introduce CU where I studied. CU, formerly known as Cagayan Capitol College, was founded by Madame Laureana S. Rosales in 1971. The founder of Soka University, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda and Madame Rosales are good friends and they deeply respect each other. In 2004, CU conferred a title of Honorary Doctorate of Humanities upon him. Inside the CU campus, there are students who embrace different religions such as Catholicism, Islam and Buddhism, including SGI. Surprisingly, CU has provided prayer rooms for such people, and an SGI prayer room, where a Gohonzon is enshrined, is also offered by CU. Thanks to this, we SGI members can chant anytime we want in this prayer room.
When I started to attend my classes at CU, I felt so nervous that I didn’t have enough courage to speak to my fellow the students since it was my first time to be surrounded by only Filipinos. However, Filipinos were very friendly and welcoming. Gradually, I got accustomed to such surroundings and was able to make some nice friends. Moreover, a lot of the students are so interested in Japanese culture that we often enjoyed sharing our own cultures with each other which I loved to do.
In class, it was quite difficult for me to understand the details of lectures due to my English proficiency. In addition to this, those lectures were sometimes explained in Filipino in order to make the lecture understandable for all the students. I felt rather confused and didn’t come up with any idea in resolving this problem. One day, all of a sudden my instructor apologized to me in class about how she had oftentimes spoken in Filipino. According to her, one student approached her who seemed to worry about my situation and asked her not to speak Filipino more than needed. I was deeply touched by the incident and the student’s consideration. Be that as it may, this is just an example of how I was helped by their kindness and thoughtfulness.
On June 2009, one of the SGI members informed me that SGI Philippines of
CDO had decided to participate in the local Drum and Bugle Corps (DBC)
competition which would be held on November. She strongly recommended that
I join the DBC and I accepted. Frankly, I was reluctant to join them at
the beginning because I thought it might be kind of a burden which would
make me busier. Then, hard practices started at the beginning of August
and I decided to play tenor drum.
It was at the end of September that our wish, which all of us as DBC members, had been praying for was realized: Ikeda-Sensei named us “Soka Victory Knights”. At the time of the announcement, all of the members exclaimed their delight and we pledged to fulfill the expectation of Sensei. I was also determined to stop attending DBC with a half-hearted attitude and tried to do my best to reach our goal. From the beginning of October, we started to practice most days of the week. After my mind has thus been changed, I chanted daimoku seriously for our victory before every practice. Naturally, my attitude also changed and gradually I could enjoy playing my drum with my friends.
On November 22, the DBC competition took place at a big athletics stadium in CDO. I was so surprised with the crowd turn-out as a lot of audience was in the stands. It was indeed beyond my expectation. As our turn was approached, I was getting nervous but also excited at the same time. Finally, our turn came and we started to march in a parade. When I saw the number of spectators and our strong supporters, I felt a rush of appreciation. In the course of our 15 minutes performance, we, the Soka Victory Knights, really enjoyed our music. Just after the ending of our performance, the stadium was filled with lots and lots of thunderous applause.
After all of the team’s performances were finished, the result was then announced. From the third to the second prize announcement, our group’s name was not called. Then, the presenter announced the name of the first prize: “Soka Victory Knights!!” To this, we all jumped and shouted with great joy. I was so excited and shared my pleasure with my fellow members while embracing each other, overcome with emotion. I will never forget that moment forever.
My Determination
"Soka Victory Knights"
I arrived in the Philippines last February and will go back to Japan this
September. It means I have a limited time to stay here. I am determined
nevertheless to change my sense of values until I go back to Japan. Although
part of my thinking has already started to change – thanks to many people
I met here – I would like to take an even bigger leap to improve myself.
To achieve this goal, I will try my best to experience as many things as
possible without a single regret. Then when I go back to Japan, I would
like to show how much I have developed myself while I stayed in the Philippines
to my friends, my parents and my university’s founder and his wife, Dr.
Ikeda and Mrs. Ikeda.
