Ministry of Education Distinguished Taiwan Alumni Award Presented at Taiwan–Japan Youth Exchange Year-End Party in Japan
The Education Division of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Japan and the Taiwan Tokyo Student Association in Japan held a Taiwan–Japan Youth Exchange year-end party on December 17. Approximately 100 people attended, including Taiwanese and Japanese university students, faculty and high-ranking officials at Japanese universities, Japanese representatives of the Japan–Taiwan Student Association, and representatives of overseas expatriates in Japan.
In order to enhance exchanges between Taiwanese and Japanese students, the Education Division of TECRO Japan also invited faculty and students from the Chinese language departments of Reitaku University (麗澤大學) and Mejiro University (目白大學) to attend and interact with the Taiwanese students. The teachers and students of these two universities are planning to organize a group to travel to Taiwan for a short field trip.
During the party, the office bearers of the Taiwanese student associations of universities in Japan were awarded certificates of service. And a Distinguished Taiwan Alumni Award was presented to Mr. Toyosawa Koichi (豐澤浩一), the former chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation - Taiwan, by the Education Division on behalf of the Ministry of Education.
Mr. Toyosawa Koichi, now aged 85 years old, entered the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University in Taiwan in 1957 and undertook his studies with a Taiwan Scholarship from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. He was one of the first group of Japanese students to study in Taiwan on a government scholarship, and during his time studying there, he established a Japanese–Taiwanese Alumni Association. He returned to Japan after graduating and then went to Taiwan for the second time working for the Mitsubishi Corporation, and he stayed for 17 years.
During those 17 years, he made significant contributions to the introduction of Japanese high-tech industries, the expansion of Taiwan’s export trade with Japan, and the cultivation of skilled professionals for Taiwan’s trade with Japan. In 2022, he was selected to receive a Ministry of Education Distinguished Taiwan Alumni Award for his years of service in Taiwan. Mr. Toyosawa said that he was honored to receive the award and that he looked forward to a new level of cooperation between Taiwan and Japan based on the close relationship between the two countries.
