In this globalised world in which we live there is more and more need to understand the differences and similarities between different societies, as the boundaries between countries get thinner and our contact with foreign societies increases. Thus, would not be good if we could know how students from other Asian countries see the world, their views and values? And what about doing that while learning the most used sociological survey techniques? Since 2005, some students from GSAPS (the Graduate School of Asia and Pacific Studies) are involved with a kind of research that can help to bring understanding of the differences and similarities between the globalisation processes in East Asia. That is what we call the Kaigai Zemi (overseas seminar).

The research project consists of a sociological survey conducted through questionnaire administration in Waseda and other universities in the neighbour countries. The point is that everything, from survey designing to data analysis and presentation is done by exclusively by students. It is a successful project devised by professor Shigeto Sonoda’s students when he was still lecturing at Chuo University, and that kept being held after he took his post at GSAPS three years ago. The first seminar in which Waseda Students took part was held in 2005 and was a joint research program with Soochow University in Taipei. The results of that year’s project got published in several academic papers, as well as in the renowned Japanese magazine
Sekai. In the following years the project kept being successful, increasing the number of partners and resulting in several symposiums and academic publications.

In 2007 Waseda students worked along with Fudan and Korea universities to conduct or comparison study between students of the three institutions. The focus was on how the globalisation process affects the values and behaviour patterns of university students in Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai.
In the questionnaire there were items about media usage, contact to foreign culture, image and attitude towards foreigners and foreign countries, work values, history consciousness, gender and more. More than 400 students of all departments of Waseda were surveyed in a sampling method called stratified quota sampling. It means that the survey tried to gather a number of samples from each department and gender that are proportional to the actual number of students of each gender in these departments. It ended up building a mini Waseda with 400 students representing our whole population. If you were in Waseda during last December you might probably been asked to fill in the questionnaire. The students’ collaboration was essential for the success of this project.

Besides gathering data, the 2007 project had one more goal: to make the Overseas Seminar an institutionalised project. For that we organised and workshop in which students and professors from South Korea, China, Japan and Singapore took part. Oriented by GSAPS Ph.D students, MA students wrote academic essays and presented in an academic workshop along with students from the other universities. It seems that to raise skilled Ph.D researchers it is important to train undergraduates and MA students into the tricks of the trade, and getting students involved since the earlier stages of the course might be a good strategy to nurture future social researchers at the graduate level.

Future developments might include workshops on research methods and other rounds of survey on students and even outside campus. Right by now students in the three countries are already thinking of the next round of the project. If you are interested in social survey you might better watch out for the next outcomes.