LANI ROSE R DIZON

DOHA MORE Qataris are encouraged to pursue their undergraduate and post-graduate studies in universities in Japan and avail the Japanese Government Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Scholarship grants.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Japanese Ambassador to Qatar HE Kenjiro Monji said that application for the Japanese Government MEXT Scholarship 2013 is now open and the deadline for the submission of applications along with related documents to the embassy is June 24.

Candidates from Qatar will be selected by the Joint Selection Committee comprising officials from the SEC, Qatar University and the Japanese Embassy through document screening, written examination in English and Japanese, and an interview process. The names of the successful candidates will be announced in December. The new scholars will start with their studies in Japan from April 2013.

“There are currently about 140,000 foreign students in Japan and eight percent of them are government scholars.

So far, we have three Qataris pursuing post-graduate studies in Japan under the Japanese Government MEXT Scholarship. Exchange students create a bridge between two countries and we hope to have more Qatari students studying in our universities,” the envoy said.

Elham Mohammed, senior advising & counselling officer at the Supreme Education Council’s Higher Education Institute (HEI), said, “Our goal is diversity and we want our Qatari students to go across the world to complete their education and understand other cultures. Japan is important for the high level of technology it offers. We want our students in Japan to further increase in numbers and learn from Japanese technology.” Talking about the growing interest in Japanese culture among residents here, the ambassador said that the Japanese language will now be offered at independent schools in Qatar as an optional second language programme. It will begin from December, on a trial basis. The Japan School of Doha has also opened its doors for Qatari and expatriate students since 2010.

“Qataris will showcase their Japanese language speaking skills at the Japanese Speech Contest at the Museum of Islamic Art on June 16. Several shows on Japanese folk culture, movie culture and traditional musical performances will be held in Doha this year. We will also showcase many Japanese films in the forthcoming Doha Tribecca Film Festival and Japan will occupy a 200-sq metre booth as the ‘guest of honour’ at this year’s Book Fair,” he also said.

Hailing Qatar for being the single largest contributor to Japan after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake, the envoy said that Qatar has donated $100 million — in addition to four million tonnes of LNG to Japan — after the natural calamity.

“Japan has been making steady progress towards reconstruction.

Normal life has returned to most areas of the country and the nuclear accident is now under control.

The Japanese government has already taken a number of measures to facilitate foreign students during their studies in Japan,” he added.

Masayuki Sorimachi, public relation and political secretary at the Japanese Embassy, and Mais al Khaisi, scholarship programme coordinator at the HEI’s scholarship office, were also present at the event. Guidelines and application forms for the Japanese Government MEXT Scholarship 2013 are available at the embassy and can be downloaded from www.qa.emb-japan.go- .jp/en/scholarship_e.html.