Japanese ambassador Seiichi Otsuka has awarded certificates of commendation to Qatari students who have completed their studies in Japanese universities.
The certificates, which were handed over during a reception at the envoy’s residence, recognise the important role the individuals play in bringing Qatar and Japan closer, the Japanese embassy said in a statement.
During the ceremony, three promising Qataris who now assume high positions in the gas and oil sectors in Qatar were honoured. They are Hamad al-Nesf, who obtained his MPA degree from Doshisha University in 2011 under the Japanese government’s MEXT Scholarship; Eissa Samani, the first Qatari to graduate from a Japanese university in 2016; and Hanan al-Sulaiman, who obtained her master’s degree from Nagaoka University of Technology in 2017, also under the MEXT Scholarship.
In his remarks, ambassador Otsuka said: “We understand that it is very challenging for Arab students to study in Japan where people speak a language from a different lingual-phonic cluster than Arabic, in addition to the fact that Japanese people’s customs and behaviour adhere to their own traditions and civilisation that differ from the ones in the Islamic world.
“Today, we admire the three Qataris who had overcome the challenge in Japan and completed their academic assignments very successfully. Their strenuous efforts to obtain degrees from the Japanese universities where they studied are amazing. We, as Japanese, feel very pleased and honoured to have such excellent Qatari students sharing Japanese education and culture.”
The students expressed their appreciation to the embassy, and Japan, not only for the academic knowledge they obtained but also for the valuable cultural and civil experiences they got to accumulate during their stay in Japan. They also stressed their intention to become the connecting bridge between Qatar and Japan in order to further promote the understanding between the people of the two countries.
The embassy offers the Japanese government’s MEXT Scholarship, which supports Qatari nationals to study in Japan. It includes offers two types of scholarships: research (graduate) degrees and undergraduate degrees.
Applications will open in April 2018 for the academic year 2019/2020 and information will be uploaded on the embassy’s website and Facebook page, the statement notes.
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education of Qatar also offers scholarship to study in Japan, and the relevant information is available on its website.
Japanese ambassador Seiichi Otsuka with the Qatari students.
