The Myanmar Association of Japan Alumni (MAJA) hostsed the 18th ASCOJA conference entitled “Bridging Japan and ASEAN countries through better education”. on November 5-7, 2009 at Chatrium Hotel, Yangon.

The conference attracted 158 participants (excluding host country) from other ASEAN countries, of which 26 delegates were from JAGAM.

Similar to the past ASCOJA Conference, the Conference included paper presentation by ASEAN countries, with topics ranged from macro view of “Globalization and Education: The case of Japan and ASEAN” by Malaysia to specific “Self-regulated Learnings” by Indonesia. Each presentation was followed by vigourous discussions between presenter and the floor.

The Conference was a gathering of Japan graduates from ASEAN. The participants enjoyed the rare opportunity of meeting and learning from each other; and took full advantage exhilarating disparate experiences and knowledge-sharing.

The Conference’s objective of bringing Japan graduates from various disciplines and backgrounds together in order to create a multidisciplinary forum for exchange of viewpoints and new crosscutting inspiration was fulfilled. Interesting discussions, fruitful presentations and a high level of interaction among the participants led to the desired and needed interdisciplinary debate, which the conference sought to stimulate.