Aki Fushima, a 2023 MBA graduate, reflects on her journey from initial motivation to securing a spot at her dream school, Hitotsubashi ICS. She shares insights into her application experience and what it took to achieve this milestone. 

ESMT Berlin's MBA students recently embarked on a transformative journey to Japan, marking a significant academic and professional development milestone. This international field study was facilitated by ICS and designed to immerse students in the rich and diverse business environment of Japan.

K.C. Wang and Qianyi Ye, two MBA Program students from the Class of 2022, share their immersive internship experience in this exclusive edition of Byline ICS. Hosted by Hitotsubashi ICS and the Ajinomoto Foundation, this internship program provided a platform for them to showcase how they effectively applied their MBA knowledge and professional expertise.

Angela joined the ICS 2-year MBA program in 2022, bringing with her diverse industry experiences ranging from AI, high tech, life science, and semiconductor sectors. Drawing from her professional tenure mostly in Silicon Valley, she offers valuable insights into human capital practices and organization effectiveness. After earning her master’s degree in human resources management from Michigan State University, she joined Fortune 100 companies, honing hands-on skills and gaining invaluable field experiences.

As a Teaching Assistant for the course, Kuo Jian Wong offers unique insights. A recent graduate of Hitotsubashi ICS's MBA Class of 2021, he completed his 2-year MBA program in August 2023. Jian provides a glimpse into this newly endowed course, which was jointly run by Hitotsubashi ICS and INPEX Corporation. 

Recently graduated, Louise Lane Calicdan, a Young Leaders Program (YLP) scholar from the MBA Class of 2022, shares her remarkable experience undertaking Doing Business in Asia (DBiA). The program was annually run by Hitotsubashi ICS, Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, and the Graduate School of Business at Seoul National University. Hailing from an arts and cultural background, she approaches DBiA from an interesting perspective. 

Qianyi Ye, a 2-year MBA Program student from the Class of 2022, shares her recent internship experience in this edition of Byline ICS. The internship program was jointly run by Hitotsubashi ICS and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). In the article, she discusses how she leveraged both her current MBA learnings and her professional experience.

In this edition of Byline ICS, Coco, a 2-year student in Hitotsubashi ICS's MBA Program, talks about her experience of being an "ICSer" (ICS student), busy MBA student and mother - all while living in a different continent for over a year - as well as her time in US on exchange at one of the country's most prestigious business schools, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business with her family.

In this Byline ICS piece, we interviewed Viola, a current MBA student, who shared her job hunting journey in Japan.

In this Byline ICS piece, Pun MBA Class of 2020, whom we previously interviewed regarding her Japanese Language studies, shares her experience of doing a short-term homestay with a family in Tokyo. Read in this blog post why she decided to live with a host family and the rewards this experience has brought.  

In this Byline ICS edition, MBA Shoko Gervais, tells us why she decided to pursuit an MBA at Hitotsubashi ICS, after several years of working in the banking industry and the across the globe journey that her family embarked on to pursue her dream.  

Although our MBA program is fully conducted in English, many international students have significantly improved their Japanese by graduation. How do they do it? In this Byline ICS, we had a chance to hear from Pun, who studies Japanese at Hitotsubashi ICS and also at a Japanese language school outside of the campus. 

Pun(Punyavadee Yiengsubhanond)
Pun is a second-year student at Hitotsubashi ICS from Thailand under the MEXT scholarship
program. Before joining Hitotsubashi ICS, she worked in the auditing and accounting field at PwC and Agoda. She is in the middle of exploring many challenges to expand her experience and learn more about herself.

Almost 80% of the students come from outside of Japan and a majority of the students are willing to pursue a career in Japan after graduation. Although our MBA program is fully conducted in English, many international students have significantly improved their Japanese by graduation. How do they do it?

In this article, we asked three MBA students (Class of 2020), Kin, Viola, and Yiwei, about their experiences of learning Japanese.

Charlie, Nabe, Shige, and I joined the Yale Africa Startup Review this year, where our team, the "Otaku Four," collaborated with Developers In Vogue (DIV). DIV is a Ghanaian NGO that provides African women with IT education, such as programming to boost the social advancement of African women.