Overview

The theme of Tokyo Higashi Shinkin Bank’s industry-academic collaboration was overseas expansion to Singapore, and I coordinated student attendance and internships in the country.

Background

Higashin, a Tokyo Higashi Shinkin Bank based in Sumida-ku, Tokyo, has many clients in the manufacturing industry, so they decided to focus on overseas expansion as a theme for industry-academic collaboration. Since the target country was Singapore, it was our turn to take advantage of our strength in cooperation with Supermama.

Support contents

We assisted students with factory visits, shared information about the Singapore market, conveyed messages and feedback from Singapore during the design phase, planned and managed students’ internships in Singapore, coordinated laboratory visits to Singapore, and held events to present the results of developed products.

Synergy

It was a great opportunity for students to experience what it takes to enter a different culture’s market from the student stage, and for companies to promote themselves and receive fresh ideas. This is a unique chance for the next generation of designers to be exposed to real business practices. Students have the advantage of being able to come into deep contact with the actual production of designs that have advanced to product development.

Memorable episodes

During the interview on the last day of the internship at Supermama in Singapore, the student was given strict but realistic advice. After returning to Japan, the students took time to listen to the advice and changed their initial thinking to take advantage of the advice and their ongoing challenges.