【Name】
Chu Kah Leong
【Age】
23
【Nationality, Current Home】
Malaysian, currently residing in London, United Kingdom
【Brief Career】
I am currently pursuing a BA (Hons) in War Studies in King’s College London.
Prior to this I completed high school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and was
a cadet at a military academy in the United States before leaving for health
reasons. I have lived and studied in the United States, UK and Australia
for the past four years of my life.
【Where did you find out about AJMUN?】
From the AJMUN website.
【Why did you decide to participate in AJMUN?】
As a student from a mostly military background, my field of interests centre
on military strategy, international relations and politics. I have been
an active participant of various crisis simulation conferences, which are
more military oriented versions of Model United Nations centred on crises,
wars and disasters. I thus wished to take advantage of my time here in
Japan and obtain a better understanding of the nuances of a typical Model
United Nations conference event. AJMUN, being the largest MUN conference
in Japan, was naturally my first choice.
【What did you like about the conference?】
I am pleasantly surprised at the diversity of participants in the conference,
ranging from foreign participants to Japanese high school students. This
allowed for a facilitation of a broad range of knowledge, experiences and
thoughts that made for a conducive atmosphere of debate, discussion and
diplomacy. The AJMUN moderator and staff support team were also very efficient
and thoughtful, and part of my interesting experience in AJMUN must be
credited to them.
【What did you like outside the conference?】
I particularly valued the friendship I cultivated with many other fellow
participants throughout the three-day conference. I have also met many
other like-minded participants who are equally passionate about global
affairs and humanitarian issues, and I am thankful to be able to constantly
keep in touch with them and have fulfilling chats with them even when the
conference is long over.
【Name】
Jason Sujaya
【Age】
19 years old Indonesia, Jakarta (Right now in Japan, Beppu)
【Why did you decide to participate in AJMUN?】
At Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, I am currently studying
International Management with the focus to sharpen international management
perspectives and entrepreneurship. To acquire such things, students have
to expose their mind to the actuality of global problems and bring in specialist
solution toward it. Participating and joining international MUN, I thought
was a perfect opportunity to implement and practice this regard. Understanding
the nature of AJ-MUN, an MUN that challenges participants to try a new
hybrid Japanese-International experience was an interesting experience
I looked for.
【Where did you find out about AJMUN?】
AJMUN was particularly popular as many established Japanese Universities
joins it. At my university, I am part of the Model United Nation club which
annually attends it. This is how I got to know about it.
【What did you like about the conference ?】
Conversing, sharing ideas and negotiating are amongst the top contenders.
AJ-MUN attracts crowd of talented students and working personnel that bring
me new insight regarding the working mechanism of the world. It’s amazing
to be able to empower yourself with those thoughts as they will help any
person focus on achieving their goal and dreams in the future. Additionally,
as a freshman myself, it’s really exciting for me to be able to part experiences
that are new. The AJ-MUN takes a different approach in its conference.
It mixes Japanese style MUN and International style MUN that posted challenges
for many internationals to overcome. With hard work and dedication I am
also happy that I was awarded as the Distinguished Delegation at Copenhagen
Council.
【What did you like outside the conference?】
I cherished the moments I spent with my new friends at places such as Ramen
shops, Dine-out restaurants and Izakaya’s as we relaxed and chatted, comforted
with a little touch of Japanese backdrop and hospitality. During that time,
I got to know new things about the Japanese culture even though I’ve been
in Japan for 4 months already. I think that the Tokyo metropolitan atmosphere
brings out interesting perspective and side of Japan.
【Any last comments?】
My experience at AJ MUN shows that the world is trying to emphasize the
understanding that the freedom to express thoughts are always accompanied
with the consequences to be responsible with the thoughts behind them.
Being part of the Copenhagen council, we repeated a part a vital historical
moment, the time when the EURO resolution was discussed. EU member and
non EU member tried to sort out differences between their interests and
it was visible that many of them are conflictive. At this stage, implementing
a solution that benefit one side only will subsequently negatively the
whole team. We need to learn from this to not repeat the same mistakes.
Sometimes, the freedom to express any ideas are the loop holes to create
a one sided bias arguments. We need to carefully consider our opinions
before expressing them.
【Name】
Mare Ryoki
【Age】
17
【Nationality, Current Home】
Japan, Taipei
【Brief Career】
I was born in Tokyo, then moved to Shanghai when I was 11. After spending
3 years in Shanghai, I moved to Taipei. I am currently a junior at Taipei
American School.
【Where did you find out about AJMUN?】
I was looking for a MUN conference in Japan, then I found this conference.
【Why did you decide to participate in AJMUN?】
I really wanted to gain more experience for my MUN career, so I was looking
for a MUN conference which I can participate during the winter vacation.
I could not find any in Taiwan, so I looked for the ones in Japan, and
learned about AJMUN. AJMUN seemed like a college level conference with
intense debates, and I was looking for a high level conference, so I immediately
decided to join this conference.
【What did you like about the conference ?】
I really liked how the debate was really constructive, unlike the ones
I usually participate in Taiwan. In high school level conferences, delegates
usually focus on writing resolutions and debate on the resolution. Sometimes,
delegates forget about the country’s benefit and only focus on writing
resolutions or debating on resolutions. In AJMUN, delegates never forgot
about their country’s benefit, but at the same time, they tried their best
to negotiate with the other countries in order to make a peaceful and constructive
resolution together. Also, “discussion for discussion” was a completely
new idea for me, and I learned a lot out of it. For example, I learned
how to manage the time in order to run the discussion most efficiently.
Overall, AJMUN introduced me to numbers of new ideas, new perspective,
and new procedure. I think I gained a very meaningful experience.
【What did you like outside the conference?】
In AJMUN, I got to know a lot of people with various interesting ideas,
interests, background or dreams. People there were really nice to us high
school delegations, even though many of them are college students, and
taught us a lot about their experiences outside and inside of the college,
or application process of the college. I look up a lot of people in the
conference, because people taught us various valuable lessons and worked
really hard to achieve their goals or dreams.
【Any last comments?】
I really enjoyed being a delegate in AJMUN conference, and AJMUN really
motivated me to continue participating in MUN even after I got into a college.
If I can, I would like to introduce a THIMUN procedure English conference
to AJMUN, and participate in the conference again.
【Name】
Shunta Takino
【Age】
20
【Nationality, Current Home】
Japanese, Tokyo (studying in UK)
【Brief Career】
Although I was born in Japan, I have spent most of my life so far in the
UK. I am currently an undergraduate steading reading Philosophy, Politics
and Economics at the University of Oxford.
I participated in my first university-level MUN in December 2014, and have
consequently taken part in a number of other MUNs across Europe including
Paris International MUN and Cambridge MUN.
Over the next few years, I hope to work closely with the MUN community
in Japan to promote MUN as an educational tool across the country.
【Where did you find out about AJMUN?】
I found out about AJMUN after searching for some student level MUN events
and conferences in Tokyo.
【Why did you decide to participate in AJMUN?】
Having taken part in a number of MUN conferences across Europe, I was interested
to see how MUNs in Japan differed. I figured that the best way to do so
would be to attend AJMUN, Japan’s premier MUN conference.
I also saw AJMUN as a special opportunity to get to know and become friends
with Japanese students with a strong interest in international issues.
Although I was very much aware of what students in the UK felt about international
issues, I wanted to hear the views of the Japanese youth so I could broaden
my perspective.
【What did you like about the conference ?】
AJMUN was an enjoyable experience because the delegates sought to co-operate
and work together rather than compete unnecessarily. I have been to conferences
in the past where many delegates attend not to enjoy the process of debating,
but purely to win awards, but I certainly felt that this was not the case
with AJMUN.
I also liked that the topic was slum development and policy in the framework
of the SDGs, as I have increasingly taken an interest in urban development.
Taking part in a UN-Habitat committee was also in stark contrast to my
past MUN experiences which had been in more traditional committees such
as the Security Council, DISEC or SOCHUM.
【What did you like outside the conference?】
It was great that all the delegates and chairs stayed in the same hotel.
This meant that we could spend time with and get to know each other in
a more relaxed and informal environment, unlike in some conferences where
students rarely spend time with those not in their delegation.
【Any last comments?】
It was a pleasure to take part in AJMUN, and I hope to return in some capacity
again next year. I would definitely encourage students from around the
world to join in the coming few years!
