HIGO Program’s student team got the award for excellence at the Leading Program Forum 2013

On Jan 10th and 11th, the Leading Forum 2013 was held in Osaka. All universities selected as the program for graduate schools gathered for the forum hosted by Osaka University.

At the forum, “Next Visionary – Attract with Innovation!” was also held as the student forum. Next Visionary was an event that university teams recommended good ideas and solutions for resolving difficult social issues (e.g. unknown device, social divide and conflict etc..) and gave them the competition. It became a good opportunity that students can try their own real power amassed through the leading graduate programs. The reviewers related to cooperative companies evaluated students’ recommendations.

48 teams participated the competition focusing on five subjects. The team HIGO Program, Kumamoto Univ. made a recommendation “iHALAL: Towards Globalizing Japan from Kumamoto” in the category of “Japan and/ or Global, Now and Future”, and the team won the first round and the semi-final. HIGO Program became first in the category competition. At the final competition, which top teams of each category made presentations, HIGO Program sadly missed the highest award but HIGO team got the award for excellence as a finalist.

“iHALAL” is a tool of creating platform can make Muslims to stay in Japan comfortably with Halal-friendly smartphone application towards coming 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and further global competition. For example, students presented that iHALAL will work as a tool of mapping halal-friendly grocery stores, restaurants, hotels and worship facilities important for Muslims with the smartphone app. Also, students recommended that iHALAL will start from Kumamoto and Kyushu as the leading area of halal-friendly agricultural and meat industry to spread throughout the country. Moreover, students emphasized the importance of understanding Muslim culture which unfamiliar for Japanese beyond developing a business.

Visionary reviewers highly evaluated iHALAL for recognitions of the current situation about halal because of growing Muslim population and need of further globalization in Japan.

Team name: HIGO Program
Member：Nan Kurehana (Japan), Soichiro Hirata(Japan), Wu Meikui（China）, Alim Nathan Ray (Philippine)
Presentation title: “iHALAL: Towards Globalizing Japan from Kumamoto”

【References】
Leading Forum 2013’s “Next Visionary”
http://leadingprogram-forum2013.jp/visionary/
The list of awards (Osaka University)
http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/lpf2013/award/
Leading Program Forum 2013
http://leadingprogram-forum2013.jp/