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In order to enrich the training modes for internationalized and innovative talents, universities from China, Japan and Korea have cooperated each other since 2012, and established a consortium named Innovative Research & Education of Asia (IRE). The consortium proposed the "student-centered, innovation-oriented and multiple cooperation" teaching concept. To achieve the objective of innovation talent education, an international interdisciplinary teaching team has been formed and three international innovation engineering education projects have been created. Furthermore, an international collaborative training system for innovation talents has been designed. Up to now, more than 20 colleges and universities joins the IRE consortium and 2000 Asian students participated in the training system. The successful cases demonstrate that the proposed teaching system is effective and has become a famous example of interdisciplinary engineering innovation education for talents.

Purpose: This study explores the politics of ideology in the process of sensegiving and sensemaking at a Japanese retailer in Hong Kong. Studies on power and politics are scarce despite key role of power and politics in understanding the factors behind the conflict between the management's policy legitimization (sensegiving) and employees' policy interpretation (sensemaking). By using the three dimensions proposed in the critical sensemaking approach (discourse, rules and contexts), this paper explores the complex mechanism of power and politics in sensemaking and sensegiving. Design/methodology/approach: Using 15 months of participant observation as a salesperson, this paper discusses how the Japan-centric customer service philosophy (dominant discourse), customer service policies and practices (organizational rules) and asymmetric power structure between the Japanese global headquarters and Hong Kong subsidiaries (formative contexts) are presented and perpetuated through the sensegiving–sensemaking process. Findings: Dominant discourse was observed in the management's sensegiving, which placed the Japanese style of customer service over others. This ethnocentric dominant discourse informed the creation of customer service policies, although the realization of the discourse was determined by the employees' conflicting interpretations of the organizational rules. As a formative context, an asymmetric power structure was present that positioned the Hong Kong subsidiary as subservient to the global headquarters in Japan. This shows that the political process of sensegiving and sensemaking deeply implicates the dominant discourse, organizational rules and power structure as central forces that determine the level of perpetuating ideology. Originality/value: This research illustrates the wider implications of power and politics in sensegiving–sensemaking studies and provides a complex picture of ethnocentric management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the usage of mobile payments in Japan has increased. Some users have expressed positive views about this technology, while others hold negative views. This study aimed to examine the attitudes of both users and non-users toward mobile payments by applying text mining on Japanese comments posted on Twitter. The data were collected twice in February 2023. Through the analysis, the study identified keywords related to positive, negative, and risk-related sentiments to gain insight into the expressed opinions. The findings revealed that positive statements highlighted the convenience of mobile payments, ease of ordering, and the value offered through loyalty points. Negative themes encompassed issues like settlement problems and wireless connection troubles. Regarding risks, there were statements such as personal data leaks and various security issues. Furthermore, a comparison between mobile payments and credit cards indicated that mobile payments received fewer risk-related statements and more positive statements compared to credit cards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]