I joined Tokimatsu laboratory in fall 2017, as a 4th batch scholar of a JICA program, namely ABE (African business education initiative). This program is mainly dedicated to African with working experience to study and do internships in Japan, in order to achieve some strategic goals for the Japanese government and bridge the gap with African markets.
At that time, I was the first Egyptian student to join the laboratory. and by defining laboratory, it is a research group that share one study place under the academic supervisor. there are also regular meetings (seminars) for all the lab members during which they can present their research progress, practice for conferences etc., these seminars are very helpful to practice presenting and engaging with audience as well as receiving feedback and research directions.
During my stay in the lab, there was other 2 academic supervisors with their lab members sharing the same study space, Prof. Yoshikawa lab and Prof. Takahashi lab. It was an opportunity to know different research disciplines like bio-mass and waste management and treatment. There were pros and cons for that, for example, we shared the same weekly research seminars, it often happens that the presented research is far away from my own research focus. On the other hand, it was a good opportunity to know more about different research trends and a plus was that the lab is very English friendly as English is the main language used. For me, one of the biggest gains was making lots of long lasting friendships with all other lab members, as there is almost no barriers between the 3 laboratories and we can jointly do several activities together; lab parties was an example, which by the way was very Muslim friendly and always keen on offering halal food and drink options.
As for research, Prof. Tokimatsu is keen on having diverse students, research topics and nationalities in his lab. Prof. Tokimatsu has a full command of English language making it comfortable communicating with him, he is a good listener, as he tries to offer advice and guidance to his students after carefully understanding their needs. In my case, I was interested in Electric vehicles and Prof. Tokimatsu managed to introduce me to Prof. Muhammad Aziz, who was specializing in the field of V-2-G, and by working with him, I had my first experience joining and presenting at an academic conference, namely Applied Energy Symposium and Forum, REM2018, in Greece.
In my opinion, the main qualities needed to join this lab are self-motivation, persistence and dedication as students in Japan are expected to plan their own research goals and define the research objective and what is needed to achieve that. Accordingly, good time management is needed, and the ability to work in a multi-disciplinary environment and people from different study backgrounds.