Education, connection and harmony with Yutaka Kikugawa

From establishing music education charity El Sistema Japan to bringing people together as the UCL Alumni Club Japan President, a community-minded approach has shaped alumnus Yutaka Kikugawa's life.

Yutaka Kikugawa (BA Geography 1995; MA Sociology of Education 1996) was working for the Japan Committee for UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) when the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck north-eastern Japan. Around 19,000 people died, several hundred thousand people were displaced and a number of nuclear power plants were plunged into a crisis which still presents issues 12 years on.

Yutaka was appointed to run UNICEF’s emergency and recovery operation, and it was to be a life-changing moment. The following year it led to him establishing El Sistema Japan, part of a global movement using free music education to improve the lives and prospects of disadvantaged children. Its initial focus was on the children affected by the disaster.

El Sistema Japan now operates in eight prefectures, and as Executive Director you would imagine Yutaka to have his hands full. And yet, he has also found time to run the UCL Alumni Club Japan for eight years, volunteering his skills for its community. It’s typical of a man whose career has been focused on facilitating the betterment of others, and who seems to have the ambition to change the world. “No, no,” he counters with a smile. “It’s not really ambition. I’m just driven by honest curiosity. And I enjoy my life.”

A Finnish start

Born in Kobe in 1971, Yutaka had an atypical start to life. His father was an academic, specialising in Japanese classics, but also with deep interest in Finno-Ugric languages and literature. So it was that the family moved to Helsinki, Finland when Yutaka was two years old, until he was five. Both his interest in education, and his international worldview, were ingrained in him by these influences and experiences. “I was only in kindergarten in Helsinki,” he says. “But somehow I think that inspired me to study abroad.”

It was seen as unusual by his peers when Yutaka came to UCL for his undergraduate Geography degree in 1992, as most Japanese students at the time would begin their higher education in their home country. “I was already thinking my future career would be working for international organisations,” he explains. “And I took geography as it was just at the start of everyone really thinking about environmental issues. The course really opened my eyes to different places. I started to become interested in development and education issues in general, but particularly in Africa. That became my future.”

Africa calling

After undertaking an MA in Sociology of Education at London’s Institute of Education (which has since become IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society L), Yutaka returned to Japan to work for a private think tank, before landing a dream role – working for UNESCO in South Africa in 1998. “I was very excited,” he says. “Nelson Mandela was still president. It was a challenging environment but I learnt a lot and met many people who had an impact on me.”

In 2000, Yutaka joined UNICEF, working on education projects as well as confronting the huge problem of HIV on the African continent. He spent seven years in Lesotho and Eritrea, and then returned to Japan. He says: “In Japan, I was working in fundraising – a completely different role. But then, in 2011, the earthquake changed my life again.”

Systemic changes

El Sistema is a music education programme which builds the confidence and social skills of disadvantaged children. It was founded in Venezuela in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu and has inspired similar programmes in more than 70 countries. While running UNICEF’s relief efforts following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Yutaka became acutely aware of its impact on youngsters, and when a goodwill ambassador mentioned El Sistema to him, it planted a seed. “I started to realise that all these things connected. I love music – I played piano and saxophone growing up, and I did some conducting. And in South Africa I had seen how music and dance could drive people’s struggle to survive.”

Yutaka’s El Sistema Japan is now over a decade old and has benefitted thousands of young people – firstly in the areas most affected by the 2011 disaster (2012 saw the foundation of the Soma Children’s Orchestra and Chorus in Soma City, Fukushima) and now across the country. Yutaka reflects: “After 11 years, I’m really proud that children from when we started are now coming back to teach for us, or are finding other ways to contribute to their communities. That’s really encouraging.”

Community building

In volunteering to run the UCL Alumni Club Japan over the last eight years, Yutaka mirrors the community-minded approach he is so proud of in his El Sistema graduates. He says the network’s value partly comes from its diversity. “You meet so many people from different fields and areas of work, because UCL is such a big university with so many departments. It’s so interesting.”

International collaboration is the focus of the group going forward: “UCL has such a big network of alumni communities globally,” says Yutaka. “And so the vision is to strengthen our regional networking with places such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.”

This year’s annual Alumni Club party had particular significance, celebrating the 160th anniversary of the arrival at UCL of the Choshu Five – the Japanese students who would all go on to prominent roles in the foundation of modern Japan. They were the trailblazers who established UCL as a destination university for Japanese students. “I don’t know how many of today’s students know the Choshu Five story when they apply to UCL,” laughs Yutaka. “But they arrive, see the Japan Monument, and become interested. It’s good that people learn this way – the link between Japan and UCL had a big impact.”

Connections for life

Yutaka says he will remain connected with UCL for the rest of his life – it is something he values highly. Meanwhile, El Sistema Japan continues to grow. “There are many things to be done. We’ve achieved a lot, but Japanese students face new issues now, and we also want to work hard to reach those we haven’t yet reached. 

“The most important thing is that the children gain confidence. All of them have been through difficult moments, but with this music and the friends they make, they find ways to share joy and that can have a big impact on their lives. I think I’ll be doing this work for at least another five or 10 years.”

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