The awarding procession of the charter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan to Prof. Agus Zainal Arifin from ITS was held at the Consulate General of Japan, Surabaya

ITS Campus, ITS News – ITS has contributed a lot that is not only national, but also international. This was proven by Prof. Dr. Agus Zainal Arifin SKom MKom, professor from ITS Informatics Department who received an award from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for his services in improving mutual understanding between Japan and Indonesia.

Prof. Agus Zainal Arifin studied Information Engineering at Hiroshima University in 2003-2007 as a recipient of a Japanese government scholarship, Monbukagakusho (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). After obtaining his doctorate, he returned to Indonesia and was active in building many good friendships and activities between the two countries.

“During my studies in Japan, I and my Muslim friends from Indonesia established the Nahdlatul Ulama Student Family (KMNU) of Japan which was subsequently authorized by the Executive Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) to become the Special Branch Manager (PCI) of NU Japan,” explained the former Dean of the Faculty of Intelligent Electrical and Informatics Technology ITS.

The award received by Prof. Agus Zainal Arifin from ITS for his services in improving mutual understanding between Japan and Indonesia

In addition to teaching at ITS, he also actively encourages understanding of Japan among indonesians through pesantren visits in East Java. He is very active in sharing his experiences about life in Japan and information about formal education in Japan to the pesantren circles of both students and teachers.

“While in Japan I met many great Muslim friends who were mostly from pesantren. Therefore, I want to motivate students about school scholarship opportunities in Japan through guest lectures and workshops in several pesantren,” he said.

Agus said that there are many good things from Japan that can be exemplified to develop human resources in Indonesia. Starting from technology, manners, discipline, hard work, and tolerance of religious people. On the contrary, there are many potentials of Indonesian culture that can be introduced to Japanese society.

“During my four years there, my friends and I from Indonesia introduced Indonesian culture to Japan, including arts such as hadrah, regional dance, and batik. The Japanese Government’s welcome is very good, in an event that we have watched almost a thousand people,” said the professor who once received the award of the 2006 Hiroshima University Excellent Student.

In the future, Agus wants to strengthen and explore new cooperation between the two countries through ITS. Starting from facilitating and encouraging as many lecturers and ITS students as possible to study in Japan. “As well as facilitating experts in Japan to be able to contribute to education in Indonesia,” he explained.

Prof Agus Zainal Arifin while teaching a guest lecture on Image Information Processing at the Faculty of Informatics, Kansai University, Osaka

Agus hopes that with this step, there will be higher and more intensive cooperation between campuses in Indonesia and Japan. In addition, it is also expected that more students and lecturers in Indonesia will be motivated to study abroad.

“No need to worry about the difficulties faced because of differences in language and culture.  With the condition that we learn far, our spirit of learning will be higher than the local community, we can also meet new brothers and sisters more broadly,” he concluded motivating.

(sin/Anjani/ITS Public Relation Officer)

Prof. Agus Zainal Arifin during a talkshow at Al Ishlahiyah Singosari Boarding School, Malang