Productive research stay in Japan by UNU-GEST project assistant Laura Malinauskaite
Laura Malinauskaite, Project Assistant at UNU-GEST, just finished a two months’ research stay in Japan, supported by the Watanabe Trust Fund. She was hosted by the UNU Headquarters in Tokyo, which gave her insight into UNU internal structures and procedures. Apart from this she attended different lectures and seminars to discuss interlinkages between UNU-GESTs work and the headquarters work. She also held a seminar about mainstreaming gender into research which was highly appreciated.
Laura mainly conducted preliminary research for our project Women in Geothermal which consists in documentary and social science research with case studies in Iceland, Kenya, Ethiopia, New Zealand and Japan. She learned a lot about the Japanese geothermal energy sector in general and more specifically, about gender dynamics within it. She also found some potential interviewees for the research and documentary as well as she scouted for filming locations. Furthermore, she conducted preliminary interviews to get an insight in the underlying gender equality issues in Japan. Generally, the research project was met with enthusiasm, but breaking through cultural and even personal barriers and openly talking about gender equality in Japan was not always easy. Besides working on the research project, she used her free time to travel and get to know Japan, its people and culture.