Experiential Learning from Fletcher to Japan

Pickering Fellow Ryland Pitts F26 reflects on the Yamauchi Japan Initiative 
The Yamauchi Japan Initiative cohort poses for a group photo outside of a temple in Japan.

Growing up in Eastern Europe, Ryland Pitts F26 knew he wanted to work in international relations.

“I was watching complicated geopolitical phenomena happen right in front of me, like authoritarian repression in Belarus and the refugee crisis in Hungary, but I didn’t have the vocabulary or knowledge to describe exactly what was happening and why it mattered,” he recalled.

Motivated to explore how a career in diplomacy could deepen his engagement with global affairs, Pitts earned an esteemed Pickering Fellowship from the United States Department of State.

Ryland Pitts, seated, speaks with a colleague in the Yamauchi Japan Initiative.

Preparing for Diplomatic Service Through Fletcher 

The fellowship helps finance two years of graduate study and provides professional development opportunities to prepare outstanding students for careers in the foreign service. 

Currently, Pitts is completing his graduate requirements at Fletcher, where he is pursuing a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD), specializing in International Security Studies and Comparative and Regional Studies with a concentration on Russian and Eurasian Affairs. This summer, he worked on the Ukraine Desk in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, tackling the fast-moving security and political challenges facing Ukraine. 

Speaking on the fellowship experience, he said, “It has been transformative. It’s given me a lot of professional clarity, which has guided the other decisions I’ve made.” 

A Fortuitous Message Leads to Japan

One of these decisions was to travel to Japan through the Yamauchi Japan Initiative – a program funded by Nintendo's founding family designed to expose scholars to Japanese culture. Pitts learned about the initiative through a Fletcher student WhatsApp group for his cohort.

“I almost missed it,” he said. “When I saw it, I started thinking, ‘This is outside of my regional expertise. It could be an interesting opportunity.’” 

This was the first year the Yamauchi Japan Initiative expanded its outreach beyond Harvard University to include students from MIT, Tufts University and Boston University. 

“What was most powerful was the collective thread of all these experiences,” said Pitts. “There were moments where something a Buddhist monk shared with us connected to something that a 14th generation tea master shared, which connected to something that we noticed about a 15th generation sake brewery. There’s a long-term mindset that many Japanese bring to their business, to their lives, to their culture.” 

The diverse group of scholars spent a week in Japan, guided by Banjo Yamauchi and his team. The group visited businesses and cultural sites, from the Kongo Noh Theater and culturally significant temples to the Mori Building Urban Lab, an innovative urban development company.

“I was putting these moments together and realizing that there's a real respect for craft, and for mastery in Japan,” Pitts said. “This dedication to excellence is really special.”

“There is also the idea of humility,” he added. “For example, in the teahouse, there'll be three different levels of roofs. For the roof that is the highest, they use the lowest quality wood, and for the roof that is the lowest, they use the highest quality wood. In this way, they disrupt dualities   – good or bad, superior or inferior –  and honor equality.”

Bringing Curiosity Back to Diplomacy 

Since returning from Japan, Pitts has actively encouraged more Fletcher students to apply to the Yamauchi Japan Initiative. He shared that as the program enters its third year, the experiential learning initiative has launched a fellowship, offering alumni funding for projects fostering collaboration with Japanese culture.

“It’s not just a trip,” Pitts explained. “Their goal is to build a community of people who will remember what they learned, bring it into where they're going next and stay in contact with one another.” 

Reflecting upon how his experience impacted his career in diplomacy, Pitts highlighted the non-dualistic philosophy within Japanese culture. Inspired by how Buddhist thought embraces complexity, he emphasized resisting simplistic dualities imposed for convenience.

“When it comes to my own path towards diplomacy, my takeaway from this trip is that it is a very good thing to be curious,” Pitts said. “It is only through embracing complexity that you get to a point of clarity – and I think that sentiment, which is a part of Buddhism, makes a lot of sense. How do you expect to understand someone if you try to put them in a box?”

Read more about Fletcher’s Comparative and Regional Studies Field of Study.