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The purpose of this paper is to review what was achieved during the first seven years of the Conference Interpreting Program at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). In starting the program, the utmost challenge was how to optimize the Program to suit the students’ needs and the market’s needs in Japan where traditionally the interpreter- agency-related schools were strong and did most of the training. The three pillars of the Program set out from the beginning were (1) to incorporate interpreting theory and thesis into the Program (2) to provide the participants with the opportunity to acquire background knowledge and (3) to enhance the interpreting/translating skills of the participants. The TUFS Interpreting Symposium held in October, 2009 by TUFS in partnership with universities from Paris, Moscow, Shanghai and Seoul provided an opportunity to discuss common issues in conference interpreting. A particularly useful reflection was on how to incorporate practicum, which is a key component in the training of interpreters. It is the author’s belief that TUFS can continue to play its unique role based on its educational aim to train students to become intercultural mediators. This belief is also manifest in the fact that TUFS has started to offer short term intensive interpreting courses for the general public from 2010.