The Shingetsu
Institute for the Study of Japanese-Islamic Relations was founded
by Michael Penn at the beginning
of August 2004 in Kitakyushu, Japan. The Board of Directors
consists of Mr. Penn and four other academics: Keiko Sakai,
Keiko T. Tamura, Masaki Uno, and Shintaro Yoshimura. Since its
founding, the Shingetsu Institute has been based at its offices
in the Jono district of the city of Kitakyushu.
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Michael
Penn, The University of Kitakyushu
(shingetsu_institute@hotmail.com)
Mr. Penn is a native of Los Angeles who has been living
in Japan since June 1997. Since that time, the bulk of his
research has been on the topic of Japanese-Islamic relations.
He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Shingetsu
Institute. He has published more than a dozen academic articles
in several countries and is beginning to contribute opinion
articles to various national media outlets. His biography
has been listed in the annual “Marquis Who’s
Who in the World” since 2004 and his name was listed
in the most recent “Morse Target: Washington’s
Movers and Shakers on Japan.” |
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Board
of Directors |
Keiko
Sakai, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
(keikosak@tufs.ac.jp)
Professor
Sakai is one of the best-known scholars of the Arab world
in Japan. She joined the Institute of Developing Economies
in Tokyo in 1982 as researcher on Iraq. From 1986 to 1989,
she took up the post of research attache at the Japanese
Embassy in Iraq. Her many publications include award-winning
books such as Iraq and America in Japanese, and her edited
volume, Social Protests and Nation Building in the Middle
East and Central
Asia in English. She is an Executive Member of the Japan
Association for Middle East Studies. In 2005 she was selected
as a member of the Science Council of Japan, the chief
representative body of Japan's scientific community.
Keiko
T. Tamura, The University of Kitakyushu
(keikott@kitakyu-u.ac.jp)
Dr. Tamura is a very active scholar in the field of Southeast
Asian studies. Her main countries of specialization are
Singapore and Malaysia, but she also deals with the international
relations of ASEAN as a whole. In her writings, she often
deals with themes like nationalism, gender, ethnicity,
democratization, and NGO activities. She has authored
three books and co-edited another three. She has also
written numerous academic articles. Dr. Tamura is active
in academic societies. For several years she has chaired
the Southeast Asian studies section of the Japan Association
of International Relations.
Masaki
Uno, Hiroshima City University
(uno.m@intl.hiroshima-cu.ac.jp)
Mr.
Uno is a researcher in the field of West Asian regional
studies. His research focuses on the minority groups,
such as the Druze sect in Lebanon. He has authored a book
in Japanese entitled The Islamic Druze: Middle Eastern
Society as Seen by an Islamic Minority Group, as well
as many other articles. His most recent work has included
an article concerning the Yazidi Kurds, and another concerning
the Palestinian people. Uno is an active scholar in western
Japan and is a key member of the Hiroshima Middle East
Network.
Shintaro
Yoshimura, Hiroshima University
(shinyo@hiroshima-u.ac.jp)
Dr. Yoshimura is an active researcher whose primary field
is modern Iranian history. However, not only is he a Japanese
historian of 20th century Iran, but he also has written
more widely on topics like so-called terrorism and fundamentalism,
the Kurdish issue, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In all,
he has published a book and literally dozens of articles
for both scholarly audiences and the general public. After
the September 11 attacks, Dr. Yoshimura helped to establish
the Hiroshima Middle East Network to try to educate the
public about Islamic cultures, ethno-religious problems,
and the Palestine issue.
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