Newsletter No. 503
Information-Announcement
January 31, 2007

 

JAPAN - MIDDLE EAST BLOGSPOT

In October 2006 a new project was launched to educate the Japanese people about the so-called “Middle East,” and to study Japanese-Middle Eastern relations. The project is based out of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), and is led by Shingetsu Institute Director Keiko Sakai, who is now a professor at TUFS. Financial support for the project is coming from the Ministry of Education.

Obviously, there is considerable overlap between the purposes of this new project and that of the Shingetsu Institute, so it may be useful to briefly introduce what this other project is doing.

The main center for information about the events that this TUFS project is organizing can be found at their “Japan-Middle East Blogspot,” which is also given a Japanese title that might be translated as “The Bridge Connecting Japan and the Middle East: Searching for a New Regional Concept and a Symbiotic Relationship.” The website (which is only in the Japanese language) is here:

http://japan-middleeast.blogspot.com

Since October 25th, when the first posting appeared, up until today (January 31st), there have only been eight postings, but the project is still new, and the traffic will probably grow over the course of this year. The project has already held two events in its “Middle East Cafe” series:

First Middle East Cafe: Exploring the Point of Contact between Middle East Research and Society: Perspectives from the Media
Tokyo, December 10th
Speakers --
Yasunori Kawakami (Asahi Shinbun)
Hiromu Odagiri (independent journalist)

Second Middle East Cafe: Iran-Japan-America: Middle East Diplomacy: Japan’s Choice
Tokyo, January 14th
Main Speaker --
Jitsuro Terashima (President of the Japan Research Institute)

The third event in this series is to take place in Hiroshima on February 10th, and appears to be primarily a musical performance. See the Blogspot webpage itself for more.

The TUFS project is expected to last for 4 1/2 years, and it hopes to advance the cause of education about the “Middle East” and Japan’s connections with that region as it progresses. It will be recalled that the same university established a Beirut Liaison Office (JaCMES) in January of last year (see Shingetsu Newsletter No. 172). Although in light of the Israel-Lebanon War last year, the JaCMES project may not be prospering, it is still clear that TUFS is making a credible effort to expand its role in Japanese-Islamic relations.