- Date: Monday, December 5, 2011, 3:00-6:00 pm
- Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
- Admission: Free (reservations required)
- Language: Japanese and English (with simultaneous translation)
- Co-organized by International House of Japan and Japan Foundation
- Public Symposium Report (PDF file, 192KB)
From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, a dynamic interaction between India and Japan was taking place in this vast area called Asia, on a scale unimaginable today. More than a hundred years before the word “globalization” existed, Tagore and Okakura Tenshin saw Asia as a “globalized” entity. J. N. Tata and Shibusawa Eiichi joined hands to give the Japanese shipping industry a fair wind against the European monopoly of the Indian Ocean. This symposium will attempt to explore how we can create a new Asia, by looking back on the great visions of these past sages.
Panelists
KAJI, Masahiko (President, Tata Consultancy Services Japan Ltd.)
Born in 1947. Received bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Economics from Sophia University. After working for Citibank Japan, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, in 1998 Mr. Kaji became Managing Director of ASB International Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, which is a subsidiary of Nissei ASB Machine Co., Ltd., Japan, the leading manufacturer in PET technology and molding. He became General Manager, Tata Consultancy Services Japan Ltd. in October 2001, and assumed his current position in January 2004. Mr. Kaji also serves as a board member of the India International School in Japan and the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Japan. He is also known as an alpinist who has been on mountain-climbing expeditions in the Himalayas six times.
TANKHA, Brij (Professor, University of Delhi; Visiting Professor, Ryukoku University)
Born in Lacknow, India, in 1947. Dr. Tankha earned his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Delhi, and his Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research interests are nationalism, Pan-Asianism, religion, and Japan’s relations with Asia. He has been a recipient of a Japan Foundation fellowship, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and was a visiting professor at Kyoto University, Waseda University and Hitotsubashi University. In 1977, he assumed his current position at the University of Delhi. He is also currently a visiting professor, ICCR Chair for Indian Studies, Ryukoku University, Kyoto. His publications include Narratives of Asia: From India, Japan and China (co-authored; Sampark, 2005) and A Vision of Empire: Kita Ikki and the Making of Modern Japan (Global Oriental, 2006).
SHARMA, Jyotirmaya (Professor, University of Hyderabad)
Mr. Sharma has been a fellow of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, and has lectured at the universities of Baroda, Hull, Oxford, and St. Stephens College, Delhi. He was visiting professor in democratic theory at the South Asia Institute at Ruprecht-Karls University at Heidelberg in 2005. He also held senior editorial positions at the Times of India and The Hindu between 1998 and 2006, and continues to write columns for Mail Today, Hindustan Times and Outlook. The International House of Japan and the Japan Foundation awarded him an Asia Leadership Fellow Program fellowship for 2008.
SHIBUSAWA, Masahide (President, Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation)
Mr. Shibusawa graduated from the Department of Agricultural Economy of the University of Tokyo. He assumed his current position in 1997. He is also the executive director of the MRA Foundation since 1964, the executive director of the Language Institute of Japan since 1968 and executive director of the East-West Seminar since 1970. He has held eminent positions such as the Director-CEO of Tokyo Jogakkan Schools of Women (1994-2003), Visiting Professor, School of Business Administration, Portland State University, Visiting Professor at the University of Alaska and Research Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London. His publications include Chichi: Shibusawa Keizo (Memoir of a Father Shibusawa Keizo; Jitugyo-no-Nihon, 1968), Taiheiyo-ni Kakeru Hashi: Shibusawa Eiichi no Gyo-seki (Bridge Over the Pacific: A Case History of Relations among US/China/Japan during 1879-1931, Based on the Life and Work of Shibusawa Eiichi; Yomiuri Shimbunsha, 1970), Asia in the World Community (English), ed., with Prachoom Chomchai, (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 1973), and Taiheiyo- Ajia: Kiken to Kibo (Pacific Asia, Perils and Promises; Simul Publications, 1991).
Moderators
BUTALIA, Urvashi (Director, Zubaan Books)
Ms. Butalia is a well-known figure in gender studies not only in India but also in Europe and the United States. She co-founded Kali for Women, the first feminist publisher in India, which has published various books on gender issues in India. She has been active in the women’s movement in India. She has also been active in researching the modern history of India, and her book The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (Duke University Press, 2000), an oral history of the tragic separation of India and Pakistan, has been a bestseller in India. She is also an active participant in international citizen’s exchange conferences, where she speaks on behalf of Indian women. Since 2003, she has been a director of Zubaan Books, the publisher which developed out of Kali for Women. She received a Nikkei Asia Prize in 2003 and the Padma Shri (Indian award for cultural merit) in 2010. The International House of Japan and the Japan Foundation awarded her an Asia Leadership Fellow Program fellowship for 2000.
TAKENAKA, Chiharu (Professor, Rikkyo University)
Graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1979. After working for various universities in Japan, including Waseda University and the University of Tokyo, Ms. Takenaka assumed her current position in 2008. She specializes in international politics, comparative politics, and South Asian studies.