Webinar Series 2024: Leaders Shaping the Indo-Pacific
The I-House webinar series on “Leaders Shaping the Future of the Indo Pacific” features speakers from the Indo-Pacific region who are working to overcome social divisions and use their expertise to build a more cooperative society.
Conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as growing tensions in the US-China relationship, have sown discord between nations and ideologies and raised the risk of deeper fragmentation around the world. Conflicts create food and energy crises and exacerbate problems relating to human rights, refugees, and poverty, not to mention the political economy. How can we mitigate such fragmentation and maintain peace and stability?
In fiscal 2024, we will deepen our understanding of Islam in Asia from the perspective of food and women leadership by welcoming experts affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), currently the biggest Islamic organizations in Indonesia, and female peace activists who negotiated with Islamic armed groups in the Philippines.
Those who wish to receive detailed information on each session through the I-House e-news are asked to register through the e-news registration form.
Organizer: International House of Japan
Sponsor: MRA Foundation
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[Webinar Series 2024: Leaders Shaping the Indo-Pacific]
#1 “What Is Halal?: Understanding Islam through Halal Food in a Contemporary Minority Context”
- Speaker: Ayang Utriza Yakin (Guest Lecturer, Université Catholique de Louvain; Vice Chairman, Advisory Board, Belgium branch of Nahdlatul Ulama)
- Moderator: Takaaki Mizuno (Professor, Kanda University of International Studies)
- Language: English with Japanese subtitles
- Release Date: February 29, 2024
- Organizer: International House of Japan
- Sponsor: MRA Foundation
- Speaker: Miriam CORONEL-FERRER (Peace activist, co-founder of Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators)
- Moderator: Masako ISHII (Professor, Rikkyo University)
- Language: English with Japanese subtitles
- Release Date: March 29, 2024
- Organizer: International House of Japan
- Sponsor: MRA Foundation
New Video
Conflicts caused by religious and ethnic differences, such as the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, are often protracted, highlighting the importance of tolerance and mutual understanding of differences. To deepen our understanding of one of the biggest religions in the world, Islam, and to recognize and celebrate differences, this session welcomes Ayang Utriza Yakin, a member of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), one of the two major Islamic organizations in Indonesia, to talk about contemporary Islam as seen through halal food. Following the COVID pandemic, the number of inbound visitors to Japan exceeded 20 million in 2023. The country is expected to attract not only more foreign tourists but also immigrants in the future. In this context, the promotion of multicultural and multireligious understanding is an important issue, including an understanding of food, which is closely linked to identity. A better grasp of halal is critical not only from the perspective of promoting peace but also from a business perspective, with global Muslim spending on food and beverages expected to exceed $1.89 trillion in 2027. In this session, Yakin discusses how halal has evolved over time and how it differs according to whether Muslims are in the majority, as in Indonesia, or in the minority, as in Japan. His presentation promotes a deeper understanding of contemporary Islam.
Ayang Utriza Yakin (Guest Lecturer, Université Catholique de Louvain/ Belgium branch of Nahdlatul Ulama)
is a guest lecturer and research associate at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium, and Sciences-Po Bordeaux, France. He obtained his Master (2005) and Doctorate (2013) from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. Dr. Yakin was a visiting fellow and postdoctoral researcher in Oxford (2012), Harvard (2013), Tokyo (2016), and UCLouvain (2016–2019) and visiting professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Ghent University (2019–2021). He (co)-authored numerous articles and books such as Rethinking Halal: Genealogy, Current Trends, and New Interpretation (Brill, 2021), Islamic Divorce in the Twentieth-First Century: A Global Perspective (Rutgers University Press, 2022), Shame, Modesty, and Honor in Islam (Bloomsbury, 2024). He is also the vice chairman of the advisory board of the Belgium branch of Nahdlatul Ulama, currently the biggest Islamic organization in the world. Yakin was the Fellow of ALFP, which was a program coorganized by I-House and the Japan Foundation.
Takaaki Mizuno (Professor, Kanda University of International Studies) joined the Asahi Shimbun, and was based as its correspondent in Hanoi, Washington D.C. and in its New York bureau chief. As a member of its editorial board, he covered international news. He was also a visiting scholar at the East-West Center in Honolulu, and at the Chinese Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing. He graduated from the University of Tokyo, M.A. from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Relations of the Johns Hopkins University.
[Webinar Series 2024: Leaders Shaping the Indo-Pacific]
#2 “Women Working for Peace: Lessons from the Moro War”
New Video
For the second session of the 2024 “Leaders Shaping the Future of the Indo-Pacific” series, we welcomed peace activist Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, who served as head of the team negotiating peace with Islamic militant groups in the Mindanao region of the Philippines. The current conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine demonstrate how difficult negotiations and peacebuilding can be. Coronel-Ferrer, who led the peace talks for the long-running civil war 10 years ago in Mindanao, spoke of the difficulties she faced at the time and the important role women can play in the negotiating process.
Miriam CORONEL-FERRER(Peace activist, co-founder of Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators)
became the first-ever female chief negotiator to sign the final peace accord in 2014 when the government of the Philippines reached an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). She was appointed in 2010 by President Benigno Aquino III to the government’s negotiating team, and took over as chair in 2012. With other women peacebuilders, Coronel-Ferrer initiated the drafting of the Philippines’ first National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security which was eventually adopted by the government in 2010 as part of its commitment to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed in 2014 by the Philippine government and MILF. In 2020, Coronel-Ferrer co-founded the Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators, a pioneering group of women engaged in convening safe spaces for dialogues and supporting mediation initiatives in countries like Myanmar and Afghanistan.
Masako ISHII (Professor at College of Intercultural Communication, Rikkyo University) obtained her Ph.D. in International Relations from Sophia University. Based on her Ph.D. thesis, she has published a book entitled, Stories of Muslim Women in the Philippines; Armed Conflict, Development and Social Change (Akashi Shoten, 2002, in Japanese) and it was awarded Okita Memorial Award by Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID). Her recent edited publications are: Bitter Realities of Sweet Bananas (Commons, 2020 in Japanese); Asian Migrant Workers in the Arab Gulf States: The Growing Foreign Population and Their Lives (Brill, 2019); International Labour Migration in the Middle East and Asia: Issues of Inclusion and Exclusion (Springer, 2019).
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