- Speaker: Shin’ichi KITAOKA (President, Japan International Cooperation Agency; Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo)
- Moderator: Tomoko KUBOTA (Independent Journalist)
- Date: Thursday, December 12, 2019, 6:30–8:30 pm, with a reception included
- Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
- Language: Japanese (without interpretation)
- Admission: 3,000 yen each for members and their spouses (reservations required)
* Members can be accompanied by a spouse
This Special Lecture Series invites world-renowned individuals as guest speakers. In December, we will have Dr. Kitaoka, a leading expert on Japanese political and diplomatic history, who currently heads one of the world’s largest bilateral development agencies.
With U.S.-China tensions, the rise of nationalism, growing protectionism, and widening income disparities all threatening the international order, the international collaborative framework we have worked within since the end of World War II has come to a crossroads. Concerning this big shift, Dr. Kitaoka will discuss the context in which Japan has been required to change its position in the global community, while examining world trends, where global society is headed, and the role of Japan in the world in the coming years.
(President, Japan International Cooperation Agency; Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo)
Dr. Kitaoka is President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Prior to his current post, he served as a Professor of the College of Law and Politics at Rikkyo University; Professor of the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations; Professor of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS); and President of the International University of Japan. His specialty is modern Japanese politics and diplomacy. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, where he became Professor Emeritus in 2012. He has written numerous books and articles in Japanese and English, including Kokuren no seiji rikigaku [Political Dynamics of the United Nations: Where Does Japan Stand?] (Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2007), Global player toshiteno Nihon [Japan as a Global Player] (NTT Publishing, 2010), and A Political History of Modern Japan: Foreign Relations and Domestic Politics (Yuhikaku, 2011). In 2011, he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his academic achievements.
(Independent Journalist)
Ms. Kubota joined Tokyo Broadcasting (TBS) in 2000, where she became an announcer and worked on various programs, including Dobutsu kisotengai! [Amazing Animals!], Tetsuya Chikushi News 23, and Hodo Tokushu [Special News]. From 2013, she held appointments across the news bureau and served as a correspondent with the New York bureau, as well as a political reporter at TBS. In 2017 she became a freelancer and in 2019 she obtained an MA in oral history from Columbia University. She is currently in a doctoral program at the University of Tokyo where she further pursues her research on oral history.