India is Coming to Mitaka Japan-India Friendship Year Activities

India is Coming to Mitaka
Japan-India Friendship Year Activities

Saturday June 2, 2007
Deffendorfer Memorial Hall, International Christian UniversityTo commemorate the Japan-India Friendship Year, 2007, the fiftieth year since the governments of Japan and India concluded the cultural treaty, the Institute of Asian Cultural Studies at ICU will hold two open lecture series beginning from April 13 and an International Symposium on Saturday, June 2,“The Significance of Cultural Exchange between Japan and India: What is Prosperity in the Global Age?”, subsidized by the Japan Foundation and supported by the Embassy of India and Mitaka City. Recent political and economic relations between Japan and India have become much closer than before, but India is still a rather unknown country to the general Japanese public. We have invited many outside speakers, including the Ambassador of India, to introduce the many facets of India in open lectures.Japan has a long history of learning from India. For example, India has given deep cultural influences to Japan through Buddhism. India today has rich diversity and their present day problems are very complex, still India has for centuries been the bearer of ancient wisdom. We hope through the Open Lectures, students and citizens will be invited to learn more from India.These Open Lecture Series utilize several courses at ICU during the Spring Term. The Symposium will have researchers present the thought of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, the two great thinkers of Modern India. And in order to realize the significance of their message to the world today we have invited Sunderlal and Vimla Bahuguna, who are leading Gandhian social activists in India today. Together with students and local residents we seek to understand the message of India to Japan today, the meaning shared through people to people encounters.The Bahugunas, who will be speaking at the open lecture and at the symposium, have devoted their lives to social reform activities to uplift the people who are most downtrodden and poor to realize their swaraj (search for the meaning), the essence of Mahatma Gandhi’s thought. In the course of their lives, to stop the serious destruction of the natural environment in the Himalayan area of India became their crucial and urgent tasks. We need to listen to their message from the most down-to-earth movements so that we may see the serious effects of the globalization process in the world today. We hope that the symposium will be where the cultural exchange will be practiced where we learn from each other and think together what is truly prosperity in the world today. We hope to have active participation from students and local residents for this project.

For details of the project: I. Open Lecture Series Theme 1“Japan-India Relationship in the Changing Asia” Will be held in the General Education Course “Invitation to Asian Studies (Profs. Yamaguchi, Hongo and Yasuhiro Tanaka),http://w3.icu.ac.jp/class/20071/HTML/CP061_0060.html

1.Open Lecture Series

Theme 1
Japan-India Relationship in the Changing Asia

May 2 (Administration Building 206, 11:30 – 12:40)
Opening Speech:
“India and Japan in the 21st Century”
H.E. Mr. Hemant Krishan Singh (Ambassador of India)
(in English, simultaneous interpretation)

May 7 (Honkan 170, 11:30 – 12:40)
“An Invitation to the Japan-India Friendship Year”
Mr. Eijiro Noda (Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan Year in India 2007)

May 9 (Honkan 170, 11:30 – 12:40)
“Thinking of Gandhism”
Dr. Ayako Uno (Part-time Lecturer, ICU, IACS Research Fellow)

May 11 (Honkan 170 11:30 – 12:40)
“Prospects for Japan-India Economic Relationship”
Prof. Masanori Kondo (Senior Associate Professor, Division of International Studies, ICU)

Theme 2
Diversity and Unity in the Indian Society

Will be held in the following courses.

History of Asia (South Asia) 2 (Dr. Ayako Uno)
(4/13, 4/20, 4/27, 5/11) http://w3.icu.ac.jp/class/20071/HTML/SSHI132_0224.html

Advanced Studies in Music I (Prof. Tatsuhiko Ito)
(4/27) http://w3.icu.ac.jp/class/20071/HTML/HMU300_0121.html

Gender and Social Structure (Prof. Kazuko Tanaka)
(5/10) http://w3.icu.ac.jp/class/20071/HTML/IDW261_0712.html

Introduction to International Politics (Prof. Temario Rivera)
(5/17) http://w3.icu.ac.jp/class/20071/HTML/IIR100_0714.html
April 13 (Honkan 351, 17:30 – 19:00)
“Past, Present and Future of Japan-India Cultural Exchange”
Prof. Koichi Niitsu (Emeritus Professor, ICU)

April 20 (Honkan 351, 15:10 – 16:50)
“Gandhism and Environmental Movements: Mrs. And Mr. Bahugunas’s Quest for Swaraj”
Mr. Shinya Ishizaka (IACS Research Associate, Ryukoku University Afrasia Centre for Peace and Development Studies Research Assistant)

April 27
Part 1: “Introduction to Indian Music”(Honkan 402, 13:50 – 15:00),
Part 2: “Musico-Linguistic Culture of India and Japan”(Honkan 351, 15:10 – 16:50)
Mr. T.M. Hoffman (in English & Japanese)
(Graduate of ICU and Bhatkhande Music Coleage of India, Director of the Indo-Japanese Music Exchange Association, Performer of Tenjiku Shakuhachi, Lecturer of Keio University)

May 10 (Honkan 316, 10:45 – 12:30)
“Comparisons of Women’s Issues in India and Japan”
Ms. Kamayani Singh (in English)
(Freelance Journalist, NHK Overseas Broadcasting in charge of India)

May 11 (Honkan 351, 15:10 – 16:50)
“Indian Songs and Culture: Tagore Songs”
Ms. Yuka Okuda (Graduate of Visva-Bharati University, Tagore Song Specialist)

May 17 (Honkan 260, 13:15 – 15:00)
“Justice Radhabinod Pal and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial: A Retrospective of His Historic Dissent”
Dr. Vivek Pinto (in English)
(IACS Research Fellow, Correspondent of Economic and Political Weekly)

May 31 (Honkan 205, 10:45 – 12:30)
“Environmental Preservation Activities Affected by Globalization: The Chipko Movement and the Anti-Tehri Dam Construction Movement in the Himalayan Areas in India” Mr. Sunderlal and Vimla Bahuguna (in English) (Gandhism Social Activists)

2. Symposium:
The Significance of Cultural Exchange between Japan and India:
What is Prosperity in the Global Age?
Saturday June 2, 2007

Opening Remarks: Prof. Kenneth R. Robinson (Director, IACS)

Morning Session (9:30 – 12:30): Social Thought of Gandhi and Tagore

Chair: Prof. Minoru Kasai (Emeritus Professor, ICU) “Gandhi’s View of Tagore” Dr. Ayako Uno (Part-time Lecturer, ICU, IACS Research Fellow)

“Tagore’s View on Gandhi: Their Visions of Truth”
Dr. Hikotaro Furuta (Lecturer, Department of Japanese, Visva-Bharati University)

“Rabindranath Tagore and Okakura Kakuzo”
Ms. Yoshiko Okamoto (IACS Research Associate)

“Rabindranath Tagore and Japan: A Poet’s Vision”
Dr. Vivek Pinto (in English) (IACS Research Fellow, Correspondent of Economic and Political Weekly)

Afternoon Session (13:30 – 16:30): “What is Prosperity in the Global Age?” (headsets are limited to 20 participants)

Chair: Prof. Koichi Niitsu “An Introduction to Gandhian Social Movements in India Today” Mr. Shinya Ishizaka (IACS Research Associate, Ryukoku University Afrasia Centre for Peace and Development Studies Research Assistant)

“The Chipko Movement and the Anti-Tehri Dam Construction Movement in the Himalayan areas in India”
Mr. Sunderlal and Vimla Bahuguna (Gandhism Social Activists)

“Gandhian Spirit in Business”
Prof. Yoshikazu Hongo (Associate Professor, Division of International Studies)

“Swaraj (the Search for the Meaning) as the Converging Point of Cultures in India and Japan: Mahatma Gandhi, Shozo Tanaka and Michiko Ishimure”
Prof. Minoru Kasai (Emeritus Professor, ICU)

Reception: Alumni House, 17:00 – 19:00

For more details of the project please see the HP of ICU Institute of Asian Cultural Studies homepage:http://subsite.icu.ac.jp/iacs/

For related ICU student activities: http://japanindiaproject2007.web.fc2.com/ and ICU UNESCO Clubhttp://icunesco.web.fc2.com/

For the related Japan-India cultural exchange program in Mitaka, Study Tour Group of Mitaka Society for International Hospitality (MISHOPSTG): MISHOPSTG
http://studytour0.exblog.jp/