Coordinators

Thank you for your interest in the GLP. My personal interest in the program comes from its focus on exposing students to global networks of professionals. In GLP, as in the Faculty of Social Sciences, students tackle social issues and address these through academic research, writing, and discourse.

I am a social historian, and my research lies in the intersection of Japanese diaspora, Philippine history, and Guam history. Specifically, it centers on "the Japanese question" in southern Philippines and in Guam during the Asia-Pacific War when the region experienced successive, rapid, and violent imperial transitions from the US to Japan then back to the US again. I ask, for example, how a person of Filipino and Japanese parentage experienced the Japanese military occupation of Davao. In brief, I am interested in multiple senses of belonging and the capacity of locals to write their own history.

Before becoming GLP coordinator, I was assistant professor and writing tutor at Waseda University's Writing Center, which aims to foster independent writers. As a colleague there once said, writing is like pottery. There is no single way of making a "correct" pot. As long as the end product holds water, we can play around, experiment, and innovate. To me, it's a joy to see students and scholars come up with ideas and put those into comprehensible papers and presentations.

Link to Hitotsubashi Researchers Information

わたしの専門は東南アジア地域研究です。「東南アジアのことを勉強するなら、東南アジアへ」ということで、フィリピン大学大学院で博士課程の5年間を過ごしました。もう20年以上も前の話ですが、その時の経験が、いまの自分をつくっていると感じています。バナナやマグロといった身近な食品の生産から流通、消費のサプライチェーンを俯瞰しながら、東南アジアと日本の関係史を追っています。現在の関心は、ココヤシやアブラヤシなどヤシ類からとれる油脂に依存する食品産業と環境保全の問題です。このことは、「資本主義をどのように捉えなおすのか」という問題と無関係ではありません。あまりにも大きな課題ですが、少しずつ、現場を歩きながら思考していきたいと考えています。