Sophia Magazine vol.4 / WINTER 2016

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Campus NewsSophia University Holds a Symposium on Somalia as a Pre-event for TICAD VI #04On July 14, 2006, Sophia Universi-ty co-hosted a symposium on Somalia with the Japan International Coopera-tion Agency (JICA) and the United Na-tions High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in advance of the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African De-velopment (TICAD VI) held in August in Nairobi, Kenya. More than 150 people attended the symposium at Sophia’s International Conference Room with Masaaki Kato, Chief Representative of JICA, Sophia University President Takashi Hayas-hita, and Naoko Obi, Senior Protec-tion Ofcer of UNHCR delivering open-ing remarks. In the keynote speech, H. E. Abdullahi Sheikh Ali Ibrahim, Dep-uty Minister of the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MOPIC), Federal Government of Somalia, spoke about the background and current sta-tus of Somalia’s state-building activities.In the panel discussion, seven panel-ists, including Deputy Minister Abdulla-hi and Khadra Ahmed Dualeh, Director General of MOPIC, took the rostrum. Dr. Mitsugi Endo, Professor of the Universi-ty of Tokyo, who is an expert on Soma-li studies, described the events that led to the establishment of the Federal Gov-ernment of Somalia. This was followed by a presentation on the present state of the nation from a peacebuilding per-spective by Dr. Daisaku Higashi, Asso-ciate Professor, Center for Global Dis-covery, Sophia University. In addition, Shiori Sekiguchi, Repre-sentative of the Japan Somalia Youth Or-ganization, a student non-governmental organization, gave a presentation on its support activities in Somali refugee set-tlements in neighboring Kenya. JICA Chief Representative Kato detailed JI-CA’s request for cooperation, and Nao-mi Kawahara, Senior External Relations Ofcer of UNHCR Representation in Ja-pan, presented issues associated with Somali refugees and measures to be taken down the road. Finally, referring to questions from the audience, Deputy Minister Abdul-lahi and Director General Khadra took the lead in holding discussions on ve themes: “The Somali General Election in August,” “The Federal System and a Local Government,” “The Security Sit-uation and Islamic Militants,” “Support from African Nations and Developed Countries” and “UN’s Assistance.” livered lectures on trends in Japan Studies from three perspectives: culture, society, and politics. The participants agreed that it is impor-tant to study Japan in comparison with other Asian countries in order to deepen understanding of Ja-pan’s position in a world of evolv-ing internationalization, as well as build relationships among Japan and neighboring nations.The Sophia Symposium with the theme of “Critical Japanese Studies in Asia Network” was held on July 4, 2016. The symposium consisted of three parts: “The Politics of Popular Culture,” “Civ-il Society and Engagement,” and “Jap-anese Politics in and across Asia.” A group of 13 top Japanese studies schol-ars and researchers from Sophia Uni-versity and seven other universities around the Asia and Pacic region de-Institute of Comparative CultureHosts Sophia Symposium#05Professor David Slater of Faculty of Liberal Arts giv-ing a lecture “Youth Activism and the Rise of Protest Cultures Across Asia” 5

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