Kwansei Gakuin University Symposium in Canada, 2010

To mark the opening of its Toronto Liaison Office, Kwansei Gakuin University, in collaboration with Victoria University in the University of Toronto, will hold a symposium on August 20, 2010.

This year also marks the centenary of relations between Kwansei Gakuin and the Canadian Methodist Church, the 30th anniversary of the University’s Canadian Visiting Professorship Programme, and the 10th anniversary of the very successful Sophomore Semester Abroad programme at Mount Allison University.

The main theme of this Symposium is ‘Canadian-Japanese Relations in a Changing World’.
How will the rapid development of China and India, and issues such as those involving North Korea affect the relationship between Canada and Japan? How can the two countries cooperate to promote their own development, and stability in Asia?
The Keynote speaker Mr. Joseph Caron and other panelists should provide us with some possible answers to these questions, through their unique experience, research and discussion at the symposium.

The symposium will be open to the public.

It is intended both to emphasise the University’s commitment to Canadian Studies, and to advance mutual understanding and collaboration between the two countries.

Organized by;
Kwansei Gakuin University
Victoria University in the University of Toronto

Sponsored by;
Consulate-General of Japan in Toronto
The Japan Foundation, Toronto

Supported by Japan Student Services Organization

Date: August 20, 2010 (Friday)
Time: 13:30-17:00
Venue: Isabel Bader Theatre, Victoria University in the University of Toronto
93 Charles Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C7, CANADA

Welcome Addresses (13:30-13:40):
Dr. Ruth M. Grubel (Chancellor, Kwansei Gakuin University),
Dr. Paul Gooch (President, Victoria University in the University of Toronto)

Address by guest of honor (13:40-13:50):
Mr. Tetsuo Yamashita, Consul-General of Japan in Toronto

Keynote Address (13:50-14:30):
Mr. Joseph Caron, President, Joseph Caron Incorporated
(Former Canadian High Commissioner in India, and Canadian Ambassador to Japan and to China)

Panel Discussion (14:45-16:45):
Mr. Joseph Caron
Dr. John Kirton (Professor, University of Toronto)
Dr. William Closson James (Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University, former KGU Canadian Studies Visiting Professor)
Dr. Daizo Sakurada (Professor, KGU School of International Studies)
[Moderator]
Dr. Takamichi Mito (Professor, KGU School of Law and Politics)

For inquiries, please contact Ms. Miyako Toyoshima, Senior Program Officer, Center for International Education and Cooperation, KGU.
TEL: +81-798-54-6115
FAX: +81-798-51-0945
E-mail: kgu.toronto@kwansei.ac.jp

In Ottawa, he has held several positions related to Asian and international economic affairs, including serving in the Foreign and Defense Secretariat of the Privy Council Office under Prime Minister Trudeau. He was also deeply involved in G-8 Summitry, actively participating, over the years, in eight Economic Summit Meetings.

In 1998, he became Assistant Deputy Minister for Asia-Pacific, and served as Canada’s Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, responsible for managing the Canadian Prime Minister’s participation in APEC.
From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Caron served as Canada’s Ambassador to the Peoples’ Republic of China, with concurrent accreditation to North Korea and Mongolia.
From 2005 to 2008, he was Canada’s Ambassador to Japan.
In 2008, Ambassador Caron was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Meiji Gakuin University, for his efforts in developing the Canada-Japan relationship.
In August 2008, Mr. Caron became High Commissioner to the Republic of India, with concurrent accreditation as Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal and the Kingdom of Bhutan. He served in India for two years, and retired from the Canadian Foreign Service during the summer of 2010.
Mr. Caron has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and as an Honorary Research Associate at the Institute of Asian Research of the University of British Columbia.
He established Joseph Caron Incorporated in Vancouver, B.C.

Professor, the Munk School of Global Affairs at Trinity College in the University of Toronto

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John Kirton is a professor of political science and co-director of the G20 Research Group and director of the G8 Research Group, as well as co-director of the Global Health Diplomacy Program, all based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at Trinity College in the University of Toronto. He has advised the Canadian and Russian governments, the World Health Organization and the International Bankers’ Federation on G7/G8 and G20 participation, international trade and sustainable development. He has written extensively on G7/G8/G20 summitry and Canadian Foreign Policy.

Kirton has authored Canadian Foreign Policy in a Changing World (Thomson Nelson, 2007) and co-edited The North Pacific Triangle: The United States, Canada and Japan at Century's End (University of Toronto Press, 1998) and Taiheiyō kokka no toraianguru: gendai no Nichi-Bei-Ka kankei (Sairyūsha, 1995).He is co-editor of G8 & G20: The 2010 Canadian Summits (Newsdesk, 2010), The G20 Pittsburgh Summit 2009 (Newsdesk, 2009) and G8 2009: From La Maddalena to L’Aquila (Newsdesk, 2009). His most recent publications also include Rising States, Rising Institutions: Challenges for Global Governance (edited by Alan S. Alexandroff and Andrew F. Cooper, Brookings Institution, 2010), Making Global Economic Governance Effective: Hard and Soft Law Institutions in a Crowded World (edited by John Kirton, Marina Larionova and Paolo Savona, Ashgate, 2010) and Innovation in Global Health Governance: Critical Cases (edited by John Kirton and Andrew F. Cooper, Ashgate, 2009). He is also co-editor of three book series published by Ashgate Publishing, including the Global Finance series and the G8 and Global Governance series, and editor of Ashgate’s five-volume Library of Essays in Global Governance.

Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University, and former Kwansei Gakuin University Canadian Studies Visiting Professor

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Dr. William (Bill) James received his PhD in 1974 from the University of Chicago in the field of Religion and Literature. For thirty-five years he was a member of the Department of Religious Studies at Queen’s University where he taught in the areas of Religion and Culture, Religion in Canada, and Modern Religious Thought. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto and on four occasions at Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, Japan, as Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies.
For seven years he was the Book Review Editor of Studies in Religion/Sciences religieuses. On two occasions he was on the board of the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion. He has held various executive positions in the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion including that of President, 1996-98, and in the Eastern International Region of the American Academy of Religion.

Bill James’s most recent book is God’s Plenty: Religious Diversity in Kingston (under review in 2010 by McGill-Queen’s University Press). His previous books include Locations of the Sacred: Essays on Religion, Literature, and Canadian Culture (1998), Religious Studies in Ontario: A State-of-the-Art Review (with Dan Fraikin and Harold Remus, 1992), and A Fur Trader's Photographs: A. A. Chesterfield in the District of Ungava, 1901-04 (1985). He has presented about three dozen conference papers and is the author of almost thirty articles published in edited collections or refereed journals. Among his better-known articles—and perhaps most exemplary of his scholarly focus—are “The Canoe Trip as Religious Quest,” published in Studies in Religion in 1981, and “Dimorphs and Cobblers: Ways of Being Religious in Canada,” reprinted in Lori G. Beaman, ed., Religion and Canadian Society (2006).

Professor of the School of International Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University

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Until March 2010, Dr. Daizo Sakurada has been the Canadian Studies Coordinator, and a professor at Department of Political Science, School of Law and Politics, KGU. A specialist on comparative foreign policy, Canada-US relations, and postwar Canadian politics and diplomacy, he has BAs from Seattle University in the USA and Sophia University in Japan, an MA from University of Toronto, Canada, and a Ph.D on Trudeau’s foreign policy from Osaka University.

He has been a research fellow at Centre for Strategic Studies, New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington, a visiting professor at Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, and an associate professor at University of Tokushima.

His recent publications include Taibeikosho no sugoikuni- kanada, mekishiko, NZ ni manabu (Davids against the Goliath in International Politics: How Canada, Mexico and New Zealand Out-Negotiate the United States) from Kobunsha Co., Japan and Kanada-amerika kankeishi - Kabeishunokaidan, 1948-2005 (Canadian-American Summit Diplomacy, 1948-2005) from Akashi-shoten, Co., Japan. Also, he wrote “Yu” wo agetakunaru toan/ repoto no sakuseijutsu (How to Get an “A” for Writing Exams and Term Papers), a paperback for university students in 2008 from Kodansha Co., Japan. He is also an author of best-selling paperback in Japanese entitled, Daremo shiranakatta kashikoikuni kanada (Canada: The Wise Country Nobody Knew) from Kodansha in 2003.
He lives with his wife, two kids and a pet dog named “Roco” (a Japanese mixed breed dog) in Nishinomiya- city, Japan.

Professor of the School of Law and Politics, Kwansei Gakuin University
Kwansei Gakuin University Coordinator for Canadian Studies

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Dr. Takamichi Mito is a graduate of International Christian University. In Tokyo and also studied at the Universities of Keele, London and Toronto. He completed a Master’s Degree in International Affairs and Ph.D. in Law at the University of Tsukuba, Japan.
He had held the positions of Affiliated Lecturer, the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the University of Cambridge; Manager, the Department of Financial Engineering, Citicorp Investment Bank Ltd. in London; Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head, the Department of Japanese Studies, Monash University in Australia; Professor of International Japanese Studies and Study Abroad, International Student Center, Kyushu University, Japan; and Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of Japanese Studies and International Asian Studies Program, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prior to joining Kwansei Gakuin University in April 2010, he was Associate Dean and Professor of Global Studies at the Center for International Education at Waseda University, Tokyo, and also Director of the Japan Program at Waseda for the Center for Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden.

His areas of specialization are international relations, international comparative political economy and public policy, Japanese and Canadian Studies. His recent works include Japanese Studies in the Asia-Pacific Region (Society of Japanese Language Education Hong Kong and Himawari Publisher, 2008, co-edited); Postwar Japanese Politics and Peace Diplomacy [Sengo Nihon Seiji to Heiwa Gaiko] (Horitsu Bunkasha, 2007, co-edited); and The Political Economy of the Oil Market: A Comparative Study of Japan and Canada [Sekiyu Shijo no Seiji Keizaigaku] (Kyushu University Press, 2006, single-authored). His book State Power and Multinational Oil Corporations: A Study of Market Intervention in Canada and Japan (Kyusyu University Press, 2001) was awarded a publication grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Ties between Canada and Kwansei Gakuin began in 1910, when the Canadian Methodist Church joined the Southern Methodist Church of the United States to assist Kwansei Gakuin, then a mission school for boys, both financially, and by sending missionaries, many of whom played a major role in its development.
One of these, Dr. C.J.L. Bates, was Kwansei Gakuin’s Chancellor from 1920 to 1940. In 1929 he oversaw the school’s relocation to its present campus in Nishinomiya, midway between the two cities of Kobe and Osaka, and its elevation to University status in 1932. He is also remembered as the originator of the school motto “Mastery for Service”, which embodies the principles underlying Kwansei Gakuin’s educational mission.

In 1980 a group of KGU faculty who had studied in Canada got together to set up a Canadian Studies program in the university. That year also saw the inauguration of the Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies.

A further major development in Canadian studies at KGU was the creation of a permanent Professorship in Canadian Studies in 19 . The incumbent not only takes responsibility for the university-wide Canadian Studies courses, but also acts as overall coordinator for the University’s Canadian studies programme.

KGU’s first partnership agreements with Canadian universities were signed with Queen’s University and Victoria University in the University of Toronto in the mid-1980s. KGU now has such agreements with 8 Canadian universities, and the next few years are likely to see a considerable extension of the range of academic activities undertaken in collaboration with these Canadian partners.