JSAS President
Ssali, Vick Lukwago
Lecturer, Department of English Language and Cultures, Aichi Gakuin University
In my job I teach English, and in it, content (the cultures of English-speaking countries). My major motivation is to cultivate cross-cultural communication and cultural competence among my Japanese students. Exposing them to a dose of Anglophone African history and cultures will hopefully help bridge some gap in Afrasian connections. For my research work, I am currently revisiting the relevance of ethnic federalism in the restoration of responsible governance in Uganda.
JSAS Board Members
(Alphabetical Order)
Adem, Seifudein (Journal Editor)
Professor, Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University
I was born and raised in Ethiopia; I received my graduate training in Japan. Before I returned to Japan in 2018, I taught for 12 years in universities in USA and China. I have also been a research fellow at the University of Frankfurt in Germany and University of Johannesburg in South Africa. I am the author of Afrasia (2013), with Ali Mazrui.
Hanai, Kazuyo (Vice President)
Assistant Professor, Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI), The University of Tokyo
I graduated from the University of Tsukuba. After serving as a high school teacher, I studied international public policy and obtained a Ph.D. from the Graduate School for Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo. I joined the Policy Alternatives Research Institute (PARI), the predecessor of IFI, at the University of Tokyo in April 2018. My research interest lies in so-called conflict minerals in the DR Congo and responsibility on the part of Japanese consumers. I also work on peace education.
Kinyua Laban Kithinji, (Vice President, Head of Kanto Office)
Research Fellow, Institute of African, Asian, and Middle Eastern Studies, Sophia University
I am a native of Kenya and have studied at Japanese universities where I got opportunities to reflect deeply about my own culture and society, as a result of my attempts to assimilate (mostly unsuccessfully) in Japanese culture. I ask myself why the majority of my community remains impoverished. I have been trying to answer this question in my research activities. I enjoy teaching issues about African society, politics, culture, and global studies. I also enjoy visiting rural communities in Africa to learn their coping and survival mechanisms.
Makino, Kumiko (Journal Editor)
Director, African Studies Group, Area Studies Center, Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO)
Since joining the IDE in 1996, I have visited South Africa almost every year for research, including two extended stays in Cape Town (2001-2003) and in Johannesburg (2018-2019). My research interests include democracy and distributional politics in post-apartheid South Africa, history of global anti-apartheid movements, and Africa-Japan relations with a particular focus on non-state actors.
Maswana, Jean-Claude
Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Ritsumeikan University
I am a Professor of Economics at Ritsumeikan University, which I joined in April 2019 after lecturing economics at Tsukuba University, the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. I also served as a Macroeconomist Research Fellow with JICA. I earned a Ph.D. from Nagoya University in 2003. Much of my research relates to economic growth and international trade, with a focus on China-Africa’s links. I am currently serving as President of the continental African economic association (AFEA-African Finance and Economic Association), member of American Economic Association, Japan Association for African Studies and serving as the Chair of the Congo Economic Circle (CEC).
Mine, Yoichi (Secretary General)
Professor, Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University
When I was a university student, I admired Che Guevara and studied the lives of dissidents in the Global South. I visited South Africa and Namibia just before Madiba was released in 1990, and have frequented the African continent every year since then. I am currently writing an oral history of Japan’s development cooperation and a monograph on Afrasian history. I enjoy working with African and Chinese graduate students in my lab every day.
Muchetu, Rangarirai Gavin (Deputy Secretary General)
Assistant, Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University
I became fascinated by agrarian studies during my time at the Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies. The implications of the state-agrarian society interplay during agricultural marketing processes have constantly stirred my research – my Ph.D. research focused on agricultural cooperative development in Japan and Zimbabwe. My study of Japanese agrarian structures changed my previously held belief that Africa and Asia are too different for any comparative analysis. I am open to discussions leading to a better understanding of the growth, opportunities, and constraints in the agrarian society.
Munemura, Atsuko (Treasurer)
Senior Assistant Professor, Chiba Keizai University
I am a historian teaching the economic history of Europe and other regions. I visited South Africa for the first time when I was 23. I love the dynamic landscape and hybrid culture of the Cape, which had long been connected to various parts of Asia. I am writing about fruits and their processing industry in the Western Cape. Now I focus on the “Submarine Cable and African Fruits” project, in which I pay attention to technical aspects of the local agricultural industry and environmental history.
Otchia, Christian (Journal Editor-in-Chief)
Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University
Growing up in one of the richest countries in the world, but where the majority of the population is poor stimulated a natural desire for me to study Development Economics. While I am fortunate to have found something I am so passionate about, I feel that I have a responsibility to help others grow to their full potential. So, my research focuses on industrial policy and pro-poor growth. I just published two books on Designing Integrated Industrial Policies in Africa and Asia.
Raposo Amakasu de Medeiros Carvalho, Pedro Miguel (Head of Kansai Office, Journal Editor)
Professor, the Faculty of Economics, Kansai University
In Portugal we say that in every corner of the world there is one Portuguese. Maybe, this happens because Portugal is a small rectangle “where the land ends itself, and the sea begins” (Camões). So, here I am in Japan. I also nurtured a passion for Africa when I worked in Luanda as a coordinator of the IR course. The third thing I love besides my family and friends is to research on Africa and to connect Asia to Africa through it. This is why I moved from the University of Lisbon to Kansai University. My publications include the Routledge Handbook on Africa-Asia Relations (2017).
Shirato, Keiichi
Professor, the Graduate School of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University
Before moving to Ritsumeikan, I was a General Manager of EMEA & Russia Department of the Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute in Tokyo. I worked for Mainichi Newspapers for nearly two decades, serving as a correspondent based in Washington DC from 2011 to 2014 and in Johannesburg from 2004 to 2008. My publication includes The Great Resource Continent Africa that earned the Japan Congress of Journalists award in 2010.
Auditor
Kitagawa, Katsuhiko
Professor Emeritus, Kansai University
I have been working on Southern African economic and social history and Japan’s trade relations with Africa in the inter-war period since the mid-1970s. I have written and edited several books on the social and economic history of sub-Saharan Africa, the history of the British Empire and contemporary African political economies. For now, I enjoy conducting research on economic development of Osaka with perspectives on its relations with Africa and the rest of Asia from my base at the Institute of Political and Economic Studies, Kansai University.