Former Ambassador of Japan to Iran Offers a Lecture at Chuo

On December 4th, 2018, the former Japanese ambassador to Iran, Mr. Kinichi Komano, gave a lecture on “Experiential Learning of Modern Iranian History,” in Professor Hideko Sakurai’s class on “Sociocultural Theory of Western Asia” in the Faculty of Policy Studies. Professor Sakurai specializes in Islamic economics, Islamic social thoughts, and Middle Eastern studies. The lecture focused on modern Iranian history since the eve of the Iranian Revolution, sharing his own experiences of diplomatic relations with Iran for about half a century, including his stories from 1971, when he first arrived in Iran as a trainee diplomat studying Persian for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, up to 2012, when he served as an Ambassador of Japan to Iran. What appealed to the audience most were the realities of his explanation of Iranian history from the start of the Iranian Revolution to its aftermath.

Mr. Komano also gave a lecture on “The World of Persian Literature,” to the students taking a course in Persian language. He talked about values shared by all humankind and the quality of a person’s life, which are both manifested in the work of Persian poets, Hafez and Omar Khayyam, introducing the Iranians’ response to the Great East Japan Earthquake that took place on March 11, 2011, as well as his personal experiences of getting a start on research of Persian poems, as a result of the disaster.