Joseph Haldane of The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) will be conducting a featured interview titled “Learning Beyond Boundaries, Learning Beyond Borders” with Tomoaki Ishigaki of the Embassy of Japan in the United States of America at The 3rd IAFOR Conference on Educational Research & Innovation (ERI2023).
To participate in ERI2023 as an audience member, please register for the conference.
This plenary will also be available for IAFOR Members to view online. To find out more, please visit the IAFOR Membership page.
Abstract
Learning Beyond Boundaries, Learning Beyond Borders
Education has long played an important role in expanding people’s minds beyond the places and spaces into which they were born and raised. This includes from the home to the classroom, and from there to trips to local museums, places of interest and beyond. For many, this intellectual curiosity leads students, teachers and academics to travel, study and work abroad, and in doing so, they forge important personal and professional relationships between their home countries and those abroad.
However, as travelling beyond borders of discipline can have its risks, collaborating and colluding across cultural and international borders has its own, not least in times of global unrest. This interview with Japanese diplomat and legal scholar, Tomoaki Ishigaki, Minister at the Japanese Embassy, will look at some of the challenges and opportunities faced in international education, research and innovation, drawing on his international experience and knowledge, with a particular focus on Japan and the United States.
Speaker Biography
Tomoaki Ishigaki
Embassy of Japan in the United States of America, United States
Mr Ishigaki is the Minister of Congressional Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, assuming the post in July 2021. This is his third assignment in the US as he has previously served in the Embassy (1997-1999) and the Japanese Mission to the UN in New York (2010-2013).
Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994, he has covered a wide variety of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy including international trade, treaty negotiations at the United Nations, management of the Japan-US Alliance, humanitarian assistance and climate change talks.
Between 2018 and 2020, he served as the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office where he was in charge of international media relations and public diplomacy. In his most recent position as Director of the Economic Policy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, he oversaw Japan’s economic diplomacy which included attending G7 and G20 leaders’ meetings and addressing trade and investment issues at WTO and other forums.
He is a graduate of Amherst College and studied law at the University of Tokyo before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also lectured at the Department of Law at Keio University between 2007 and 2018. Additionally, he has taught International Relations at the University of Tokyo as well as International Environmental Law at the Graduate School of Law at Kyushu University.
Throughout his career, he has published a number of academic papers and contributed to books in the fields of international law, disarmament affairs, trade, and climate change policy.
