I completed the Ph.D. program at Keio University with a Ph.D. in law, and studied EU law at the Paul Cézanne University Aix-Marseille III in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, and the University of Paris 1. I joined the faculty of the College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University when it was founded in 1994. I also studied at the Paris Institute of Political Studies in France and research institutes in Italy and Belgium as a research fellow.

While my main research area is the European Union (EU), I am also interested in issues relating to the structural change and governance of global society in the era of globalization. I authored The Birth of European Citizenship (Maruzen Publishing, 1993) and European Public Sphere (Keio University Press, 2007), and authored and edited Invitation to World Heritage Studies (Horitsu Bunka Sha, 2011), EU and France (Horitsu Bunka Sha, 2012), EU and Global Governance (Horitsu Bunka Sha, 2013), and others. As part of my educational activities, I led students’ groups to the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York and offices of international organizations in Japan.

Like the U.S., the EU and other European countries are our partners who share the values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. They give us lessons on various issues, including environmental problems and cultural and social policies. The EU has a public sphere where young people discuss policy issues of the EU, both face-to-face and online, and explore a common future together beyond the barriers of language and nationality. While there are increasing opportunities for Japanese students to go abroad today, I hope you will develop an intellectual ability to exchange opinions with young people around the world on an equal footing.

European integration, EU citizenship, international organizations, global governance, French politics