The winner's speeches.
The 2023 Gold Award
Dr. Yi SUN
Dear All,
I am deeply humbled and immensely grateful to speak here as the recipient of the Best Article Award. This recognition is not just a testament to my efforts, but also a celebration of the collective dedication and passion that drives us all in the pursuit of knowledge and excellence.
Actually, I was very surprised when our article was nominated because AJI has published so many interesting and insightful articles. Our article was just a comparison between China and Japan about the wellbeing of mothers during the pandemic period from a micro, psychological perspective, rather than a broad view like other AJI articles. I have always wanted to add such a perspective to our research. Therefore, I'm impressed that the AJI judges appreciated a micro-study like ours.
Also, I would like to thank the reviewers of AJI for their sincere advice and invaluable insights. Their comments on the social background during the pandemic in China deepened and improved the significance of our study. Since our team specializes in psychology or early childhood education, we lacked awareness of social policy, and we benefited greatly from the opinions of these experts from other fields, which expanded our knowledge and prompted us to think about our relatively microscopic study from a more macroscopic perspective.
However, even though it was a relatively small study, it took much effort and time. We encountered a lot of difficulties in collecting data, especially during the pandemic. We really want to thank the organizations and our research partners who assisted us in this study. This reward is shared by the coauthors of this paper and all the people who assisted in our investigation, and I would like to give my sincere thanks to all of them. This award is not just a validation of our work, but also an acknowledgment to all the colleagues who participated in it. It encourages us to continue to pursue new studies in the future no matter what challenges we may face. We will do our best to provide valuable research results, and always consider the social significance of each research, as reminded by the reviewers of this paper.
Finally, please allow me to express my heartfelt gratitude to the members of AJI for their wise guidance and academic support. Thank you once again for this incredible honor. I am deeply touched and profoundly grateful.
The 2023 Silver Award
Dr. Kazutaka SOGO
It is a great honor to receive the Best Article Award for AJI Journal of 2023. First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the AJI Editorial Board, for selecting my paper for such a wonderful award.
This is my first paper in English, and it was a difficult challenge for my poor English skills. I could not have completed it as a final paper without the advice and suggestions I received through the AJI advanced support program for academic writing in English. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Anthony Brewer, Dr. Khashan Ammar, and Professor Yasushi Kosugi for their support in writing the paper. I am also convinced that the extremely precise and detailed opinions of the reviewers dramatically enhanced the significance of this paper. I am also very grateful to the reviewers for their careful peer review.
Modern Japan has always had a close relationship with the tense situation in East Asia, and its major challenge was how to achieve international cooperation while securing its economic interests. This paper reveals the vision of the Tanaka Giichi Cabinet, which sought to overcome this hard conflict by establishing the Coronial Ministry, the ministry responsible for the colonies of the Japanese Empire. Despite the fact that Japanese politics has been deeply intertwined with international relations, there have been very few opportunities to present our research result in English in my field, Japanese history, due to the nature of Japanese studies. I am convinced that for the future development of modern Japanese political history, we need to transcend the boundaries of our field of specialization and actively engage in dialogue with researchers overseas, especially in English-speaking countries. I am proud to have received this award, and I intend to use this experience to devote myself to building this bridge.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude once again to all those who supported the results of this research, especially to AJI. Thank you very much.
The 2023 Silver Award
Dr. Jinhye LEE
Good afternoon. I am very honored to receive the Best Article Award for AJI Journal of 2023 (Silver). I would like to thank the reviewers for judging my paper and the editorial board of the Asia-Japan Research Institute at Ritsumeikan University for their insightful and valuable comments.
My paper, entitled “Why do Diasporas Re-Emigrate to their Historical “Homelands”? A Case Study of Koryo Saram’s “Return” from Post-Soviet Uzbekistan to South Korea” is a recent achievement and steppingstone in my research on diasporic return.
The Koryo Saram, the main subject of the study in question, are a self-identifying Korean diaspora group who are living in post-Soviet Union nations. The Koryo Saram have been split into various subgroups based on the policies and cultures of their countries of origin and residence from the Soviet era to the modern era.
I have been researching the social transformation of the Koryo Saram living in the Central Asian region for many years. In recent years, public interest has been piqued regarding the Koryo Saram whose radius of life is expanding outside of Central Asia as they have formed a cross-border network that expands beyond their countries of origin and residence. As a result, my research deals specifically with the topic of the community’s return to their ancestral homeland, and my paper can be said to be the first of its kind.
By paying attention to the unprecedented increase in the number of immigrants from Uzbekistan since 2007, when Koryo Saram began to return to their ancestral homeland as Korean descendants, I was able to present an empirical case on the dynamics of the Central Asian minority community and the return migration of the diaspora. It is my hope that my research will contribute positively to informing a new perspective on the return migration of Koryo Saram in Central Asia, Korea, and elsewhere.
I would like to take this moment to pause and express gratitude to the seminars and research activities that I participated in due to their constructive criticism that helped refine my thesis. I hope to continue expanding my research on the diasporic return of the Koryo Saram in the future. I additionally hope that the Korean society to which they historically belong will continue to improve its policies of accommodation and integration, leading to stable and fulfilling their lives.
Finally, I would like to say thank you once again to all the professors and staff of Asia-Japan Research Institute.
Thank you very much to you all.
The 2022 Gold Award
Ms. PHUAKNIAN Kanjana
I am incredibly honored to receive the Best Article Award (Gold) for the AJI Journal of 2022. I am truly grateful to the editorial board for their insightful and valuable comments on my paper.
My paper, titled “Factors Contributing to Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction for Foreign Residents in Japan,” is part of my thesis. As you may know, earthquakes are a frequent disaster that happens in Japan, and the number of foreign residents residing here has been increasing. As a former foreign resident in Japan, I experienced stress and nervousness when thinking about any severe earthquakes that could happen at any time, even though I had Japanese friends and knew my neighbors. I realized that it would be better if foreign residents could rely more on their neighbors and their local communities in times of crisis.
Therefore, Professor Toyoda and I conducted a study that observed the factors in various aspects of foreign residents to enhance mutual assistance and improve disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities for foreign residents. We hope that the study's outcomes will positively contribute to encouraging related organizations to carry out more DRR activities that include both locals and foreigners altogether.
I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my supervisor, Professor Toyoda Yusuke, for his guidance and support throughout the study. I am also grateful for every comment and constructive criticism I received from every professor and friend in my seminar, which helped me to refine my paper.
Thank you once again. I accept this award with gratitude and humility. My sincere hope is that DRR for foreign residents will continue to be enhanced in the future.
The 2022 Silver Award
Dr. Muhammad Riza Nurdin
Good afternoon, everyone.
I am deeply honored to receive the Best Article Award (Silver) for the AJI Journal of 2022. I originally come from Aceh, Indonesia, one of the places severely damaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Having witnessed the massive impact of this mega-disaster, I developed my research interests in human security and vulnerable communities, seeking answers on what can be done better to reduce losses from a catastrophe or to build back better in the aftermath of a natural hazard. My paper, entitled “Examining the Effectiveness of Government Agencies in Disaster Recovery: Evidence from Indonesia,” is one example of my passion for this important research field. In this paper, I discussed various challenges faced by the governmental disaster management agencies, such as political tensions, limited budget, the gap in institutional capacity, and the complexity of decentralization in Indonesia. This paper also includes policy recommendations that can improve the results of future disaster recovery programs, which I hope will be useful for the government and other practitioners in Indonesia or other disaster-prone countries.
This paper would not have been possible without the support of several people. I am indebted to Prof. Kosugi, Prof. Brewer, and Dr. Ammar for their continuous support during the writing process of this paper. My sincerest gratitude to my academic advisor, Prof. Hirono, for her constant guidance and to the reviewers for their constructive feedback. Finally, also thank you to everyone here. It has been a pleasure to be a member of the AJI.
Thank you very much.
The 2022 Silver Award
Mr. Abu Baker Rafat KHAN
Honorable team of the editorial members of Asia-Japan Research Institute of Ritsumeikan University. Thank you so much for this incredible honor of being awarded the best paper silver status in this academic journal for my research paper titled “Measuring the Impact of Travel Behavior in an Urban Form on Location Affordability in Rawalpindi-Islamabad, Pakistan.” I am truly humbled and grateful to be recognized among such talented scholars and researchers.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge the role that my family has played in supporting me throughout my academic journey. They have been my rock and my foundation, providing love, encouragement, and motivation when I needed it most. Without their unwavering support, I would not be standing here today.
I also want to express my gratitude to the Almighty God for giving me the strength, wisdom, and perseverance to pursue my academic goals. I believe that it is through God's grace and guidance that I have been able to achieve this success, and I am forever grateful for His blessings.
This paper represents a collaborative effort between myself and my co-author, Dr Yoshida, who was also my supervisor during the doctoral program, and I want to acknowledge his hard work and dedication in bringing this project to fruition. We spent countless hours researching, analyzing, and refining our ideas, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such a talented and committed professor.
I also want to thank the reviewers who provided invaluable feedback on our work. Your insights and constructive criticism helped us to strengthen our arguments and refine our ideas, and we are grateful for your time and effort in engaging with our work.
As academics, we have a responsibility to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and understanding in our field. This paper represents our commitment to that mission, and I am proud to have played a small part in that endeavor.
Finally, I want to express my gratitude to the journal editors and the academic community for their continued support and encouragement. Your willingness to engage with our work and to promote scholarly excellence is what drives us to continue pushing the boundaries of knowledge.
Thank you once again for this incredible honor. I am truly grateful and deeply humbled to receive this award, and I dedicate it to my family, my supervisor, and to God, without whom this achievement would not have been possible. Thank you, and God bless.
The 2021 Gold Award
Mr. Naoki FUJIMOTO
It is a great honor to receive the Best Article Award for AJI Journal which is established to developing a common vision for the future of Asia and Japan. I am very grateful to the reviewers and editorial board members. In my paper I spoke about transforming tourism into a tool to conserve nature and improve community well-being, with a focus on small enterprises which are expected to engage more comprehensively with local communities than traditional commercial companies. I was very fortunate to be able to work closely with a young entrepreneur who successfully applied such ideals to revitalize his village community. My intention was to provide practical insights into the ways that small and medium-sized enterprises in Indonesian tourism sectors of rural areas might improve their operations by implementing the tourism social entrepreneurship elements to empower local communities .
I would like to add that winning this award was something I never imagined would happen, as it was my first attempt at writing an academic article in English, and posting it to academic journal. When I started out, I faced many difficulties in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and structure, and it was hard to keep to the schedule deadlines. This challenging situation could be overcome because of AJI Advanced Support Program for Academic Writing in English. I really appreciate the kind support of Professor Kosugi, Professor Brewer and Dr, Ammar. Their advice and support kept me motivated, improved my writing abilities and enabled me to present my research in truly global contexts.
I will start doctoral program from next April, I hope I can continue to publish article in English based on this experience and develop my research with global networks .
Thank you.
The 2021 Silver Award
Dr. Nobuyuki MATSUI
It is a great honor to receive the Best Article Award for the AJI Journal of 2021. Firstly, I would like to thank the reviewers and the editorial board for giving me this award.
In my article I tried to grasp how human "common sense" was affected by the contemporary technological developments derived from digitalization through a comparison between the two influential Japanese philosophers, Nakamura Yūjirō and Karatani Kōjin. Nakamura critically investigated the technological conditions influencing our imagination, and also provided us with a way to overcome the technological control which affects a deep level of our perceptions and sensibilities. However, Karatani criticized Nakamura whom he considered as a nationalist, because for Karatani as a Marxist, the basis of "imagination" has to be found in human reciprocity grounded in a post-nationalist benevolence to others. Unfortunately, Nakamura and Karatani never had a meaningful exchange and so I tried to find the importance of focusing on the sensual level that underlies our imagination for reciprocity through creating a dialogue between them, with an interest in Marxist philosophy.
In this sense, I am very pleased that my article has been accepted by the AJI Journal. I would like to add that this would not have been possible without the help of the AJI advanced support program for academic writing in English. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Yasushi Kosugi and Professor Anthony Brewer for their guidance and valuable criticism during the program. I would also like to mention my deep appreciation for my colleague Fernand Wirtz, one of the most significant philosophers today globally. We found a shared interest through the "International Workshop on Globally Shared Common Sense from the Philosophy of Imagination" supported by AJI, and I hope that we can continue to discuss this theme and collaborate further to develop our philosophies.
Once again, I would like to say thank you all to the professors and staff of Asia-Japan Research Institute. I truly think that this award would not have been possible without their commitment to supporting each individual researcher.
Thank you very much to you all.
The 2021 Silver Award
Dr. Polina IVANOVA
First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the editorial board of the Journal of the Asia-Japan Research Institute of Ritsumeikan University and Professor Yasushi Kosugi, the chair of the editorial board, and the executive editorial committee for selecting my article for the silver award. Next, I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Kenki Adachi, Director of the Institute of International Relations and Area Studies, the Project Leader of the Human Security in Southeast Asia in the Era of the ASEAN Community at the Asia-Japan Research Institute for his unfailing support of my work over the past five years and for his crucial suggestions during the write-up of this paper. A very special thank you goes to Dr. Sabine Krajewski, Honorary Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University, for her enthusiastic support of my research endeavors and her invaluable help with the ethical approval of my study in Australia. Finally, I owe great thanks to all my interviewees and study participants for sharing their challenges and insights with me. Your courage, dedication, sincerity, and openness have been an inspiration for me and made this research possible.
This award highlights the importance of the topic of international student support and the role played by the civil society. International students both in Japan and Australia have been facing significant challenges exacerbated by the pandemic; yet, unlike forced migrants and economic migrants, they are usually not seen as a population in need and their plight is often invisible.
I am very grateful for this award as it has encouraged me to continue my research in this area. I hope we can learn from the lessons of the pandemic to move forward to a more sustainable international education sector in a post-COVID world. I dedicate this award to all the activists who are working for the betterment of international education worldwide, helping international students achieve their goals and thrive in their college life. Thank you very much.
The 2020 Gold Award
Mr. Roni ARMIS (Representing the co-authors)
It is an honor to receive the best article award for AJI Journal of 2020. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the editorial board for this achievement. This paper is part of my dissertation in the Graduate School of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University. It focused on the role of the post-mining community members in the regeneration of a post-mining city at the UNESCO World Heritage site, namely Sawahlunto in Indonesia. During the last three years, I have been conducting research about the regeneration of post-mining cities as tourist destinations. The competitiveness in tourism is an important attribute for many post-mining cities, particularly small-sized post-mining cities. The bankruptcy of Yubari city, a post-mining city in Hokkaido, was the first and still the only municipality bankruptcy in Japan. It really triggered my critical thinking in providing a destination competitiveness model for post-mining cities.
This paper would not have been possible without the AJI advanced support for academic writing in English. I joined this program before the submission of this paper in 2020. During the program, there were many workshops and individual sessions designed particularly for early career researchers like me, not merely to improve English academic writing but also to develop the logical thinking needed to make a good academic paper. Asia-Japan Research Institute also offered a great opportunity to present my article in the International Colloquium on Asian Paths of Civilization and Development, which took place in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on 17 October 2019. I found it very encouraging to discuss my findings with other experienced researchers. Taking part in Asia-Japan Research Institute was a rewarding experience for me, and this award obviously exceeded my expectations. I am deeply indebted to Professor Yasushi Kosugi, Professor Anthony Brewer, and all staff members for these great opportunities. I expect to regularly participate in future academic activities at the Asia-Japan Research Institute for my professional development.
The 2020 Silver Award
Mr. Yuto NISHIDONO (Representing the co-authors)
We are very honored to receive the Best Article Award for the AJI Journal of 2020. On behalf of the authors, I'm extremely grateful to the reviewers and editorial board members.
In this study, we comprehensively clarified the chemical constituents contained in ginger and discussed the differences in the usage of ginger in Asian traditional medicine from the perspective of chemical ingredients. I have been studying about ginger since I was an undergraduate student, so I'm very happy that the research is evaluated as the Best Article.
This paper was reported as one of the research results of the research project, "Increase of Healthy Life Expectancy by Studies on Indonesian and Japanese Medical Plants". I was engaged in this project as a young researcher and had many experiences. For example, I conducted fieldwork in Indonesia, Lao P.D.R., Thailand, and Taiwan, and by directly experiencing the local customs such as drinking "Jamu", I realized that traditional medicine is rooted in people's lives. In addition, I learned about the values, religion, and culture of the country through collaborative work with local researchers. These opportunities, which I couldn't have experienced by just doing experiments in the laboratory in Japan, became a valuable asset for me as a researcher. I would like to thank the research project leader, Prof. Mikio Nishizawa, and all the people involved in the Asia-Japan Research Institute for giving me the opportunity to have such a valuable experience.
From now on, based on the platform established in this project, I would like to continue exchanges with researchers in Asian countries and promote research aimed at "co-creation".
Thank you very much.
The 2020 Silver Award
Mr. Shoki TAKAYAMA (Representing the co-authors)
We are very honored that our paper has been selected for the Best Article Award for AJI Journal of 2020 (Silver). We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the reviewers and editorial board members for their valuable comments and also we would like to thank to all those who were involved in this paper.
In this paper, we used Structure from Motion (SfM) to obtain three-dimensional coordinate data of the landslide dam failure processes observed in the experiments and verified the data accuracy. We hope that the outcomes of this paper will contribute to the development of experimental techniques and to the elucidation of landslide dam failure mechanisms. We will make further efforts to produce even better researches in the future.
Thank you very much for your support.
The 2019 Gold Award
Dr. Marina NISHII
I am most honored to receive the Best Article Award for the AJI Journal of 2019. I am very grateful to Professors Yasushi Kosugi and Anthony Brewer for giving me this chance and supporting me in the AJI English Article Writing Program, and to the professors who gave me referee comments. I really appreciate the technical instruction I received through this program.
I have studied the post-war history of Hiroshima. Historically, Hiroshima is known as an area damaged by the A-bomb, and has become a symbol for peace and against nuclear war. In addition, the history of the city's reconstruction from ashes is apt to be held up as a successful example of revival from destruction. In my article, I tried to clarify how the city's reconstruction was actually experienced from the voices of the people who lived there. It includes the methodological challenge of how history studies can listen to the people's silent voices.
On this occasion, I hope to enlarge the stage of my own study more. Finally, I would like to thank the professors and the study environment in Ritsumeikan University, and all the friends and teachers I have studied with.
Thank you for listening.
The 2019 Silver Award
Dr. Fitrio ASHARDIONO
I am very honored to receive Best Article Award for AJI Journal of 2019 (Silver) for my article submission in the Journal of the Asia-Japan Research Institute of Ritsumeikan University. On this occasion I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Kosugi and Prof. Brewer for their continuous guidance and support during the writing process.
Through the work on this article I was able to further expand my inquiry on the issue of climate change and agriculture from the perspective of agroecology, which correlates with the ecosystem and social factors of a particular area.
I would also like to offer my sincere gratitude to Kitamura san, Fukui san, Tsuji san, Shimizu san, and many other tea growers in the Uji Area to whom I have been heavily indebted, for always providing me with information which is undoubtedly very important to them.
Once again, I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has been continuously supporting my work, especially during the writing process of this article.