Japanese academics offered University facilities

When the Fukushima nuclear disaster last March began to affect the work of two Japanese academics, Dr. Iwata and Dr. Takashi Terada, the University of Warwick stepped in to provide them access to our facilities.

“The initial idea came from our academics themselves who asked whether the University could offer some practical way of supporting their international colleagues,” said Kate Cox, Communications Manager for Warwick Medical School.

Dr. Iwata and Dr. Terada stayed at Warwick for one month, working within the School of Theatre and Performance Studies and the PAIS (Politics and International Studies) department respectively.

Dr. Iwata, Associate Professor in the Department of English at Tohoku University in Sendai, a mere 50 miles from Fukushima, found the resources at Warwick library particularly helpful. Here she was able to access online journals and databases unavailable at her home university. Also, since her research interests focus on Shakespeare, she travelled to nearby Stratford-upon-Avon to visit the Shakespeare Heritage Trust.

“All in all, I think she had a very productive time at Warwick, and we will keep in touch with her in the future,” said Professor Janelle Reinelt of the School of Theatre and Performance Studies.

Dr. Terada is Professor of International Relations at Waseda University, Tokyo. Although further from the disaster zone than Dr. Iwata, his university experienced power shortages, which meant the air conditioning had to be switched off at times. Warwick provided him with a more congenial work environment: “I’ve managed to complete three papers whilst I’ve been here and have been able to focus and concentrate on my work which I know would have been much more difficult at home in Japan,” said Dr. Terada.

However, Shima Yoshizaki, a postgraduate student from Japan, was not completely happy with the selection process. She said it would have been better to post a general advertisement for the positions, rather than simply appointing professors from universities Warwick already has connections with. This, she believes, “is more equal and makes more sense under the aim of helping researchers in Japan and establishing a stable relationship between Japan and Warwick.”

Nonetheless, both the Japanese academics and Warwick seem to have benefited from the visit. “We are committed to building our academic links and collaborative work with Japanese research institutes,” said Professor Koen Lamberts, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic Resourcing. “We certainly see potential for further development of research collaboration between Warwick and Japan.”