UBRJ/NIHU seminar “Our Dokdo, Our Takeshima: Japan-Korea Territorial Dispute”

On September 30 (Fri.), 2016, a specially invited guest – Professor Alexander Bukh from Wellington University in New Zealand – participated in the seminar “Our Dokdo, Our Takeshima: Japan-Korea Territorial Dispute,” which was held at SRC. Mr. Bukh graduated from Seinan Gakuin University, after which he obtained his doctorate at the University of Tokyo, and he then worked at Tsukuba University. Also, in the past, he was a Visiting Researcher at Hokkaido University’s SRC. The seminar was held in Japanese.

Although Professor Bukh’s original specialization is Japan-Russia relations, he is currently also working on shooting and representing movies on different territorial issues, including Takeshima-Dokdo. In this seminar, the audience had the opportunity to watch one of these movies about the “citizen activists” of the Takeshima-Dokdo territorial dispute. After, Professor Bukh and UBRJ leader Professor Akihiro Iwashita started heated debates on the common points and differences between the Japanese and South Korean positions on the territorial issue and so-called return movement by “citizens.”

A significant number of questions (sometimes frustrating!) were received from the floor, and the discussion became even more heated. Both Professors gave a detailed explanation of the Takeshima-Dokdo issue, sometimes comparing it with the Northern Territories and Senkaku.

Even though the seminar was held at a rather awkward time – 16:30 on a weekday – 44 people came to participate in this event. We would like to thank everyone for coming!

(Written by: Tetsuro Chida, Translated by: Aleksandra Kuklina)

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