Specialists from Japan and ASEAN Countries to Examine Regional IssuesPublic Forum – “Rising from the Ashes: Civic Collaboration in Post-Disaster Post-Conflict Asia”

Time: Friday, November 14, 2014 (1:30–6:00 p.m.)
Location: International Conference Center Hiroshima (Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima City)

A public forum titled “Rising from the Ashes: Civic Collaboration in Post-Disaster Post-Conflict Asia” will be held on November 14, 2014, as part of the Nippon Foundation Fellowships for Asian Public Intellectuals (API Fellowships Program).*

The forum will look at examples of the struggle for civil rights for the minority Rohingya in Myanmar, and citizens’ movements that arose in response to the Minamata disease in Japan, and seek to explore how citizens across Asia can work together to resolve these types of issues. In addition, there will be keynote addresses by film director Tatsuya Mori from Japan, who is well known for his documentary 311 that deals with the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and Lahpai Seng Raw of Myanmar, recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, known as “Asia’s Nobel Prize.”

* The Nippon Foundation Fellowships for Asian Public Intellectuals (API Fellowships Program)
The API Fellowships Program was launched in 2000 to identify leading public intellectuals who are seeking original solutions to various issues facing Asian countries, including war, discrimination, and poverty. The program provides individuals from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia who are active in a range of fields—including research, journalism, the arts, and NGOs—with an opportunity to exchange research, information, and ideas. After their fellowship period concludes, these fellows continue to share the results of their research at workshops and other forums, and to network among themselves.

Date and Time Friday, November 14, 2014 1:30–6:00 p.m.
Location International Conference Center Hiroshima Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima City
Organizer API Fellowships Program Secretariat
Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS)
Kyoto University
Partner The Nippon Foundation
Main Sessions 1:50–2:10 First Keynote Speech: Lahpai Seng Raw (Founder, Metta Development Foundation and 2013 Ramon Magsaysay awardee)

2:10–2:30 Second Keynote Speech: Tatsuya Mori (Film director, writer, specially appointed professor at Meiji University)

3:20–3:50 Panel One: Struggle for Recognition: Rohingya Citizenship in Myanmar’s Transition
Panelists:
1) Ahmad Suaedy (Indonesia API Fellow Year 2009-2010), Director, Abdurrahman Wahid Centre for Interfaith Dialogue and Peace
2) Abu Tahay, Director, Rohingya Resources Network, Yangon

3:50–4:20 Panel Two: An Experience Exchange and Activity Cooperation between Japan’s Minamata Case and Thailand’s Maptaphut Campaign
Panelists:
1) Penchom Saetang (Thailand API Fellow Year 2005-2006), Director, Ecological Alert and Recovery—Thailand (EARTH)
2) Yoshihiro Yamashita, Minamata disease victim; Visiting Researcher, Open Research Center for Minamata Studies (ORCM)

Contact

Public Relations Department
The Nippon Foundation

E-mail
pr@ps.nippon-foundation.or.jp