Author: Daniel Bugan
Prof. Yoichi Mine describes his visit to Stellenbosch University (SU) to deliver the second Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chair lecture as an emotional homecoming. It’s a place, he says, which not only ensured early academic success but also awakens fond memories of a more innocent and carefree time in his family’s history.
The current executive director of the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development and Extraordinary Professor at SU’s Department of Political Science said his fascination with South Africa was first ignited as a student in Japan. There he watched as the country emerged from apartheid to embrace its democratic future.
“Everybody in the world was watching what was happening in South Africa. As a graduate student I was very interested in South Africa’s history and its political economy. It was quite fascinating academically as well.”
Eventually he got to visit SA in 1989 after spending time in Namibia as part of a team who monitored the UN commissioned independent elections at the time.
But it was only later, when he took up a position as an associate professor in SU’s Department of Political Science, that he really got to experience the new South Africa and all it had to offer.
“I am feeling a bit emotional,” says Prof. Mine in an interview before his lecture. “From 1998 to 2000 I was living here in Stellenbosch and working for SU. At that time, I took charge of the course on Japanese studies which was partially founded by the Japan Foundation, the cultural wing of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
“I have fond memories of Stellenbosch. My children attended the Stellenbosch Waldorf School and in order to get them to school I had to get my driver’s licence here at the Stellenbosch Traffic Department. As a learner I got to drive all around Stellenbosch and that is how I came to know the names of the roads and the streets of this small town. Stellenbosch is a special place for me, my wife and two children. I feel like Stellenbosch is my second home. I feel like I am back home. That is why I am so emotional today.”
We discuss his current position at the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development and his role there.
“JICA is a huge organisation. My institute has several research clusters which correspond to JICA’s broad activities, including infrastructure development and collaboration in the field of education and the health sector, climate change related issues and peace building. My role is to ensure the academic quality of the research products of these clusters. I feel I am contributing to policy-making and the betterment of JICA’s activities through my academic input,” he says.
He says about the research project on human security in Africa that the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development plans to launch in May 2024.
“The aim of this research is to capture what is happening in Africa from a human security point of view. We want to trace the long journeys of migrants from their departure, transit, reception to a possible return, and try to understand the nature of threats to their survival, livelihood and dignity at each stage of their journeys.”
What is the legacy he wants to leave behind with his work in the human security sphere?
He answers without hesitation, but modestly and without pretension. “I want to promote region to region connectivity between Africa and Asia and to get South Africa and Japan to take the initiative in this regard.”
Prof. Mine is a graduate of Kyoto University’s Department of History (1981 to 1987) and School of Economics (1987 to 1993). His academic history includes research on the economic history and political economy of South Africa (1987), research on development economics and the African political economy (1993) and research on human security and peace building (2001). Mine worked as a lecturer at Chubu University’s College of International Studies (1993 to 1996), as an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at SU (1998 to 2000) and as a visiting professor at Kyoto University’s Centre for Southeast Asian studies (2010 to 2012), among others. He was awarded the 2nd Okita Commemorative Award for Policy Research from Japan’s National Institute for Research Advancement in 2001 and the 4th African Studies Promotion Award from the Japan Association for African Studies in 1993. He has published numerous papers and books, including Connecting Africa and Asia: Afrasia as a benign community (Routledge) in English and An Oral History of Japan’s Development Cooperation (The University of Tokyo Press) in Japanese.