Masahide Shibusawa

Masahide Shibusawa (b. 1925) graduated from the Department of Agricultural Economy of the University of Tokyo in 1950. Closely involved in organizations dedicated to facilitating international exchange and dialogue, he was executive director of the MRA (Moral Re-armament) Foundation from 1964 to 2013, executive director of the Language Institute of Japan from 1968 to 1997 and director of the East-West Seminars (run by the MRA Foundation) from 1970 to 1997. An active supporter of education and research in international relations in East and Southeast Asia, he has held positions such as Director-CEO of the Tokyo Jogakkan Schools for Women (1994–2003), Research Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London, visiting professor at the University of Alaska and visiting professor, School of Business Administration, Portland State University. He was a founding member on the Japanese side in the Trilateral Commission. He became president of the Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation in 1997. In addition to the present work, his publications include Chichi: Shibusawa Keizō (Memories of My Father Shibusawa Keizō; Jitsugyō-no-Nihon, 1968), Asia in the World Community (English), ed., with Prachoom Chomchai, (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 1973), Japan and the Asian Pacific Region (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1984), Taiheiyō-Ajia: Kiken to kibō  (Pacific Asia, Perils and Promises; Simul Publications, 1991). He also translated Taufik Abdullah’s Shinjitsu no Indoneshia: Kenkoku no shidōshatachi (The Truth about Indonesia: The Leaders Who Founded the Country, from Indonesian Manusia dalam kemelut sejarah ; Simul Shuppankai, 1978), and Charles Morrison’s Tōnan Ajia itsutsu no kuni: Sono seizon senryaku (The Five Countries of Southeast Asia: Their Strategies for Survival, from the English Strategies of Survival: The Foreign Policy Dilemmas of Smaller Asian States by Charles Morrison (Simul Shuppankai, 1981).