Goenawan Mohamad - one of this year's award recipients - is renowned as a leading Asian intellectual. He is the founder of the Indonesian weekly magazine Tempo, through which he has continued to stress the importance of freedom and democracy in Indonesia. He has also demonstrated his versatile talents in the fields of poetry, drama, and fine art. Goenawan was invited to Japan in 1983 by the Japan Foundation and came to Japan again in 1997 as an Asia Leadership Fellow co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation and the International House of Japan, and has since worked to deepen intellectual exchange between Japan and Indonesia.
In his lecture, Goenawan Mohamad will examine new ways of perceiving “culture” in today's world, with focus on the discourse around “difference” as a source from which identity politics springs.

Song Boo Young, Chairman of the Korean Japanese Association
The Korean Japanese Association was founded in 1971 to promote friendship, goodwill, and mutual prosperity between Korea and Japan. In the 50 years that have gone by since that time, the Foundation has steadily carried out future-oriented activities for youths, focusing on the area of Japanese language education as the foundation for mutual understanding between the two nations.
Chairman Song Boo Young will describe the activities of the Korean Japanese Association and introduce the Future-Oriented Human Exchange, which is the goal of the organization.

(c)V. Tony Hauser

Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage is an actor, director, playwright, and leader of the creative collective Ex Machina, whose activities span theater, opera, film, and the circus. His unique direction that makes use of the latest technologies has received particular praise throughout the world. Through his works based on Japanese themes, his performances in Japan, and his active collaborations with Japanese artists, he has had a major influence on the performing arts world in Japan.
In this talk session, Robert Lepage will speak about his creative work and his involvement with Japan through a dialogue format.

(c)Elias Djemil NBOC