Asia and Japan Today 1
Researchers’ Essays at
the Arrival of a New COVID Era
Editors

Ammar KHASHAN and Ayaka KURODA

Asia-Japan Research Institute
Ritsumeikan University

AJI BOOKSASIA AND JAPAN TODAY(1)
Researchers’ Essays at the Arrivalof a New COVID Era
Editors
Ammar KHASHAN and Ayaka KURODA

Asia-Japan Research Institute
Ritsumeikan University

ASIA AND JAPAN TODAY(1)
Researchers’ Essays
at the Arrival of a New COVID Era

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Copyright © 2021 Asia-Japan Research Institute,
Ritsumeikan University
Note:
Authors’ names in this publication are ordered according to theirpreference and their surnames are capitalized.

Contents
Editors’ Preface

Ammar KHASHAN, Ayaka KURODA............................ v

Researchers’ Essays
1. Asia-Japan Research at this Juncture of History: Facing theCoronavirus (COVID-19) Crisis in a Research Institution
Yasushi KOSUGI................................................................1
2. Even Globalized, the World is Uneven: The Pandemic andArea Studies
Kota SUECHIKA ...............................................................6
3. Field Science in the Corona Era: Through Intimate Ties
with Farmers in Indonesia
Fitrio ASHARDIONO ....................................................... 1 0
4. In Order to Stay Connected to the World: As a Korean
Diaspora Researcher
LEE Jinhye ......................................................................... 1 5
5. Living between Pakistan and Japan: The Struggles of an
Area Studies Researcher and a Working Mother
Emiko SUNAGA ................................................................ 2 3
6. A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in Iran: The Battle
against COVID-19
Kenji KURODA ................................................................. 2 8iii

Contents

7. What Does COVID-19 Imply for Nuclear-Armed North
Korea?
CHOI Jung Hoon ............................................................... 4 1
8. The Joy of Reading Personal Histories from the Primary
Sources: Encounters during My Research on Islamic Thinkers
in Egypt
Ayaka KURODA ............................................................... 4 6
9. Reformulating Religious Tourism after COVID-19:
Reflections on Area Studies from the Perspective of Mobility
Shin YASUDA .................................................................... 5 4
10. Contemporary Middle East Studies under the COVID-19
Crisis: Countermeasures to the “Field Survey”
Shun WATANABE ............................................................ 6 2
11. Life between Searching for the Classic in the Cyberspaceand Going to the Field: My Studies on Islamic Economics in
the Middle East and Southeast Asia
Ammar KHASHAN ........................................................... 6 7iv

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Editors’ Preface
In April of 2020 we experienced the beginning of what was
to be a paradigm shift in research institutions’ operation
strategies in Japan, as elsewhere in the world. The newcoronavirus COVID-19 epidemic brought nationwide
lockdowns, shut down campuses and invoked travel
restrictions that severely limited researchers’ academic
activities, especially if these involved cross-border air travel.
Confined to working at home, locked out of the university
library, and unable to physically attend international
conferences, our researchers have faced challenging obstacles
and barriers on an unanticipated and unprecedented scale.
In the search for solutions Prof. Yasushi Kosugi, Directorof the Asia-Japan Research Institute, opened an online forum
entitled “Asia-Japan Today: Researcher’s Essays”, inviting
researchers of Asia-Japan Research within and outside
Ritsumeikan to share their personal experiences and strategies
for coping with the ongoing crisis.
We were delighted to receive contributions from young
researchers in a wide range of specialties living in a variety ofcircumstances, some alone, others in crowded rooms, yet others
co-parenting small children, all of them trying to carry on withlife while sharing the extra burden of protecting themselves andthose around them from the ubiquitous virus.
Needless to say, as time passes we are all to varying
degrees adjusting to what is called the “new normal”, but wemay be far from satisfied with the results. Teaching online has
its limitations, our students are suffering, and designingeffective online teaching strategies is time-consuming. And
how can we complete our research projects? The toll on ourphysical and mental reserves is incremental as the weeks draw
into months and the end seems very far away.
v

Editors’ Preface

By reading these researchers’ essays, we can learn how
others are coping with living and working under suchconditions, how they are communicating with counterparts intheir fields as well as colleagues in other countries, and how
they are overcoming their fieldwork limitations. Importantly,
we see how the opportunity to share with our fellows relieves
us of this stress. We have learned that there are positives too.
Chatting with friends around the globe has become as simple
chatting with our parents and siblings; we can fit a variety ofactivities into our more flexible daily routine; and getting
dressed for work and hurrying to catch the train is definitely notsomething that we miss.
To preserve this unique moment in time we decided tomake a booklet of these personal narratives, both to provide
something tangible that others can access and benefit from, andto serve as a reminder of the early part of an era opened by the
COVID-19, though we are not sure of what follows. Many ofthe essays were written nearer to the beginning of the COVID
era, and the decision to publish came several months later, so
we requested the authors to provide updates in the form of
postscripts to relate their recent experiences and the latest news
from their counterparts overseas. Their postscripts provide thissmall booklet with a more comprehensive picture of theongoing global attempt to keep academic research alive andwell in the COVID era.
Our hope is that we can convey real voices from the fieldof research on Asia and Japan and connect with our fellow
researchers around the world, while sharing strategies forcoping with the ongoing circumstances, with the intention of
offering encouragement and support to those forced to sharesimilarly challenging working conditions.

vi

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

We are very grateful to Prof. Anthony Brewer for his
valuable support in the process of editing the essays in thisvolume.
November, 2020

Ammar KHASHAN
Ayaka KURODA

vii

Asia-Japan Research at this Juncture of History

1
Asia-Japan Research at this Juncture ofHistory: Facing the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Crisis in a Research Institution

Yasushi KOSUGIDirector
Asia-Japan Research Institute
Ritsumeikan University(May 10, 2020）
The health and social issues caused by the Coronavirus(COVID-19) have grown into a world pandemic, and a great
number of countries are struggling to maintain their societies
while facing this unprecedented crisis. The mass media, the1Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

internet, and SNS are overflowing with so much informationand so many opinions.
In Japan, the government declared a national emergency on
April 7, 2020, followed by various measures to curb the spreadof the virus, resulting in the temporary closure of educational
institutions, from kindergartens and elementary schools up to
universities and graduate schools for an indefinite period. We
in academia are also facing something we have neverexperienced before, staying in the dark. The crisis which started
at the end of 2019 in China, spread to immediately neighboring
countries, including Japan, and to other parts of the world in avery short time. While the prevention of further transmission
and the curing of patients are the first priorities, I would like totalk about the dilemma which the crisis has brought to research
institutions. The first problem appeared to us as the cancellationof trips by overseas guests to our international symposiums in
February. Soon after, universities and schools in Japan decided
to cancel graduation and entrance ceremonies in March andApril, in order to prevent massive transmission of the disease.
In this country where these ceremonies under cherry blossoms
are much celebrated, this decision was taken only after serious
hesitation.
In our institute, Asia-Japan Research Institute at
Ritsumeikan University, many of us are engaged in research
about various regions of Asia. We are accustomed to visit thecountries which are the subject of our research every year. We
are actively inviting and being invited to conferences by
academics and specialists from these regions, as well as
researchers studying these regions in Europe and America.
However, in February, we started to receive emails apologizing
for cancelling their trips, based on instructions by their2Asia-Japan Research at this Juncture of History

employers or governments. The same conditions soon applied
to us in Japan. We were told not to go abroad. Then, thecountries around the world started to close their airports andports to foreign visitors, reducing passenger flights to aminimum. We had to either postpone or cancel all overseas
trips and international conferences.
Although I have been engaged with Arab and Islamic
Studies for nearly a half century, I have never encountered anexperience of this gravity. In the Middle East, certainly wars
(both international and civil wars) have prevented us fromgoing into some countries from time to time. I have first-handor almost first-hand experiences of the fourth Middle East War
in 1973 with the subsequent First World Oil Crisis, the Islamic
Revolution in Iran with the subsequent Second World Oil
Crisis, and the Gulf Crisis and Gulf War in 1990-91. However,
never have I met a situation where human traffic has almost
ceased as we are witnessing at this time.
Historians and the media inform us that this crisis has aprecedent as a world pandemic, like the so-called “Spanish Flue”
in 1918-20, and as an economic crisis like the Great Depression
from 1929. However, the present calamity has proved to be
more serious than the global financial crisis triggered by the
failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and is said to be similar or
more serious than the Great Depression. Even if they arecomparable however, those among us who had lived throughthese crises are extremely few, and therefore, this crisis issomething unknown to all of us. For specialists of Area Studies,
which developed after the middle of the 20th century, it is acrisis we have never encountered.
After listening to the explanations and analyses of experts
and specialists in various fields of sciences, it seems that the3Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

expectation of containing the infection by short-term decisiveacts is overly optimistic. Moreover, if such a pandemic is oneof the consequences of modernization, urbanization andglobalization worldwide, it is likely that similar problems willrecur even if the present virus ceases to be a major threat. As
long as there is such a possibility, we must change our lifestyle
to one that can adapt to and cope with these conditions.
I think that the way research should be conducted will haveto change greatly, both for the “Corona era” and the subsequent“Post-Corona era”. Or, at least, we should be prepared for it. I
would like to begin this essay series with the aim of continuing
to write about how researchers in Asia and Japan have been
responding to the challenges of today. It may be considered asa primary record of contemporary Asia-Japan research.

4

Asia-Japan Research at this Juncture of History

Author’s Profile
Yasushi KOSUGI: Professor and Director at Asia-Japan ResearchInstitute of Ritsumeikan University. Doctor of Laws (Kyoto
University). Specialties: Islamic Studies, Middle East Area Studies,
History of Political Thought, International Relations, andComparative Civilization. Among his recent works: The Sayings ofMuhammad: Hadith (Japanese translation with his own selection andnotes), Tokyo: Iwanami Bunko, 2019; An Introduction to Islam forStudents and Working Adults (co-editor), Kyoto: Nakanishiya, 2018;
Jihad of the Islamic Empires, Tokyo: Kodansha Gakujutsu Bunko,
2018. Among his research articles, “An Inquiry into the Legal
Concept of Halal under Islamic Law: With Special Reference to theCorrelation between the Halal/Haram Dichotomy and the Five
Categories of Judicial Rules”, Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies,
Vol.12, 2019: http://hdl.handle.net/2433/240734.

5

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

2
Even Globalized, the World is Uneven:
The Pandemic and Area Studies

Kota SUECHIKA
Professor, College of International Relations
Ritsumeikan University（May 15, 2020）
Every time we have faced an “unknown” situation,
mankind has developed new academic sciences. It is wellknown that the 17th-century British plague epidemic
contributed to the development of statistics. The pandemic of
the new Coronavirus occurring in 2020 may also trigger a6

Even Globalized the World is Unevenreview of existing academic knowledge, leading to the birth of
new academic sciences.
In the current coronal crisis, we are witnessing the powerof numbers and figures to command our minds. Various kindsof numbers are lined up daily on TV and online news. Since the
new coronavirus is an infectious disease, it is natural thatvarious numbers based on “scientific grounds” should beemphasized, and even the most profound words may appear
hazy in front of these numbers. In addition, the latest
technology using big data and AI has emerged to predict theprobability and spread of infection and propose “optimized”
human behavior based on these numbers.
Under these circumstances, what role does the field that I
am specialized in and teaching, the so-called Area Studies,
have? Some students may feel anxious or even confused.
Actually, even before the Coronavirus crisis, students
sometimes asked similar questions. If so, such anxiety andconfusion may be increasing.
However, we should not worry, because the world is full of“unknown” phenomena, for better or worse, which cannot be
reduced to clear numbers. There are abundant things that westill have to research and learn.
The pandemic is apparently a characteristic of the
globalized world we live in. No wonder it has become auniversal phenomenon, attracting our serious attention. If welook at it closely, however, we find that, while the current
pandemic crisis is covering the entire world, it has brought
different consequences in different parts of the world, as shownby the fact that the number of people infected and the numberof deaths is higher in Europe, though the timing of the spread
was later there than in Asia.
7

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

In other words, this fact reminds us that the globalized
world is not a level playing field, and uneven local realities
endow each region with its own inherent nature. While anyone
in any region has an equal chance of being infected by the virus
and the basic condition is that the epidemic spreads
indiscriminately throughout the world, contrary to the equalityof these universal facts, each part of the world has a different
reality.
Area studies is an interdisciplinary academic field thatseeks to comprehensively understand the actual conditions ofvarious regions of the world, which we call “Areas”. There isalso a method of statistically analyzing the unevenness of theworld, where demographics, climate conditions, medical
systems, governmental measures, and other variables arecalculated and analyzed, and the analysts will tell us tendencies
and probabilities. However, this method measures differenceswith “known” variables, and does not offer a grasp of the
deeper realities, inherent but often not apparent, of each region.
In order to understand the region, it is indispensable toapproach the actual conditions of ecology, history, culture,society, politics, economy, and the like, in order to find out
something that is unknown or untranslatable into numbers. For
example, internal logics inherent in language and history
specific to the region may dictate human behavior even during
the Coronavirus crisis. If that was the real factor creating
differences in the consequences of Coronavirus pandemic
situations, the measures taken up to that point must be reviewed.
It will contribute to our imagining not only the pictures of theregion in the “post-Corona” era, which will come soon, but also
how our world should be through new transformations.

8

Even Globalized the World is Uneven

Author's Profile
Kota SUECHIKA: Professor at College of International Relations,and Director, Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies,
Ritsumeikan University. Ph.D. (Area Studies). Specialties: Middle
Eastern Studies, International Relations, and Comparative Politics.
Among his works: Islamism: Search for an Alternative Modernity,
Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 2018; Islamism and Politics in the Middle
East: Resistance and Revolution of Lebanon’s Hizb Allah, Nagoya:
Nagoya University Press, 2013; State Transformation and Islam inContemporary Syria, Kyoto: Nakanishiya, 2005. Among his research
articles: “Sectarian Fault Lines in the Middle East: Sources ofConflicts or Communal Bonds?” Routledge Handbook of Middle
East Politics, London: Routledge, 2020 (co-author with Dr. Keiko
SAKAI）.

9Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

3
Field Science in the Corona Era: ThroughIntimate Ties with Farmers in Indonesia

Fitrio ASHARDIONO
Assistant Professor,
College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University（May 27, 2020）
There is a term “field science”, and a related term “field
scientists” for those who are engaged in conducting scientificresearch in the field. It refers to research areas where it isessential to reach the actual field to conduct research. In thatsense, this term refers to various scientific areas, rather than aspecific expertise, with the common denominator, that is,engagement with fields. My specialty is policy science, but I
10

Field Science in the Corona Era

conduct research related to agricultural products such as tea andcoffee, so working in the field is essential for my research.
The pandemic caused by the new Coronavirus has had atremendous impact on such field sciences. The reason is simply
because its resultant restrictions to prevent the spread of thedisease cover refraining from going out of one’s own home,moving across prefectures, and moving across national andinternational borders. If we cannot get to the field, our research
can easily stop.
My original focus was on how climate change affects
agriculture and how farmers can survive and maintain theirlivelihoods beyond the impacts of climate change. Recently, I
have been working with coffee farmers in West Sumatra,Indonesia.
Climate change has had, and continues to have, a major
impact on agriculture. Increases and decreases in temperatureand changes in humidity threaten traditional agricultural areas.
However, while the impacts of climate change will gradually
emerge over a relatively long period of time (though steadily),the new Coronavirus has spread worldwide in just a few months,
killing many people and damaging various industries,
including agriculture.
At present, the new coronavirus infection is still spreadingin Indonesia, with the second-highest number of cases inSoutheast Asia after Singapore. In order to continue ourresearch during this time, we have to consider taking new anddifferent approaches.
It goes without saying that the Internet is essential for us toobtain information on Indonesia from our homes in the Kansai
region in Japan, or from wherever we are. I check the current
state of Indonesia every day through various media on the
11Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Internet. However, it conveys mainly news on urban areas,
especially the capital Jakarta, and there is not enoughinformation about the current situation of the rural areas, which
is where my field lies. For this reason, we have to exchange
information on SNS with the local “friends” whom we havebeen in contact with through our research, and thus obtain thelatest information on the ground.
A farmer in West Sumatra, whom I work with, says thatwhile in Indonesia’s restrictions on travel are tight, mainly inurban and residential areas, they are easing in suburban andagricultural areas. Fortunately, none of the farmers I know are
infected with the virus, and since they are always careful about
their own safety, they are still able to continue growing coffee
and other crops.
However, the situation surrounding them is not bright. It is
certain that the prices of vegetables have already dropped in thewholesale market and their lives will be seriously affected.
Compared to vegetables, the impact on coffee, which is aluxury item, has barely been apparent, but a significant decline
is expected in the coming months.
In Indonesia, the situation among coffee roasters and thecafe industry is serious. Due to restrictions on outings, cafes
and coffee shops are required to close, and sales are almost in
the red. Even after switching to online sales, I hear that fewer
people are buying than expected and the stocks of unsold coffee
beans are increasing rapidly.
While we have been exploring the gradual impact ofclimate change on agriculture and people for a long time, theseshort-term shocks to farmers seem unprecedented anddevastating. I can feel it very keenly, even though they are very
far from my life in Japan.
12Field Science in the Corona Era

Although information and communications technology has
developed and we can avail ourselves of a variety of media, wewill never be able to understand the real situation through justusing such media. After all, we need the most analog personto-person connections to find out the truth. In the field survey,
I realized anew that it is more important to build a network withmany “friends” in the field than just to gather information.
Through these experiences, I feel the importance of getting out
into the field more and more, and of connecting with the local
people. While I am in a place far away from Indonesia rightnow, I will continue to communicate with them and discusswith them about the way we should explore our field in the
future.

13

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Author’s Profile:Fitrio ASHARDIONO: Assistant Professor, College of Policy
Science, Ritsumeikan University. Ph.D. (Policy Science Ritsumeikan
University). Specialties: Policy Science, Climate Change Adaptation
Studies, Sustainable Agriculture, Urban Agriculture in
Asia, Terroir Studies, and Agroecology. Among his recent works:“Application of the Terroir Concept on Traditional Tea Cultivation in
Uji Area”, in A. Sarkar, S. R. Sensarma, and G. W. vanLoon(Eds.), Sustainable Solutions for Food Security: Combating Climate
Change by Adaptation, Springer, 2019, pp. 311-329, “Protecting
Japanese Tea Growers from the Devastating Effects of Climate
Change: A Terroir Based Ecosystem Approach for Rural
Development”, Journal of the Asia-Japan Research Institute of
Ritsumeikan University, Vol.1, 2019.

14

4
In Order to Stay Connected to the World:
As a Korean Diaspora Researcher

LEE JinhyeSpecial Foreign Researcher
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science/
Project Researcher
Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan Research Organization,
Ritsumeikan University（June 3, 2020）
It has been seven years since I came to Japan from Korea.
I lived in Kyoto until I got my Ph.D. last fall, then this spring I
moved to Ibaraki City in Osaka, where OIC (Osaka Ibaraki
Campus of Ritsumeikan University) is located. I was employed
as a special researcher by the Japan Society for the Promotion

15

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essaysof Science and became a project researcher at Ritsumeikan
University.
However, soon after the move, the situation caused by the
new Coronavirus became serious, and in April, we were asked
to not even go to university. I had just moved to a new place,so I was perplexed for a while. However, when I thought aboutit, I realized it was quite normal to be perplexed in a new place.
I have been living in various places other than my own country,
so wherever I am, I must feel a gap between my own identity
and the environments surrounding me.
I am doing research on Korean diaspora communities
scattered around the world. To be more specific, I have been
engaged with a study of those who are usually called “Koryo
Saram” in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country. By thedescription “Korean diaspora researcher” in the title, I mean “aperson who studies the Korean diasporas”. However, after I
wrote it, I realized that it could also mean “a researcher who
belongs to Korean diaspora”, because I myself have been living
in Japan and I am planning to stay in Japan in the future.
It is natural for both diaspora persons and foreign students
to wish to keep in touch with people who are like themselves.
Perhaps, all people like to be in contact with people likethemselves in the first place. I am also in contact on a daily
basis with Koreans in Kazakhstan, the United States, and othercountries. I often exchange information and opinions with them
about the situation caused by the new Corona pandemic. I wantto know how they are living under the present Corona crisis.
At the time of the temporary collapse of Korea’s collective
immune system, Koreans around the world felt their lives werein danger just because they were Korean. The members of theethnic Korean community of Kazakhstan realized that when16

In Order to Stay Connected to the World

walking down the street, passers-by would notice that they
were Korean and would stare at them as they passed. American
Koreans have stopped going out for fear of being targets ofviolence. A Korean in Chile, South America, told me that thepsychological pressures were so tense, even when there was no
actual damage, that occasional outings to buy groceries madethem nervous, and they paid careful attention to the atmospherearound them. I heard that Koreans in Japan also became
nervous about being noticed so they would hide the masks andtissues they bought on their way home. A Korean in Taiwan
told me that the Taiwanese government’s initial measures werevery effective and allowed him to lead a normal life just like heused to, and yet he never can reveal that he is a Korean.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of problems for diaspora
Koreans around the world. When news of the Corona outbreakspread in South Korea, after China, they all became very
concerned, and they were finally able to feel relieved when theoutbreak in South Korea had subsided to a great extent. It was
the same for me.
However, all of my Korean diaspora friends are researchersand experts in their fields of specialties. That means, no matter
where we live or what we do, we have to continue with ourdaily work. Our responsibility to our research was not changed
by Coronavirus and will not change even after it ends. Whether
we are Koreans or other diasporas, researchers, or other experts,
we must continue to live our lives and fulfill our responsibilities.
In this Corona situation, my Korean Diaspora friends did
their best in their own ways in each place to adapt to acompletely different and unfamiliar situation. My friend in
Kazakhstan has reported that he prepares online classes,
unfamiliar to him until now, and continues to correct
17

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

assignments by e-mailing to students who cannot attend classes
online because of poor online access (Kazakhstan doesn’t haveas good internet facilities as Japan). My friend in the UnitedStates said that a shift to telecommuting could effectively mean
24 hours of work, and while she suffered from fatigue, she wasmore engaged than anyone else in her assigned job. A friend ofmine in Japan says this is a good opportunity for her to workon her thesis. My friend in Chile said that administrative
processing, which is difficult to deal with because of culturaldifferences, is more efficient when conducted online because it
allows people to prioritize work without cultural friction,although it takes more time than face to face dealings.
Their daily lives had changed so much, and yet they were
doing their best in their place every day. Listening to them, I
felt that their power to adapt to their new daily lives had
empowered me before I knew it, and I suddenly realized that
this power could be a source that helps me to stay connectedwith Koreans, Korean diasporas, and the world..
As a member of the Korean diaspora living in today’s
Japan, I want to establish myself as a Korean diaspora
researcher who continues to be connected with you, mycolleagues, and the world.

18

In Order to Stay Connected to the World

Postscript （Added November 19, 2020）
The COVID-19 pandemic, which began earlier this year,
and the consequent changes in the living conditions of myfellow researchers and contacts in the field are alreadybecoming prolonged. Now that November is passing, whatchanges will there be for them? I asked them again.
My Korean friend in Chile told me that the number ofconfirmed cases had dropped somewhat since June, and more
people are now said to be moving around. Concerns about there-proliferation still linger, but the overall atmosphere is said tobe regaining vitality. Universities are gradually resuming faceto-face classes, focusing on departments that require practicalskills, experiments, and practice. However, other classes areencouraged online, and sometimes large-scale events are held
on Zoom. He stressed there were problems with remoteteaching, ties between students and professors could weaken,
students’ concentration and participation in classes were poor,and they could suddenly be cut off due to network instability.
My contacts in the United States tell me that lectures havemostly returned face-to-face style. However, if there is apersonal situation, for example, if the student is a corona patientor a contact person, the student is allowed to take the course
online. Everyone must pass through a screening checkpoint andobtain permission before entering the campus. Also, the basic
rules are to wear masks, disinfect hands, measure bodytemperature, and maintain social distancing. In addition,
classrooms cannot be more than 40% occupied, and in principle,
there is a one-way traffic rule on campus, and only thedesignated entrance and exit can be used. Also, it is a rule tostrictly observe the hours of campus use. The administration of19

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

universities is mainly based on home-based working, but
optionally face-to-face meetings are also held. There have also
been changes in the academic system, such as eliminating
spring vacation, fearing that the number of confirmed students
will increase if they meet again after being dispersed. Events
such as graduation ceremonies are being conducted online.
In Kazakhstan, according to my Korean colleagues there,
the main framework of online lectures has not changed, but
methods and systems are becoming increasingly organized. It
is also said that programs to evaluate the quality of the
instructor’s classes are evolving. However, the quality ofclasses is lower than face-to-face, and students’ participation
and understanding are also cited as problems. In particular, theforeign language department said that the system of allowing
third-year students to go to the country of their major languages
was completely suspended, putting a brake on the improvementof students’ skills.
In Korea, their problems and demands for improvement
were similar to those of other countries. In summary, the lackof communication between students and professors, thestudents’ lack of concentration in classes, the inconvenience ofsudden disconnection in the unstable network environment,
and students’ low satisfaction and learning problems were notmuch different from anywhere else.
As the COVID-19 has been prolonged and social contact
reduced, all my Korean friends remarked that problems such as
Asian discrimination, which have been heard everywhere, areno longer special or increasing. However, they said in unison
that they seem to have become more conscious of working
together to overcome the situation they are in right now rather
than the challenges of nationality or ethnicity. Now that this is20

In Order to Stay Connected to the Worldnot just a matter of one place, there seems to be a sense ofsolidarity to overcome it together by thoroughly abiding bypersonal rules.
In my case of living in Japan, I am freer to go to university
than before, but most of my activities still have to be done
online. Until now, it has been most important to be fully
familiar with the online environment when “no one” knows
when face-to-face contact will be possible again. It is also
important to study ways to compensate for the shortcomings
that arise in the online environment. From next year I will startteaching at the university. In a situation when I’m not surewhether I’ll be able to face the students directly or online I think
the best approach is to be fully prepared in any given
environment. Also, I think continuous interaction with other
Koreans in the world who are doing their best in theirrespective positions and are working hard every day is one way
to connect with the world as a Korean diaspora researcher.

21

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Author’s Profile
LEE Jinhye: Special Foreign Researcher, Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science / Project Researcher, Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan
Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University. Ph.D. (Area Studies,
Kyoto University). Specialties: Central Asian Area Studies,
Kazakhstan Studies, Korean Diaspora Studies, and Kyoro SaramStudies. Among her recent publications: “Identity Formation of the
Korean Diaspora in USSR, Koryo-saram, in Perestroika Period: An
Analysis Based upon Articles of Lenin Gichi, 1986 to 1991”, Kyoto
Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies, Vol.10, 2017; 고려일보를 통해 본현대 카자흐스탄 고려인 사회의 변용, 재외한인연구, 49, 2019;“Identity Formation of the Korean Diaspora （ Koryo saram ） inContemporary Kazakhstan: An Analysis Based upon Articlesof Koryo Ilbo”, Korean Diaspora across the World: Homeland in
History, Memory, Imagination, Media and Reality, Lexington Books,
2019.

22

5
Living between Pakistan and Japan:
The Struggles of an Area Studies Researcher
and a Working Mother

Emiko SUNAGA
Research Fellow
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science,
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies(Originally written June 3,
and updated November 27, 2020)
From the beginning of June, nurseries and schools havebeen re-opened in our town. Our kids can enjoy meeting with
their friends at playgroups again, and I have been released fromtaking care of two kids in our tiny home for a while.

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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

My husband and I are both researchers of area studies, bothworking in the Islamic world. We have a four-year-old and a
one-year-old. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, we were often
fighting for the chance to go on a field research trip while theother remained home to look after the children. It was one ofour biggest problems.
I conduct research on the relationship between religion andnationality in Pakistan. Speaking of religious matters, in theIslamic world, the Juma (Friday’s gathering) prayer isrecommended for connecting with the community and meetingpeople. This year, in May, most Islamic countries celebrated
the religious festival of Eid al-Fitr by staying home to curb the
spread of COVID-19. The Hajj / Pilgrimage was cancelled.
Muslims can pray at home by themselves without any incurring
any penalty. However, Pakistanis overruled the lockdown anddefied mosque restrictions. It is the mosque, not disinfection,that offers Pakistani people greater peace of mind.
In Pakistan, the COVID-19 infection spread rapidly fromthe end of April, and now the number of infected people in the
country has reached 113,702 (June 10). The infection subsided
during the summer season, but it is on the rise again in
November. There are thousands of people who cannot buy
bread for the day if they take leave from work for a day. Manyof the poorer workers do not even have a bank account forsaving money. Prime Minister Imran Khan said theimplications of a strict lockdown were different for those living
in slums and the people living in affluent areas. The mosquesand the community itself sometimes help to save these poor
people in Pakistan where the economic and social welfare
system are weak.

24

Living Between Pakistan and JapanMy friends living in Pakistan tell me about the ongoingsituation in the country through SNS. I met most of them during
my time studying in Karachi, or in my field research in Lahore.
Like me, they have also graduated from university, got a job,
got married, and are busy raising their children now. “…Thereis not enough food stuff in the market because of the lockdown,schools are closed, we cannot take the children outside, there is
no more cooking for the Iftar dinner, our husbands cannot
afford shopping for our family…”. Yet these are scholars who
usually discuss academic issues with me.
In our family in Japan, the situation during the lockdown
was almost the same. There is a small reading room for researchin our house, with only computers and bookshelves. When theplaygroups were closed out of self-restraint, and the university
campus was off-limits at the same time, all the family were shutin the house the entire day. This is how the fight for the reading
room began between I and my husband.
If you lose the reading room competition, you have to lookafter the children while going through the valuable treatises in
the living room. By tacit agreement, one can occupy the reading
room when one has an online class or a web conference, or adeadline for finishing papers. In our case, my husband won
frequently since he has more meetings and classes, and so today
I am writing this essay on the dining table.
As at other universities, I have started giving lectures
online due to the Coronavirus, but it is as clear as day that you
cannot do your academic work while caring for two infants
indoors. One of my friends who is also a researcher at theuniversity, hires a babysitter during her online class at her own
expense. I decided to do my own work at midnight after putting
my children to bed.
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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

I would like to show the result of these two months; I might
have read more illustrated dinosaur encyclopedias thanacademic papers. There is a Spinosaurus doll on the study book
I was thinking of reading if my children took a nap. No longer
does anyone keep it in mind that it is forbidden for kids to enter
the reading room, and there is Origami confetti thrown all overthe floor. The search history of Google on my laptop is filledwith the Triceratops variants. Yes, I really learned how to tellthe Chasmosaurus from the Styracosaurus.
Now the government has lifted the state of emergency, andI have been released from learning about dinosaurs. Our next
concern is when we can travel to do our research in the field.
For researchers who are raising children, the fear of theconstraints of schools is especially keen because they said, “ifa parent goes abroad on a business trip, their child is prohibitedfrom going to school for two weeks” as a measure to prevent
COVID-19 infection.
On the other hand, some good systems have been
introduced during this stay-at-home period. Many workshops
and seminars have switched to web meetings. I can play withkids till just before launching the video conference app Zoom.
I mute my microphone during the meeting, so that voice of achild will not disturb other participants. This is an epochmaking method for researchers with children to take part inseminars. The human species, at least some researchers inJapan, ache for this system to take root even in a post-corona
era.

26

Living Between Pakistan and Japan

Author’s Profile
Emiko SUNAGA: Research Fellow of Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Ph.D.
(Area Studies, Kyoto University). Specialties: South Asian Studies,
Islamic Revivalism, Urdu Language, and its Culture. Among her
works: The Formation and Transfiguration of Contemporary
Pakistan: Islamic Revival and Urdu Culture, Kyoto: Nakanishiya,
2014; “The Process of Development of the Early Economical
Thought of Saiyid A. A. Maududi: The Origin and the Evolution of
His Publications,” in J. A. Khursheed and K. Amin eds, History,
Literature and Scholarly Perspectives South and West Asian Context.
Karachi: Islamic Research Academy, 2016; “Islamic World: Muslim
Networking beyond the Border,” in Ishizaka. S., Une. Y., Funahashi.
K. eds, Welcome to South Asian World: An Encouragement of Area
Studies. Kyoto: Showado, 2020.

27

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

6
A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in
Iran: The Battle against COVID-19

Kenji KURODA
Project Assistant Professor
National Museum of Ethnology（June 10, 2020）

Introduction
Half of the year 2020 has already passed, and two major
topics on Iran have attracted attention in the world. The firstwas the turmoil following the assassination of Qasem
Soleymani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps andothers by the United States in the beginning of this year. The
assassination caused Iran’s retaliatory attack against a U.S.
military base in Iraq and the tragic missile attack against
Ukraine airline passenger plane. The second was the first28

A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in Iranpandemic case of COVID-19 in the Middle East, which became
a hot topic in late February and early March.
This essay explores the development of COVID-19,
describing the general situation in the country up to the time ofwriting and the relevance of my recent research.

Jihad Against COVID-19 in IranWith the spread of COVID-19 in China, the WHO declareda Public Health Emergency of International Concern on
January 30. Iran also took measures to prevent the spread of theinfection on the next day by temporarily suspending flightsfrom ChinaI and initiating a rescue plan for Iranian nationals in
Wuhan. However, these only registered as foreign events for
the Iranian electorate and the government proceeded withlegislative elections for the 11th term of the Islamic Council.
Although the government announced on February 19, just twodays before the vote, that two elderly patients had passed awayfrom COVID-19 in the religious city of Qom, located about 150
kilometers south of the capital city Tehran, the parliamentaryelections went ahead as planned.
Four days after the first confirmed case, the total numberof positive cases had reached 43 and deaths had reached to 8.II
Officials concerned at the spread of the disease and the“Ministry of Health, Medical Treatment and Education”(hereinafter referred to as the “Ministry of Health”) announcedplans to close schools, universities, cinemas and theatres, andinitiated a disinfection plan for public transportation in 14 cities
including Tehran (Aoki 2020). Despite this attempt, the spreadof the infection continued and reached 3,186 newly infectedcases on March 30. By March 5, infected cases were confirmed

29

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

in all Iranian provinces and the number of new positives
exceeded 1,234. In short, the daily number of positives
exceeded 1,000 cases on March 6 (see Figures 1 and 2)III.
Eventually from the 22nd to the 30th of March aroundNowrouz (March 21), the beginning of the New Year in the
Iranian calendar, there was an explosion in the number of new
positive cases and the death toll rose sharply between March 7
and April 4.
The spread of the disease reached to the political core,
exemplified by the positive case of Iraj Harirchi-Tabrizi,
deputy minister of Health, who sweated and coughed at a press
conference on February 24, and positive cases emerged among
bureaucrats, ministers, and members of the Islamic Council.
Even a number of senior officials passed away from COVID19 including newly elected legislators such as Mohammad-Ali
Ramezani and Mohammad Mohammadi, advisor of theSupreme Leader.

Figure１. Positive Cases of SARS-CoV-2 in Iran
(From February 19 to June 8, 2020)

30

A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in IranIn Fig. 1, the blue bars graph and the blue numbers in theleft column show the number of positive cases per day, and thegreen line graph and the green numbers in the right column
show the cumulative number of positive cases.

Figure 2. Deaths from COVID-19 in Iran
(From February 19 to June 8, 2020)

In Fig. 2, the orange bars graph and the numbers in the left
column show the number of deaths per day, and the red line
graph and the numbers in the right column show the cumulative
death number.
Despite the explosive spread of the infection, thegovernment seemly hesitated to take steps to close the city. The
city authorities of Tehran, where the spread of the disease wascontinuing, revealed a plan to set up a control center on themain road in and out of the city on March 14. In addition, thecity authorities forced the closure of commercial facilities
including traditional bazars except for daily necessities from31

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

March 22. Prior to this closure plan, General Mohammad
Baqeri, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, announced
and warned of a lockdown of cities including surveillance
within 24 hours (Taṣnīm March 13, 2020).
However, President Rowhani denied the government’s plan
to implement a whole-scale lockdown on March 11. On March
19, a volunteer group of experts and five former ministers of
Health issued an open letter demanding travel restrictions andother measures, but the government remained hesitant(Hamshahrī online March 19, 2020). In the meantime, a partial
increase in inter-city travel in the forthcoming Nowruz andfurther expansion were expected. The government still
continued to take a negative view on the complete closure of
the city (IRNA March 22, 2020). Finally, a government
spokesman announced an inter-city travel ban on March 25 andthe Ministry of Health announced travel restrictions and city
closures on the next day.
Contrary to the hesitation on the city closures, thegovernment proceeded with preparations for the resumption of
economic activities relatively quickly. On 6 April, President
Rowhani revealed plans to implement the gradual resumptionof economic activities and revealed a resumption plan foreconomic activities with a low risk of spreading the infection
from April 11 in cities except for Tehran, and then on April 18
even in Tehran. As the President requested, the range of
economic activities and activities in civilian life were gradually
expanded. The situation seemed to be under control, with areturn to normalcy and even a decrease in the number of people
wearing masks. In addition, the bustle of people in the bazaars
and other places was also revived. On May 25, the religious

32

A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in Iranfacilities including Holy shrines that had been closed since
mid-March were reopened.
While civilian life was returning to normal, the number of
new positive cases began to rise again after May. Towards theend of May, an upward trend was noted in certain provinces,and by June, the number of new positive cases again increased
to the same level as the peak in March. On June 4, 3,574
positive cases were confirmed and the new highest figure on
record. The situation was once again unpredictable. The
Department of Health’s Bureau of Infectious Disease
Treatment argued that this was not just a second wave, but acontinuation of the first wave [ISNA 6 June 2020]. Iran has
been the fastest case in lifting city closures among the countries
where COVID-19 was spreading with the exception of China
and it can be seen as a model case for other countries to predict
what will happen after the lifting of the restrictions. The factthat the number of positive cases in Iran is increasing again
should make other countries including Japan, more cautious.
By the way, when the countermeasures against the SARSCoV-2 began to be taken in earnest in Iran, the countermeasureactions were regarded as jihad. Basij or martyrdom discourse
was “mobilized”. Jihad is often translated as Holy War, a term
known to refer to the fight against the infidels, but originally it
also means “effort”. The late Imam Khomeini, the leader of the
Iranian revolution, also referred to the “Great Jihad Theory” as
the outward jihad as a holy war and advocated inner jihad as aform of spiritual self-cultivation. This internal and external
Jihad discourse emerged in the countermeasures against the
expansion of COVID-19, even to the manufacture of masks(ISNA March 17, 2020). Being an external jihad, theRevolutionary Guards have joined in the prevention of33

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

infection and the BasijIV, a para-military organization of the
Revolutionary Guards, was mobilized. They disinfected all thecities in Iran at breakneck speed. The government was also
proactive from the beginning in mobilizing the Basijis such as
the announcement by the Minister of Health on March 4(Tābnak March 5, 2020).
In addition to mobilization of the para-military group,“Martyr” discourse was also mobilized. Those who died whiletackling COVID-19 as jihadis were treated as Shahīd (martyrs).
Martyrdom, where people lose their lives for their faith, has a
special religious significance in general in IslamV. Among theShia, the majority religious group in Iran, Martyrdom has amore important position in shaping the religious worldview.
Among them, successive leaders known as Imams fought
against enemy for the sake of justice. They have risen up
against injustice and achieved martyrdom. In Iranian society,the concept of martyrdom is associated with the fight against
injustice and revered along with righteousness. Throughreligious rituals and other means, the idea and notion arebroadly shared.
Under the post-revolutionary Islamic regime, the religious
concept of martyrdom has been expanded and gradually meantsacrifice to a consequence of faith, in other words, the Islamic
regime itself. In the case of the new corona, the martyrs haveincluded those who lost their lives in responding against it. It
was not only the Basijis who went around disinfecting all thepart of the country, but also ordinary medical workers such as
doctors, nurses and so on (IRNA March 20, 2020; ISNA March
30, 2020; Khabargozārī Dāneshjū April 29, 2020)

34

A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in Iran

For My Research Activities
At the time of writing, the number of deaths since theclosure was lifted has not yet reached the number of deaths inlate March and early April. This may be due in part to theprogress made in securing the number of hospital beds andother measures for the treatment of patients. Of course, there is
no doubt that the situation remains unpredictable.
The development of these new coronas has had no small
effect on the research I have been conducting in recent years.
In recent years, I have researched on the preservation of thememory of the Iran-Iraq War heroes (1980-1988). These war
dead make up the majority of what we call martyrs in Iran today.
Forty years have passed since the outbreak of the war and morethan 30 years have passed since the ceasefire. Bereaved
families and the returning soldiers have gotten older. It is notuncommon for the parents of the war martyrs to have alreadypassed away. In the course of my research over the past five
years, several bereaved family members have also passed away.
In other words, it is gradually becoming more and moredifficult for Iranian society to talk directly about the martyrs.
The COVID-19 pushed back the situation and it is notuncommon for the affected families to disappear. (Taṣnīm
April 29, 2020)

EndnotesI

In spite of this suspension plan, flights continued, and they had
53 flights until February 23 (Aoki 2020).

35

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

II

The Number of new infection cases and death cases is basedon official press release by the Ministry of Health.

III

There was clear number of positive cases in each province
until March 22 but since that day it became unclear in theofficial release.

IV

Basij is normally translated “para militia organization of
IRGC”. As the term originally means “mobilization”, theytend to be pro-state voluntary association in various
professions such as civil servants, peer guilds, college
students, athletes, etc. It has a strong aspect as a service groupto the state formed within an organization. About thedevelopment of the Basij, see Golkar (2016).

V

About development of concept of martyr in the early Islam,
See Cook (2007). About contemporary development
especially Muslim political activities, see Hatina and Litvak(2017).

References
Aoki, Kenta. 2020. “Iran: Shingata Koronauirusu
Kansenkakudai no Haikei to Eikyo (Background andInfluence of Expansion of COVID-19)” Chuto
Kawaraban 200
https://www.meij.or.jp/kawara/2019_200.html（accessedon June 4, 2020）

36

A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in IranCook, David. 2007. Martyrdom in Islam. Cambridge and New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Golkar, Saeid. 2016. Captive Society: the Basij Militia andSocial Control in Iran. Washington, D.C., and New
York：Cambridge University Press.
Hatina, Meir and Litvak Meir, eds. 2017. Martyrdom andSacrifice in Islam: Theological, Political and Social
Contexts. London: I. B. Tauris.
Khabargozārī Dāneshjū. April 29, 2020. “More than 100
Martyrs in the front line against Corona: There is nocompromise between devices in the battle against
COVID-19” https://snn.ir/fa/news/844002/（accessed onJune 4, 2020）
Khabar online. February 18, 2020. “Explanation on death of
two patients in Qom: It was not by Corona”
https://www.khabaronline.ir/news/1353941/（accessed onJune 4, 2020）
Hamshahrī online. March 2, 2020. “Arrest of a Person who
Tried to Lick the Shrine”
https://www.hamshahrionline.ir/news/488313/（accessedon June 4, 2020）———. March 19, 2020. “Important Warning of 5 Former
Ministers of Health to the President: If You Decide Late,
the Damage Is Irreparable”

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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

https://www.hamshahrionline.ir/news/494057/（accessedon June 4, 2020）
IRNA. March 22, 2020. “Level 3 Quarantine against theCorona is Implemented”
https://www.irna.ir/news/83723799/（accessed on June 4,2020）——— March 26, 2020. “43 Doctors and Nurses weremartyred by Corona” https://www.irna.ir/news/83727463（accessed on June 4, 2020）
ISNA March 17, 2020. “Serving Supply of the Nation under
Exposure of the Corona is Jihad”
https://www.isna.ir/news/98122720952/（Accessed onJune 4, 2020）——— March 30, 2020. “The service staff who died in theface of outbreak of the Corona virus should be consideredas ‘martyrs of service’”https://www.isna.ir/news/99011105667/（accessed onJune 4, 2020）——— June 6, 2020. “Iran is still under the first Wave ofCorona/ Possibility of Getting Vaccine in This Year is
Close to Zero”
https://www.isna.ir/news/99031709822/ （accessed onJune 6, 2020）

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A New Mode of Jihad and Martyrdom in Iran

Tābnak. March 5, 2020. “Details about ‘Basij-e Melli’ against
Corona” https://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/963889/ (accessedon June 4, 2020)Taṣnīm. March 13, 2020. “Major General Baqeri: Streets,
Roads and Public Centers will be Empty in the Next 24hours”
https://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1398/12/23/222250
2/（accessed on June 4, 2020）———. April 29, 2020. “Which parents of ‘a few martyrs’
passed away under the expansion of Corona?”
https://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1399/02/09/225269
0/ （accessed on June 4, 2020）

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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Author’s Profile
Kenji KURODA: Project Assistant Professor, Center for Modern
Middle East Studies at the National Museum of Ethnology/ Research
Fellow, Center for Transdisciplinary Innovation, National Institutefor the Humanities. Ph.D. (Area Studies, Kyoto University).
Specialties: Middle East Area Studies, Cultural Anthropology,
Iranian Politics, and Modern Japan-Iran History. Among his recent
works: An Introduction to Islam for Students and Working Adults (coeditor), Kyoto: Nakanishiya, 2018, Religion and State in Iran:
Politics, Faith and Practice in Contemporary Shiism, Kyoto:
Nakanishiya, 2015. Among his research articles: “Pioneering IranianStudies in Meiji Japan: Between Modern Academia and International
Strategy”, Iranian Studies 50-5, 2017.

40

7
What Does COVID-19 Imply for
Nuclear-Armed North Korea?

CHOI Jung Hoon
Senior Researcher
Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan Research Organization
Ritsumeikan University(June 12, 2020)
I would like to relate my thoughts on “COVID-19 in
relation to nuclear-armed DPRK (North Korea)”. Thirty years
have passed since the end of the Cold War, and a kind ofparadigm shift or backlash from globalism to internationalism
seems to have begun. Now, in 2020 we are in a different kindof war; COVID-19 has overwhelmed the world in 2020.
First of all, Coronavirus is similar to North Korea, hidingin the dark. An alleged report that Kim Jong Un had fallen into41

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

a coma or even died was prevalent in western mass and social
media in the first half of 2020. For example, during aninterview on May 1, a South Korean politician reported that hehad confirmed Kim Jong Un was dead. However, this turned
out to be fake news because a subsequent broadcast from North
Korea showed that Kim Jong Un was alive and well. Like
COVID-19, the DPRK has been a “black box” and we can only
collect small pieces of information about it nowadays bypeeping at its surface from the eyes of satellites, or snooping
into its domestic politics by hearing the testimonies of defectors,
who are regarded as reliable inside informers.
Any scientific research including area studies on North
Korea has to exclude subjectivity, and we are often misled byfalse information, as shown above, so we have to make efforts
to remain scientifically objective. Otherwise, we will sufferfrom what is called “confirmation bias”; that is, we are all
programmed to see what we want to.
Fighting against a coronavirus that we remain uncertain
how to deal with should also be based on science. If other more
subjective factors such as politics and the economy outweighthe scientific approach, which should play the leading role,
human beings’ efforts to survive it will suffer a disastrous
failure.
Officially, the death toll from COVID-19 in North Korea is“zero”. The Russian Ambassador to DPRK recently stated that
DPRK had succeeded in blocking the wave of coronavirus
infections, but it is uncertain whether this is true. However, theNorth Korean preventive measures against the COVID-19 were
rigorously harsh as all the bordars were locked down and all of
those seen as potentially infected with the virus, including
diplomats from foreign countries were quarantined, even42What Does COVID-19 Imply for Nuclear-Armed North Korea?

though this would have been viewed as a violation of Vienna
Treaty.
While the North Korean blockade and quarantine musthave gone too far from the view of democratic countries, it has
been proved effective in preventing the occurrence ofCoronavirus. Moreover, no one was wearing a face mask in the
Fourth Enlarged Meeting of the Seventh Central MilitaryCommission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) held inMay. Considering these facts, it may be possible that the DPRK
quarantine measures have been as successful as those ofVietnam and Taiwan have been, whereas some of the watchers
carefully observing North Korean events expected that
COVID-19 would have devastated North Korea.
Meanwhile at the end of May in the US total deaths
exceeded 100,000. This is equivalent to the combined total of
all the fatalities in the Korean War (about 36,500), the Vietnam
War (about 58,000), the Iraq War (about 4,500), and theAfghanistan War (about 2,000). In its wake, the warped socialand economic disparity in the US has finally imploded.
It is interesting to note that the death toll and social impact
on America in the case of nuclear bombs being detonated in US
metropolitan cities would be much greater than the number of
COVID-19 cases. The number killed by the nuclear bombingof Hiroshima reached about 140,000 by the end of 1945, andabout 300,000 as of now. In addition, Nukemap estimates “onlyone” 250kt nuclear bomb detonated on New York City would
create fierce heatwaves and a blast that could take at least
950,000 precious lives. Under the same scenario in Tokyo andSeoul, the estimated death tolls could be 630,000 and 620,000
respectively. Either of these figures surpasses theapproximately 420,000 lives the Coronavirus had taken
43

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

worldwide by June 12, 2020.
Furthermore, a nuclear war would not only kill millions ofpeople but also shut down medical facilities and services more
severely than COVID-19. Moreover, the lifelines which didn’t
malfunction during the first and second virus waves, could beparalyzed since nuclear weapons cause blackouts, the fear ofwhich Japan already experienced in 2018 Hokkaido Eastern
Iburi earthquake. Without a doubt, the economic loss would beincomparable. In fact, these social and economic malfunctions
during a nuclear war could contribute to raising the death tolleven higher, and if North Korea possessed and used other
WMDs such as bacteriological weapons, it could become far
worse.
Since 1948, Japan has allowed US troops to be stationed on
its soil and has yet to normalize its relationship with the DPRK.
Therefore a nuclear war initiated by North Korea, with thepotential to escalate into World War III, would almost certainly
devastate Japan. As a Korean living in Japan, I hope that thiswill never happen.
To sum up, waging nuclear war is completely irrationalfrom a scientific perspective. The wise position that a nuclear
war should never be allowed to occur should be firmly held on
to during the new COVID era. I will dedicate myself to security
studies in Northeast Asia focusing on the DPRK in order tocontribute to the prevention of such a catastrophic war.

44

What Does COVID-19 Imply for Nuclear-Armed North Korea?

Author’s Profile
Dr. CHOI Jung Hoon: Senior Researcher at Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan
Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, where he teaches
East Asian Studies. His academic focuses are International Relations,
Security Studies, and Area Studies on the Korean Peninsula. He
published Why has the Nuclear Crises in the Korean Peninsula been
Repeated in March 2020 and has written many articles related to
North Korea, such as “Advancement of North Korea’s Nuclear
Weapons and Survivability under the Kim Jong Un Regime: An
Assessment based on Nuclear Deterrence Theory”, Journal of the
Asia-Japan Research Institute of Ritsumeikan University, l, July 2019,
pp.73-94.

45

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

8
The Joy of Reading Personal Histories
from the Primary Sources:
Encounters during My Research on
Islamic Thinkers in Egypt

Ayaka KURODA
Associate Professor
Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan Research Organization
Ritsumeikan University(July 10, 2020)
I would describe myself as an early career researcher in
Middle Eastern studies. I’ve been engaging in the study of46

The Joy of Reading Personal Histories

contemporary Muslim intellectuals, their ideas, and their rolesin the Arab-Islamic society. While secularization is widely
recognized in Japan as the prerequisite of modern society,religion controls social life in Egypt, my research focus, to agreater extent than in Japan. As a result, religious and social
problems often emerge as intertwined issues, and disputes arise
over the relationship between religion, law, and politics.
Some Egyptian thinkers have been trying to solve these
problems by renewing the interpretations of Islamic thought
and pursuing the creation of the “Islamic modernity” as analternative to the secular modernity. Their ideas evolve aroundthe coexistence of different religions and civilizations, therefutation of radical thought, and the relationship of religion todemocracy. Their ideas help us to understand the current
standpoint of Islamic thought, which remains unknown inJapan as well as in the West.
Most works of these intellectuals are written in Arabic andnot translated into English, to say nothing of Japanese. For thisreason, starting with the Cairo International Book Fair held
annually from January to February, I have found opportunities
to travel to the region to collect literature and conduct
interviews. It is an enjoyable experience to encounter new
books, but not easy to bring them back to Japan safely.
In my last fieldwork in Egypt in February 2020, one of myinformants generously offered me books related to my research.
I decided to pack all the precious materials in a suitcase andtake it back to Japan because of the postal situation in Egypt.
However, the books weighed twenty kilograms, which meantthat the suitcase I brought from Japan was far from sufficient.
Mr. Mustafa, who was working in the hotel where I stayed andalways offered me a cup of tea when I came back from myinterview work, took me to a bag shop downtown. I was
humbled when he yelled in front of the shop, “a Doktoor
47

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays(doctor) staying in my hotel is looking for a new suitcase!”
After having a typical conversation with an old storeowner, I
found a fine one (“This suitcase is a very good one and usuallyexpensive, but I’ll offer you a special discount because you’rea friend of Mustafa…”). A few hours later, I had to go there
again to ask the owner to exchange the suitcase for an even abigger one.
Finally, I rushed to the airport with two brimming suitcases
but encountered a new problem. Since there were so many
books inside the suitcase, an airport security suspected during
the X-ray examination that I intended to smuggle bills out of
the country, and I had to open my suitcase in front of him.
During my last fieldwork trip, I found a sense of crisis
about the COVID-19 virus that had silently spread in Cairo. We
could easily point out many factors which might accelerate thespread of the virus: the crowded markets and trains in Cairo,
the condition of public health in the overpopulated cities, andthe food culture based on bread. After the first carrier of thevirus was found in mid-February, the Egyptian government had
to seek a balance between the economic stagnation andpreventing the virus from spreading, as other countries aroundthe world were doing.
As is widely acknowledged, researchers on humanities arefacing unprecedented difficulties under the spread of COVID19. The pandemic has made international travel difficult andmany researchers are still unable to conduct fieldwork abroad.
Libraries and archives were closed under the lockdowns. The
sudden need for online teaching at universities also ate up thetime of faculty members which should have been ordinally
dedicated to research activities.
In fact, researchers engaging in area studies often facedifficulties according to the political and social situations incountries they focus on. Our fieldwork abroad becomes48

The Joy of Reading Personal Histories

impossible when wars break out or our research topics arefrowned on by the government. However, the pandemic newly
urges not only some researchers in area studies but all
researchers to consider how to “survive” in the situation whereinternational travel is impossible.
In my case, the books and documents which I havecollected for years enable me to continue research even in thecurrent different environment.
Fortunately, during my last fieldwork trip to Egypt, I founda book that is essential for my research. A compilation of theinterviews with Tariq al-Bishry (1933-2021), one of the mostrenowned Islamic thinkers in modern Egypt had been published.
Al-Bishry has been interested in the way to achieve
democracy and national unity in Egypt and the Arab countries,
and has been searching for a way to build a civilized society
independent from the West. Having left secularism in the early
1970s and started to reconsider the role of the Islamic
civilization, he authored books on many significant topics, suchas the tradition and modernity in the Islamic world, the unity ofMuslims and Christians, and the reform of Islamic law. Besides
his career as an intellectual, he served as a judge in the Egyptian
administrative court and sometimes issued a decision against
the autocratic regime’s will. Being a moderate Islamic thinker
as well as the defender of the rule of law and democracy, he hasgathered the respect of people with diverse political visions. In
the transition process after the collapse of the Mubarak regime
in 2011, he was inaugurated as the head of the committee
responsible for the revision of the Egyptian constitution. In thissense, his life as an intellectual and a judge strongly reflects thepolitical and social development in Egypt.
This book is based on interviews conducted during a twoyear period and was compiled by some Egyptian academics inorder to pass on his wisdom to the next generation. Not only49

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

did it contain his thought-provoking views on various topics
such as history, politics and Islamic thought, but it could also
be read as an oral memoir of his life. He was born in the era of
Egyptian nationalism in which the influence of Britain, theformer colonizer, remained strong. Then, he was attracted tosecularism in the period when the nationalist leaders wereadvocating independence. After that, he changed his direction
and started to write in the field of Islamic thought. By tracing
his personal history and his intellectual journey, the readers canunderstand the social and intellectual development of Egypt in
the twentieth century.
The book also covers the episodes which have not been
well described in his previous books, including his personal
relationship with his family and friends, his familiarity with
Sufism and Western literature, and the vivid psychologicalexperiences he gained during his pilgrimage to Mecca.
While following his personal history through the book, theepisode over “the appearance of Virgin Mary” attracted myattention. In April 1968, the rumor spread that the Virgin Mary
appeared in the Church of Saint Mary in the Zaitoun district inCairo. Even al-Ahram, the government-affiliated paper
reported this event in the headline. The rumor continued tospread from 1968 to 1971 and it became a social phenomenonin Egypt.
Both Christianity and Islam are monotheistic religions in
the Middle East and they sometimes share common religious
narratives; The story of the virginal conception of Mary
(Maryam in Arabic) is related in the Qur’an as well as in the
Bible. Therefore, not only Christians but Muslims rushed to the
Church of Saint Mary to witness the appearance of the Virgin
Mary.
Al-Bishry, who was still a secularist at that time, took atypical attitude concerning this case. Having heard about the50

The Joy of Reading Personal Histories

rumor, he visited the church with friends at one time and withhis family at another time. Unfortunately, he saw nothing but
the light from inside the church. Instead, what attracted his
attention was the gathering of Christians of all ages who visitedthe church to witness Mary. They seemed to have come fromthe various parts of the country. Among them were even elderly
people in the wheelchairs. Despite different religious
affiliations, both Muslims and Christians shared a belief in anddeep attachment to the Virgin Mary. Al-Bishry recalls that thisevent caused him to pursue the theme of the relationshipbetween Muslims and Christians over the years.
Recently, I found that Rev. Moritada Murayama, aJapanese clergyman dispatched to Egypt from 1964 to 1968,
also mentioned this incident in his book, Living in the Coptic
Society.
Rev. Murayama visited the Church of Saint Mary in thespring of 1968. Although he visited the church impelled bycuriosity, he took a skeptical view of the appearance of theVirgin Mary. He visited the church in the daytime and did not
see anything like that.
However, he was shocked to see the apparent sick people
who were laying in the garden of the church. They seemed tohave traveled from the rural areas and believed they would
recover from their sickness if they could catch sight of SaintMary. The scene he saw was similar to the one al-Bishry
witnessed.
According to Rev. Murayama, he generally interpreted theepisodes in the Bible where Jesus Christ cured the sick as justa miracle tale. However, seeing those who longed for a glanceof Saint Mary to have their illness cured, he felt as if he had
been transported to the world of 2000 years ago. He described,“I felt as if I had encountered the unswerving fact that could
not be disregarded as a miracle tale in the Bible.”51

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

The appearance of Virgin Mary in Cairo in the late-1960s
and the people’s gathering as a result had a different influenceon the Egyptian Muslim thinker and the Japanese clergyman.
The former, al-Bishry began to tackle the problem of the unityof Muslims and Christians. It also gave Rev. Murayama an
important opportunity to reconsider the interpretation of the
Bible and the meaning of faith for both ancient and modern
humans.
Though we, researchers, do not necessarily write aboutsuch discoveries in our papers, it brings great joy to us.
Borrowing from Rev. Murayama’s words, I felt as if I too had
stood in the Cairo of around fifty years ago and witnessed theintersection of the different personal histories.
Under the continuing spread of COVID-19, I feel someanxiety and exhaustion. In order to cope with these difficulties,
it is important to find and collect such small joys in our daily
lives. I wish I could delve into the mountainous pile of Arabic
books and documents, which I have been collecting dust for
years.
References
Ghanim, Ibrahim al-Bayyumi and Nadiya Mustafa, eds. 2019.
Interviews with Tariq al-Bishry: An Intellectual Journey
between the Self and the Community. Cairo: Dar al-Bashir
li-l-Thaqafa wa al-ʻUlum. (in Arabic)
Nagasawa, Eiji. 2004. “Shipping books from Egypt.” The
Research and Information Center for Asian Studies, The
University of Tokyo. (in Japanese)(http://ricas.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/asj/html/es01.html) accessed onJune 26, 2020.
Murayama, Moritada. 1974. Living in the Coptic Society.
Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. (in Japanese)

52

The Joy of Reading Personal Histories

Author’s Profile
Ayaka KURODA: Associate Professor, Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan
Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University. Ph. D. (Area Studies,
Kyoto University). Specialties: Studies of Islamic Political Thought,
Middle Eastern Studies, and Study of Modern Egypt. Among her
works: Moderate Islamic Thinkers Formulating the Future: In the
Midst of Social and Political Transformation in Contemporary Egypt,
Kyoto: Nakanishiya, 2019; “Rethinking Discussions on ‘Islam’ and‘State’ in Contemporary Egypt: The Community Based Approach in
Tariq al-Bishri’s Political and Legal Thought,” Annals of Japan
Association for Middle East Studies, 34 (2), 2018, pp.1-34.

53

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

9
Reformulating Religious Tourism after
COVID-19: Reflections on Area Studies fromthe Perspective of Mobility

Shin YASUDA
Associate Professor
Department of Tourism Policy
Faculty of Regional Policy
Takasaki City University of Economics(July 15, 2020)
On the 21st of June 2020, while I was checking the news
on my PC screen, I was surprised to see the Saudi government’s
announcement that Masjid Haram in Makkah would be
reopened for visitors after the three months of closure. Thisannouncement indicated the temporal end of the turmoil of
COVID-19 in the MENA region and the Islamic world.

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Reforming Religious Tourism after COVID-19

Due to the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, the religious
landscape in the Islamic world was completely transformed.
During my research of religious tourism in the MENA (Middle
East and North Africa) region, I have observed that religious
journeys such as pilgrimages and religious visits to holy places
have a strong linkage with the tourism industry and the market
economy. In this environment, utilizing religious tours and tour
operators has gained popularity among religious followers, andreligious travel has been popularized. In this situation,
overcrowded scenes in Makkah and other religious places havebecome quite familiar to me and to others watching theunfolding events.
However, as most of the OIC (Organization for Islamic
Cooperation) countries have enforced border closures andstrictly restricted human mobility, the livestreaming of areligious landscape devoid of people has become common. As
this unusual situation in the religious places has become thenorm, I really got bewildered by what I was seeing on my PC
screen. Moreover, as the closure of mosques and religious
facilities has become a regular occurrence in every country,
Muslim societies are now recommending prayer at home orvirtual prayer as the ‘new normal’. Even though some mosques
are going to reopen, most of them are introducing social
distancing or the “new normal” protocol at Friday prayers,which I still feel is rather strange. As I continue to see theseradical changes in the social scenes in the Islamic world, I
remain perplexed about how to understand this emerging world
after the COVID-19 epidemic.
Needless to say, the ongoing situation of COVID-19 isstrongly influencing religious mobility in the MENA region.
As religious visitors who have visited religious sites in Saudi
55

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Arabia, Iraq, and Iran have caused the spread of COVID-19 invarious counties in the world, it has become clear that religious
mobility and epidemics are strongly connected. In the recent
epidemics of SARS in 2002 and 2003, or H1N1 influenza in
2009, the Saudi government and other OIC countries requested
every religious visitor to carry a health certificate and enforced
quarantine regulations. This situation shows the relationshipbetween religious mobility and epidemics is like two sides of acoin.
The emerging situation is not only limited to religious
mobility, as our social lives have also been deeply influenced
by the COVID-19 epidemic. As I have been experiencing life
during the State of Emergency in Japan, I have keenly sensed
that our social lives have become dependent on physicalmobilities like tourism, leisure, communication, andcommuting to our workplaces. No matter how much ourcontemporary society has developed information technology
and communication devices to alter physical contact into digitalspaces, and how much our social life has become lessdependent on physical interactions, we are still dependent on
physical encounters and interplays in every aspect of our social
lives. In this sense, we will face questions on reconsidering ourcontemporary situation from the perspective of ouraccumulated knowledge. How can we explain the premature
lifting of borders and the suspension of human mobilities in
MENA region countries like Egypt, Dubai and Turkey, despite
the ongoing spread of COVID-19 in those countries? Or how
is it that we are suffering from severe difficulties in the tourism
industry today, when various environmental figures werecomplaining about over-tourism in the world last year?

56

Reforming Religious Tourism after COVID-19

Whenever suspension of human mobility is going to besystematically relaxed, social anxiety and uncertainly still
remains. Even though epidemic prevention measures are put inplace, our underlying social anxiety and uncertainly about
whether somebody nearby has COVID-19 or not flags any
stranger as a “potential risk”. This potentially threatening social
environment drives us to construct new social barriers andboundaries to avoid or diminish this ‘potential risk’. In fact,with this in mind, Japan and other parts of the world arepresently discussing the avoidance of long-distance journeys,
and instead promoting short-distance travel or what are known
as “travel bubbles” or “micro tourism” in the field of tourism.
This kind of discussion shows that social barriers andboundaries to prevent mobility have already been constructedin our societies, in order to avoid and diminish “potential risk”.
The effects from the emergence of this new “potential risk”
will remain with us in the post-COVID-19 era. No matter how
far vaccine and quarantine systems develop, and how muchpeople are able to enjoy their vacations anywhere in the world,
these social barriers and boundaries will not be diminished. In
our ongoing arguments, we tend not to discuss the proper waysof coexisting with this “potential risk” in the coming future, but
are rather avoiding or diminishing the risk by isolating
ourselves from the surrounding environment. In this sense, thecoming post-COVID-19 era is going to bring social pressuresto erect severalfold social boundaries among people to avert“potential risk” in our societies. I am wondering whether thiskind of discussion will lead to the abandonment of our accepted
way of social life, or even our way of thinking itself, which
would completely destroy human beings’ social existence.

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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

However, I am not yet despairing about our coming future.
History teaches us that we have struggled to construct various
social practices to avoid this “potential risk” in our social
livelihood before. Various religions and cultures have kept
their social values while encompassing this potential risk andcontinued to develop their environments as human beings aswell. In the case of Islam, hospitality, manners, and etiquettecalled “diyafa” in Arabic, have promoted the welcoming of
strangers in any Muslim society, and travelers can enjoy
hospitality in peace, which has strongly contributed to theenhancement of the Islamic community as a social hub in theworld. These kinds of interactions and communications havecontributed to the development of human societies in various
areas in the world.
In the post-COVID-19 era, therefore, we should reconsider
the social meaning of this hospitality which we have developed.
I strongly believe that area studies, which considers the actual
situation of societies based on an interdisciplinary approach,has the potential to contribute to the coming future byreconstructing new societies and new human lifestyles. As I am
presently restricted to this small part of the world in Gunma
Prefecture, Japan, I continue to read books and articles,
thinking of future possibilities for area studies.
Note: The idea for this essay is based on the symposium“Tourism Study after COVID-19” held by the Institute of
Humanities, Human and Social Science at Ritsumeikan
University, Kyoto, Japan on 5th July 2020.

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Reforming Religious Tourism after COVID-19

Postscript （Added November 30, 2020）
In the end of July, Saudi government held hajj rituals with
about 1,000 pilgrims with strict health protocols. Pilgrims who
lived in Saudi Arabia and submitted negative records after two
weeks isolation had the right to perform the rituals. The sceneof pilgrims social distancing as they circled Kaaba indicated asignificant change in our coming world.
After the success of hajj rituals in July, the Saudi
government has gradually resumed its restrictions for pilgrims
by constructing health protocols for them. Despite the ongoing
epidemic of COVID-19 in the country, the Saudi government
began to accept umrah pilgrims inside Saudi Arabia from
October 4, and it opened a door for international pilgrims from
November 1. In the resumption of the pilgrimage to Makkah in
the COVID-19 era, the Islamic world has gradually accepted a
new way of religious mobilities based on public health andscientific evidence.
In the ongoing situation of COVID-19 in Japan, thisauthor’s surrounding environment has also changed, which is
working as a positive reinforcement. With the development ofdigital interactions in our social lives, our connectedness withother people and society is also going through the digital spaces
like Zoom, SNS (social networking services) and other digitalapplications, and the digital divide between our society andother societies has been radically eliminated. In this changing
environment, through the worldwide development of the digital
sphere, we can easily connect with fellow researchers in ouracademic fields, check research data and enjoy various kinds ofacademic communication.
However, I am also reacknowledging the importance of“local sensibility” which is strongly embedded in physicalinteractions and communication in a certain social environment.
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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

As one of the significances of area study is to clarify the “local
sensibility” in a certain society, I am still struggling to clarify
this “local sensibility” in the Islamic world through the digital
sphere. In this situation, we are now considering our “newsense of area study” with physical disconnectedness in the eraof COVID-19.

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Reforming Religious Tourism after COVID-19

Author’s Profile
Shin YASUDA: Associate Professor, Department of Tourism Policy,
Faculty of Regional Policy, Takasaki City University of Economics,
Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Ph.D. (Area Studies, Kyoto
University). Specialties: Islamic Area Studies, Religious Tourism in
the MENA Region and the Islamic World, History of Tourism,
Anthropology of Tourism. Among his works: Religious Tourism in
Asia: Tradition and Change Through Case Studies and Narratives,
CABI, 2018 (co-edited with Razaq Raj and Kevin Griffin);“Managing Halal Knowledge in Japan: Developing Knowledge
Platforms for Halal Tourism in Japan”, Asian Journal of Tourism
Research, 2(2): 65-83, 2017.

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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

10
Contemporary Middle East Studies
under the COVID-19 Crisis:
Countermeasures to the “Field Survey”

Shun WATANABE
Visiting Researcher
Oxford School of Global and Area Studies
University of Oxford (Sasakawa Peace Foundation fellow)
Visiting Researcher
Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan Research Organization
Ritsumeikan University(July 24, 2020)
In July, when classes are over, we have more freedom in
our research activities in a normal year. This year, however, I
have been analyzing data and writing papers in my own room,

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Contemporary Middle East Studies Under the COVID-19 Crisis

without going to the field or to academic conferences. In thisessay, I would like to review the current situation and provide
a perspective on future research activities.
I have been doing my research at Oxford School of Globaland Area Studies, University of Oxford, since November 2018
under the fellowship of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. As a
Japanese person who had been engaged in research activities inJapan until completing my doctoral course, the sudden
expansion of opportunities to interact with people from all over
the world at the University of Oxford, a node of the global
network, was dramatic, and offered me a golden opportunity to
expand my research network apace while receiving a lot of
intellectual stimulation. As a researcher in the field ofcontemporary Jordanian politics where there are few
researchers, it was an irreplaceable pleasure for me to get toknow other researchers who had the same research interest or
who worked in the same region.
As a political scientist on the Middle East, it is essential forme to conduct on-the-spot investigations, even though I am
based in an international research center. In the summer of2019 last year, I conducted fieldwork in Jordan for four months,
and this time I conducted a special survey on decentralization
reforms that have been promoted in Jordan in recent years. The
experience of visiting various local governments in different
regions in order to delve into the reality of local politics andadministration, where the scenes of reform evolve, has broughtme an invaluable harvest of information. I will never forget theconversations I had with people from various backgrounds,
how the scenery and atmosphere changed according to theareas I visited, and the specific ambience to each town.
However, this lifestyle was changed drastically by theworldwide spread of COVID-19. Workshops and daily study
meetings, as well as academic conferences, were canceled or
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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

postponed one after another, and university offices, libraries,
and other related facilities were closed. I was supposed to be at
the world’s hub of academic exchange, but I found myself
alone in my room. Unlike in the United Kingdom, the spreadof infection is fairly limited in Jordan, but it has strict policies
to prevent the spread of infection, and all regular flights havebeen suspended. It is no longer easy to cross borders and there
is no prospect of going for fieldwork so far.
This change in circumstances was a huge blow to me as I
was eager to present the results of last year’s fieldwork fromthis spring to summer. Through research presentations, I
wanted to improve the compilation of research results, to gain
new knowledge, and to expand research networks, but theopportunities became quite limited. In addition, I have started
a new research project for a comparison between Jordan and
Morocco this year by developing the accumulated research up
to now, but the prospects of the next fieldwork are not clear,which worries me. I base my analysis on published materials
and public information from governments, local governments,
political organizations, and civil society organizations, butaccess to data and the direction of information interpretation
require interviews with various people on the ground, visits toinstitutions, casual conversations with people on the street, andunexpected encounters.
Under such a situation, the study of modern Middle Easternpolitics by a foreign researcher is in an extremely difficult task.
It does not mean, however, that we are just sitting here waiting
for the death of our research. Even if we can’t replicate
perfectly our ideal research environments, we can try toapproximate them. In particular, I believe that the following
two points will be a key to future research activities.

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Contemporary Middle East Studies Under the COVID-19 Crisis

The first is research exchange activities online. Online
research has emerged as a new standard as a result of the global
COVID-19 crisis. Although adjusting the time difference istroublesome, there is a growing recognition that researchexchanges can be conducted anywhere in the world as long as
there is an Internet environment. This means that any institution
in the world can be at the center of a research network like theUniversity of Oxford and can network with researchers fromall over the world, no matter where they are physically.
Although my term of overseas research at Oxford will end in
September, I would like to maintain and expand my research
network with the world even after I return to Japan under thisnew standard.
The second is online information gathering. While limitedin comparison to the developed democratic countries, theMiddle East is also making progress in online access. We hopethat we will be able to gather information on public documents
and newspaper media online to get a little closer to the realityof the region. Moreover, as highlighted in the 2011 series ofpolitical upheavals in the Arab States, or the so-called “ArabSpring”, the development and penetration of social media isalso progressing in the Middle East, with social media
becoming a source of new information. On social media, it is
becoming possible to use not only the content of speech but
also location information. Geospatial analysis could be also
used, although its availability is still limited. Social media
analysis has the potential to approach topics that are only
accessible through public government information, viewpoints
that are overlooked in traditional media coverage, andfieldwork. We will prepare for the future of being able toconduct field research while pushing forward with research in
the new field online. These are my plans for the current
situation.
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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Author’s Profile
Shun WATANABE: Visiting Researcher at Oxford School of Globaland Area Studies, University of Oxford (Sasakawa Peace Foundation
fellow) / Visiting Researcher at Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan Research
Organization. Ph.D. (Area Studies, Kyoto University). Specialties:
Middle East Area Studies, Contemporary Jordan Politics, andContemporary Arab Monarchy Studies. Among his works:
Governance and Society in the Contemporary Arab MonarchicalStates: A Case Study of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Ph.D.
Thesis, Kyoto University, March 2018; “Challenges for National
Dialogue in the Post-Arab Spring Era: The Case of Bahrain”, Journalof the Asia-Japan Research Institute of Ritsumeikan University, 1,
2019, pp.56-72; “Political Reflections on Contemporary Monarchies
and Its Typologies in the Global Perspective: An Attempt to Analyze
Arab Monarchical States and Their Genealogical Legitimacy”, Kyoto
Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies, 11, 2018, pp.256-303.

66

11Life between Searching for the Classic
in Cyberspace and Going to the Field:
My Studies on Islamic Economics in the
Middle East and Southeast Asia

Ammar KHASHAN
Senior Researcher
Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan Research Organization
Ritsumeikan University(July 10, 2020)
More than 12 million people have been infected with
COVID-19, a global pandemic, and more than 540,000 havebeen killed so far. The United States, Brazil and India areamong the countries most affected by the disease, but the67

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

infection is also spreading to the Middle East, including Arabcountries, and to the Islamic countries. Even in Syria, where I
am from, information is limited due to the civil war, butaccording to reports from acquaintances, the number of people
infected has increased considerably.
I myself live in Japan, where the number of infected people
is relatively small, but it has had a significant impact on mywork, and I am worried about what will happen in the future.
In this series of essays, other researchers have written about
their worries that field-based researchers were not able to go totheir fields and that their research had been hampered.
In that respect, my situation is the same. Recently, I havebeen doing field research in the Muslim countries of Southeast
Asia (Malaysia and Indonesia), but from around March of thisyear (2020), we have not been able to travel from Japan to theircountries and they have not been able to come to Japan, so I
feel stressed by this difficulty.
My research approach, however, is to connect classics withmodern studies, so things may be a little better for me thanthose who focus exclusively on research in the field. Classics
here refers to Islamic literature written in classical Arabic.
I was born in Aleppo (Halab in Arabic), an ancient city innorthern Syria, and attended Damascus University in thecapital, for both my undergraduate and graduate studies. The
university’s Faculty of Islamic Law is considered one of theprestigious academic centers in Syria and throughout the Arabworld.
It seems to me that countries of the world vary widely inrespect to their historical depth. Some of them have a long
history, and even in the present day, their society is rooted in a
deep, multi-layered history, while there are others like America
which seem young and energetic (though I’ve never been there),
but where history does not seem to carry much weight. It has
68Searching for the Classic in Cyberspace and Going to the Field

been nine years since I first came to Japan. By living in Osakaand Kyoto, I often feel that Japan is a country with a long
history and I sense its gravity. Kyoto especially seems to me to
be a similar city to Aleppo and Damascus in that regard.
At the University of Damascus, I studied Islamic law,
Hadith studies, and Tafsir studies (the study of theinterpretation of the Holy Qur’an). The academic tradition ofthese classical knowledges continues to this day. However, themajor works in these sciences date from the 9th century to the18th century. This means in Japanese historical terms that manyof them were written from the Heian period to the Edo period.
After starting my study in Japan, I began to do my researchon modern Islamic economics at Kyoto University. I studied ina graduate school for Area Studies, so my focus was changed
to contemporary studies. It is a field-based research where we
conduct field surveys of modern societies.
Nevertheless, the Islamic economy is inseparable from theprovisions of the Islamic Law. The most crucial event inmodern Islamic economics was the creation of an interest-freebank based on the Islamic ban on riba (interest), which is also
called Bank La Ribawi (non-riba banking). This new brand ofmodern finance would not be possible unless the prohibition ofriba was clearly declared in the sacred book of Islam, which
was born in the seventh century. In other words, Islamic
economics exists because the legal provisions established in theseventh century still matter today.
Therefore, the Islamic studies that I have specialized in fora long time can be quite helpful for my study of modern Islamic
economics. I have been combining the classical and the modern
in my research. Not all studies related to Islam can do this. I
think this is a peculiarity of the field of Islamic economics.
Of course, Arabic classics are not freely available in Japan.
When I first came to Japan, there weren’t many of what can be69

Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

called “online libraries”. Over the years, however, a plethora of
Arabic classics has been converted into PDFs, making themquite freely available online.
Some argue, on this phenomenon of free libraries, that theArab world is less sensitive to copyright and intellectual
property rights. This argument has a valid point. On the other
hand, there is a deep-rooted belief that classics are intellectualcommon properties. Those who are engaged in thedissemination of classics online believe in this idea.
Today, famous classics can be found on any site, but there
are important books that are not very popular. Hunting aroundthe cyberspace for rare books is both my job and my hobby(When I was writing this, I came across the Japanese
expression “game walk”, which means to enjoy going aroundseeking books or other precious materials).
Even though the ease of finding classics helps me greatly,
my current specialty is field-based Area Studies, so it is painfulthat I cannot visit my field. Until a while ago, I was able tocombine taking classics out of cyberspace and going toSoutheast Asia, but right now I’m stuck in Japan worrying
about how long the “with-corona” situation will last. We
researchers want to revisit the field as soon as possible, but thereality is that we can’t.
I realize through my communication with acquaintances
and information from cyberspace that COVID-19 has broughtsome major problems to the Islamic world. The pandemic has
created the same medical problems everywhere, but in theIslamic world there are also religious and cultural issues.
It is known that Muslims pray to God five times a day. One
can pray alone at home, but it is recommended to pray together
in groups (Jamaʻah), so everyone goes to the mosque and offers
prayers together. However, under the present COVID-19
conditions, people are unable to gather. In other words,
70Searching for the Classic in Cyberspace and Going to the Field

everyone is required to avoid the “Three Cs”, the same as inJapan.
It is also common in the Arab world to shake hands andgive hugs when greeting. However, it was said that this should
be avoided as a corona countermeasure. In Islam, when suchproblems occur, we listen to the views of Islamic jurists. There
was a debate going on for a while about whether we didn’t haveto pray together at the mosque or shake hands when we meet.
The experience of the plague was not new. It was
documented in the early days of Islam. The “Black Death” inthe medieval period is also well-known. A major difference
between these instances and what we face today is that in thepast there was less medical knowledge about the causes andtransmission of diseases. In modern times, arguments by legal
scholars are also based on medical knowledge, so avoiding
praying in a group is not considered unethical in religious terms,
when the preservation of life has a priority. On the other hand,
there is a strong belief that Divine Decree determines the lifeand death of human beings, and some argue that it is not
ethically good to restrict religious activities too much. One
issue is how much priority should be given to the prevention of
infection, since preventive measures are not necessarily
almighty.
In Japan, infectious disease prevention and economic
measures sometimes conflict. It’s easy to see that both dying
from a disease or from an economic failure are matters of lifeand death. In the Islamic world, there is a conflict between the
medical and social issues of infection prevention and religious
ethics. I feel that this is one example of the cultural differencesthat make us work harder so that we can have a better
understanding of each other.

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Asia-Japan Today (1): Researchers’ Essays

Author’s Profile
Ammar KHASHAN: Senior Researcher at Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan
Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University. M.A. of IslamicLaw (Damascus University), Doctor of Area Studies (Kyoto
University). Specialties: Islamic Economics, the Study of the Islamic
World, Hadith Studies and Islamic Law Studies. Among his works:“The Qur’an’s Prohibition of Khamr (Intoxicants): A Historical andLegal Analysis for the Sake of Contemporary Islamic Economics”,
Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies, 9, 2016, pp.97-112; “Socialand Economic Transformations during the Prophetic Period of Islamand the Historical Developments of the Prohibition of Ribā”, Kyoto
Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies, 11, 2018, pp. 225-255 (in Japanese).

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ONLINE ISBN 978-4-9911356-4-4
PRINT ISBN 978-4-9911356-5-1
Asia-Japan Research Institute, Ritsumeikan University