Satoshi IKEUCHI, Professor of Religion and Global Security at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) of the University of Tokyo, Japan
Prof. Satoshi IKEUCHI is a scholar on the Middle East politics, Islamic Political issues and Global Security studies.
He established Religion and Global Security Division at RCAST, the University of Tokyo in 2018 and became its division head. He was an Associate Professor of Islamic Political Thought at RCAST for ten years since 2008.
As one of the leading public intellectuals in Japan he has been vigorously publishing and commenting on the Middle East and Islamic affairs and its relationship with Japan.
His weekly commentaries on security relations between Japan and the Middle East appears on Dubai-based Arabic newspaper Alroeya.
He was a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2009 and Visiting Fellow at the Clare Hall, University of Cambridge in 2010.
He is a non-resident scholar affiliated with the Strategic Studies Implementation and Research Centre of the Başkent University (BAŞKENT-SAM) in Ankara, Turkey.
His books were widely acclaimed and circulated in Japan. His first publication, Gendai Arabu-no Shakai Shiso: Shumatsuron-to Isramu-shugi (Contemporary Arab Social Thought: Eschatology and Islamism, Tokyo, Kodansha, 2002) earned Osaragi Jiro Prize for Critical Works. He was awarded Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities in 2009 for his book Islamu Sekai-no Ronjikata (Methods of Discussing Islam, Tokyo, Chuo Koron Shinsha, 2008).
His concise history of the Islamic State titled Isulamu Koku no Shogeki (The Shock of the Islamic State, Tokyo, Bungei Shunju, 2015) became one of the nation-wide best-selling books of the year in Japan. He was awarded Mainichi Publishing Culture Prize for this book in 2015.
For his overall achievement, he was awarded Nakasone Yasuhiro Prize in 2016.
In his pastime he also a cultural-social critique and his compilation of book-reviews Shomotsu-no Ummei (The Fate of Books, Tokyo, Bungei Shunju, 2006) was selected Mainichi Book Review Award in 2006.
His recent publication includes Saikusu-Piko Kyotei: Hyakunen-no Jubaku (Sykes-Picot Agreement: One Hundred Years of Obsession, Tokyo, Shinchosha, 2016) and Shia-ha to Sunna-ha (Shia and Sunna: On Sectarianism, Tokyo, Shinchosha, 2018).