Professor Masashi Haneda FBA

Summary

Masashi Haneda read history of pre-modern Iran at Kyoto University (BA in 1976) and at the University of Paris III (Ph.D in 1983). After joining the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (IASA), the University of Tokyo, he has enlarged his research field in both space and time to overcome the strong framework of national history and has been deeply engaged in historical research with a global perspective. He has worked on various topics on European East India Companies, maritime history of East Asia and established an international network on global history known as Global History Collaborative with Berlin, Paris and Princeton colleagues in 2014.

He has published a number of books and articles in Japanese and western languages. Among them, are 'Le système militaire safavide'. 'Le chah et les Qızılbaš'. Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1987, 'Islamic Urban Studies' (Co-editor), Kegan Paul International, 1994, 'Asian Port Cities 1600-1800', 'Foreign and Local Cultural Exchange' (editor), National University of Singapore Press & Kyoto University Press, 2009, 'Toward Creation of a New World History', Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture, 2018, 'A Maritime History of East Asia' (co-editor), Kyoto University Press and Trans Pacific Press, 2019).

At the University of Tokyo, he was appointed to the position of Director of IASA and then of Executive Vice President. He also founded an international and interdisciplinary advanced research institute called Tokyo College on UTokyo’s campus in 2019 and worked as its director for five years.

He received several awards including Farabi International Award (Iran in 2011), has been honored by Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor (Japan in 2017) and Ordre de Palme académique de la République française (Classe officier) (France in 2021) and was nominated as Person of Cultural Merits (bunka korosha) by the Japanese government in 2024.