my SOP

For the future Japanese applicants for the scholarship by Kuwait Gov. at Kuwait U.
今後、クウェート政府奨学金に出願される方々のために参考になれば。

《My SOP》
When I recognized the enormous importance of the Arab world and influential existence of Islam as a religion was the critical moment that two hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center, at my age of 14. Since then, I have keenly focused my interest in international relations, concerning how to make and maintain peace and order and whether it is possible or not to share values among people in different beliefs to the extent not to threaten others’ lives. This is the most fundamental reason that now I major in Politics in the University of Tokyo, and I have made it a rule to backpack in as many countries as I can and do fieldwork in order to put theory into practice and to try to get rid of my prejudices and stereotypes. The encounter with the actual Arab world, not on the drawing board, was when I visited my Syrian pen-pal last spring. Not only its culture and their life style but also political situations such as a big protest demonstration against the Israeli attacks to Gaza made a strong impression on me. Since even only people who were able to speak English gave me views and information which are seldom reported to outsiders, I believe that I must have been able to grasp the real meanings and concepts they used and to understand the live voices of the people in Arabic if I had a good command of it. Like this, I observed these glaring discrepancies of outlooks on occurrences in the Arab world between the inside and the outside of it, talking with Syrian people and refugees from Iraq. Of course this is highly probable in any languages and countries, but it seems that the international world needs more specialists with knowledge of Arabic, especially who come and go between academism and journalism, when we bear in mind the urgent importance of the Arab world and Islam in the contemporary world situation on power politics and economical structures over ballooning oil prices and prevailing discourses to connect directly “terrorism” or “fundamentalists” with the Arab people, Islam or Middle East, etc. As a fact that there can never be no appropriate comprehensive regional concept for the Arab world, Islam and Middle East shows, “the part of the world” is coming to have more so multi-tiered structures that we tend to easily produce discrepancies by ignorance, lack of imaginations, inappreciation and fixed ideas.

Ever since I can remember, I have had a strong sense of justice and responsibility, power of action, intellectual curiosity on different cultures and a spirit of inquiry especially on conflicts in the world. These came to be displayed in my days at Otone junior high school from 2000 to 2003, such as works as the vice president of student council, volunteer activities at an old people’s home and visiting Australia as a member of the town delegations, the experience of which was organized into a manuscript on the life and history of Aborigine for an English speech contest, which I won. From 2003 to 2006, I studied at Saitama Prefectural Fudooka High School, and the club activities I was absorbed in, such as Koto, Japanese traditional instrument, and Shodo, Japanese calligraphy, reinforced my identity as a Japanese and led me to the All-Japan High School Student National Competition, which was enough to make me believe that my Shodo ability, once evaluated as a semi-professional level, would contribute to comparative culture, particularly from views of a notion of space, time and color in Arabic calligraphy. From 2006 to 2008, in a liberal arts curriculum of the University of Tokyo, I made utmost efforts to enrich my education by studying a variety of fields, such as Political Science, Law, Philosophy of Law and Politics, International Relations, Classical and Contemporary Philosophy of the East and the West, History, Religious Studies, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Literature and Environmental Science, etc. As for languages, my TOEFL iBT score is 88, and I feel no inconvenience especially in reading French, though my other French skills leave much to be desired. It will make a quite positive contribution to work for not a few countries whose official languages contain both French and Arabic. As to German, it takes a long time to read, but it is possible. Lastly, as for my Arabic learning experience, I took classes in my university in 2006 and now I attend the Arabic class at Asahi Culture Center, but I have to admit the necessity to learn it much more intensively in order to rise above a beginner’s level and its almost impossibility to acquire a good Arabic speaking skill in Japan. From 2008, I moved up to the Faculty of Law, in which I major Politics, now I mainly study bases of Laws and Politics as compulsory subjects, but I plan to take also Islam and Arabic related classes after that, such as Islam Law, Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic Thoughts and History, etc.

After acquiring excellent Arabic language skills in Kuwait, graduating from my university and getting a master’s degree in International Relations, Peace Studies or Middle East Studies, I have some plans to contribute to “the part of the world” in the view of human security. (1) Working in the institution in Japan such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), where I deal with Official Development Assistance (ODA) and help people in “the part of the world” improve their quality of life, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), where I promote the relations on resource management in an economical administration among oil-producing countries, including Kuwait, and Japan, or Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), where I make efforts to establish the win-win relations in trades. (2) Entering the diplomatic service, and working in Middle East Division or working as a staff on the U.N., away from the Japanese national interest, in peace building and administrative sector for the region after making enough career and experiences. (3) Continuing to research Middle East’s political situation as a scholar in universities or a researcher at think tanks or sometimes reporting and writing articles in the media as a journalist. For an instance, topics for study are; Conditions and Possibilities of Liberal and Democratic Government in Monarchy As a Example of Kuwait, Political Stability with Resource Diplomacy and the Balance of Political Forces in Middle East, centering on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, etc.

For these reasons, I desire earnestly to enroll in the Arabic Language program at Kuwait University, perfectly concentrate on mastering Arabic, make great friends from not only Kuwait but also other Arabic countries and experience and observe the real, one-year-long life in Kuwait, which is the economical and political key place in the region.