Notes A Note on Pakistan Studies in Japan

Abstract

I feel a great pleasure to attend this gathering today held to launch a book, Pakistan-Japan Relations, A Chronology by Mr. Khalilur Rehman Shaikh as part of the activities to commemorate 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Japan. In the past 60 years, Pakistani writers have tried to introduce Japanese culture among Pakistani people through play-writes, stage and TV dramas, translations of a number of Japanese novels and fiction. They have also marvelously taken interest and participated in creating Haiku in Urdu language, the national language of Pakistan and the second largest speaking language in the world, and in other regional languages of Pakistan. Many renowned and prominent young poets in Pakistan are creating and publishing their Urdu Haiku collections. Besides Haiku, Ikebana has become a popular decorative art in mostly middle and upper middle class families in Pakistani urban life. Like Haiku and Ikebana, Judo and Karate have become very popular among young generations in Pakistan. We have regular gatherings to recite Urdu Haiku in our traditional mushairas and schools and classes have been established for teaching Ikebana and Judo and Karate. These efforts to introduce Japanese culture in Pakistan are, generally, not known in Japan. And in the same way, the efforts of Japanese scholars to study subjects that relate to Pakistan, especially its history and culture, are unfortunately not known the people of Pakistan. Even the scholars of relevant fields are not aware of such Japanese contributions due to several reasons, among them one is the language of research which is mostly Japanese.