Colloquia are held periodically with scholars from Japan and abroad. Over the years, this intimate setting of a small circle of scholars, has provided a forum for a wealth of ideas and helped broaden the base of the Institute’s ongoing research.
    indicates Zipped audio file available for downloading.

2020—

• 7 June 2018

  John C. Maraldo The Question of Responsibility in Metanoetical Philosophy

2015—2019

• 7 December 2017

  Clinton Godard Rethinking Japanese Militarism: Nichirenism and the Imperial Japanese Navy

• 5 October 2017

  Jacynthe Tremblay Nishida’s Logic between 1923 and 1932

• 21 July 2017

  YUSA Michiko The Contemplative Mood: Raimon Panikkar & Nishida Kitarō

• 20 June 2017

  Young-chan Ro Raimon Panikkar as Mystic: The Challenge to be Human

• 21 April 2017

  Jin Y. Park Women and Buddhist Philosophy

• 2 February 2017

  ASAKA Tomoki, Jakub RAJCANI, ABE Nakamaro Christianity and Bioethics

• 2 October 2015

  MAEDA Tsuyoshi Vistas for the Study of Religion: The Story of Rudolf Otto´s Travels

2010—2014

• 19 December 2014

  Thomas Kasulis, Moriya Tomoe, Kinugasa Masaaki, Fijimoto Yorio Panel discussion on Thomas Kasulis' Shinto

• 17 October 2014

  Shirahase Tatsuya, Takahashi Norifumi, Hoshino So Multinational Catholic Church and “Multicultural Coexistence” in Contemporary Japan

• 5 September 2014

  James Baskind Myōtei mondō and Discourse on the Afterlife during Japan’s Christian Century

• 10 January 2014

  I Son Jon Christianity and the Development of High School Textbooks in Korea

• 27 September 2013

  Kayama Hiroto Minjung Sinhak as Asian Theology

• 22 July 2013

  Satō Chitose Christianity and Chinese Society: The Tiananmen Generation and its Impact on Protestant "Home Churches"

• 7 June 2013

  Matsutani Motokazu Korean Christianity and Nationalism: Questioning the Historical Foundations of an "Ethnic Church

• 17 May 2013

  Murakami Shiho Protestant Churches in Shanghai: Changes in the Midst of Economic Development and Urbanization

• 26 April 2013

  Xu Yi Meng Christianity in a Contemporary Chinese rural village: Established and Unestablished Churches

• 22 February 2013

  Chao Hsing-Kuang Social Change and the Development of Protestantism in Taiwan after World War II

• 11 January 2013

  Morimoto Anri Rethinking the Essence of Christianity: from the Viewpoint of Asian Theology

• 30 October 2012

  Jörn Rüsen Humanism and Interreligious Discourse

• 14 December 2012

  Ma Miaoyan & Nagasawa Shiho Christianity in China and Taiwan today

• 27 July 2012

  Frank S. Ravitch Religion and the U.S. Presidential Election

• 13 July 2012

  Mario Poceski The Growth and Transformation of Christianity in Modern China

• 22 June 2012

  Graham Parkes How Philosophy Can Help Improve Things

• 6 October 2011

  Thomas P. Kasulis Japanese Philosophy and Religious Thought in the Modern Period

• 29 July 2011

  Iida Takafumi Charismatic Religion in Japan's Korean Society: Shamans and the Pure Gospel Church

• 14 July 2011

  Noguchi Ikuya Korean Pentecostalism in Japan: A Study of a Branch Church

• 6 June 2011

  Charles Strozier Religious Fundamentalism and Violence

• 15 October 2010

  Fuchigami Kyōko The Development of the Prayer-Center Movement in Korean Pentecostalism

• 30 September 2010

  Suzuki Michitaka Icons and Shamanism?

• 18 June 2010

  Levy McLaughlin Educational Activities in the Sōka Gakkai and its Qualifying Examination'

• 10 June 2010

  Yamada Masanobu The Dekasegi and Pentecostal Movements: The Case of the Brazilian Protestant Churches'

• 18 February 2010

  Ikegami Yoshimasa A Geneaology of Spiritualist Groups in Modern Japan: The Early Years of the 'Holiness' Movement

2005—2009

• 4 December 2009

  John McRae Meditative Experience and the Hermeneutic of Dismission: Critiquing Robert Sharf's Critique of a Modern Buddhist Rhetoric

• 24 July 2009

  Nakamura Tomotarō Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Japan: Its History and Status Quo

• 19 June 2009

  Jan Nattier Thinking through Translation: Learning from Chinese Buddhist Texts

• 29 January 2009

  Inaba Keishin Thoughts on an Age of Confusion: The Social Contributions of Religion and Thoughtfulness

• 12 December 2008

  Miyaji Naoko Facing Trauma: Using a 'Circular Island' Model

• 20 November 2008

  Ranjana Mukhopadhyaya Social Development, International Aid and Revival of Buddhism: 'Engaged Buddhism' in Cambodia

• 3 October 2008

  Miyahara Kōjirō Rethinking Disaster Recovery from the Viewpoint of Social Aesthetics

• 18 July 2008

  Uehara Tatsuto The Okinawan Trauma and its Denial: The Postwar Mentally Disabled and Home Care

• 12 June 2008

  Nishiyama Shiho Lessons on Mutual Aassistance Learned from the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster: Volunteer Spirit and Subsistence

• 9 May 2008

  Yoshikawa Sakiko Facial Expression and Kokoro: A Psychological Approach" / Funahashi Shintarō, "The Human Kokoro seen from the Cerebral Amygdala

• 18 January 2008

  Frédéric Girard Points of Contact between Zen and Pure Land Buddhism in the Early Kamakura Period: Nyojō's Verses on Wind Chimes

• 19 October 2007

  Sangheeta Menon Brain and Consciousness: Challenges in Science-Spirituality Dialogues

• 1 August 2007

  Gary Laderman Science is not a Religion, but it can be Religious

• 27 June 2007

  Tanana Yutaka The Philosophy of Nothingness and Process Philosophy

• 23 February 2007

  Nakayama Shigeru Ki and Kokoro in Eastern Medical Literature

• 11 November 2006

  Jane Goodall We Can Change the World: Building Bridges of Hope [Special lecture co-sponsored with Nanzan University, SAGA, and JGI-Japan]

• 6 October 2006

  Iriki Atsushi The Neurobiology of Intelligence: The Incipient Evolution of Symbolic Thinking in the Brains of Tool-Using Monkeys

• 30 June 2006

  Nishihira Tadashi Identity and Spirituality as Seen from a Non-substantialist, Non-ego Ontology

• 3 February 2006

  Sanda Ichirō Physics and God

• 15 December 2005

  Matsuzawa Tetsurō The Evolution of Mind in Humans and Chimpanzees

• 2 December 2005

  Tomita Naohide Diversity and Peace of Mind in Medical Engineering

• 11 November 2005

  Ōshima Yasuji Earth Life and Human Activity

• 29 September 2005

  Tanaka Yutaka Three Views on Hansen's Disease: Literature, Ethics, and Religion

• 23 June 2005

  Hashimoto Shūji Can a Machine with kokoro be made?

• 16 June 2005

  Kaya Wataru Traditional Japanese Beliefs and Psychoanalysis

• 19 May 2005

  Tanaka Keiji Kokoro and Brain Science: Goal-Directed Behavior and the Pre-Frontal Association Cortex

• 13 May 2005

  Satō Tetsuya Are Humanity and Nature Understandable with Reason Alone?

• 22 April 2005

  Yokoyama Teruo Science and Religion on Evolution

2000—2004

• 14 December 2004

  Frank E. Budenholzer The Science and Religion Dialogue in Greater China: The Current Situation and Future Possibilities

• 11 November 2004

  Ashina Sadamichi The Dialogue between Science and Religion: Current State and Issues

• 17 September 2004

  Yamamoto Sukeyasu The Absence of Conflict between Science and Religion: A Christian View

• 14 May 2004

  James W. Jones Terror and Transformation: The Paradox of Religion

• 27 February 2004

  Ursula King Gender and Interreligious Dialogue

• 23 January 2004

  Yoshizawa Gorō The "Dialogue among Civilizations" and the Universality of the Sacred: A Comparative Culture Perspective

• 26 September 2003

  William LaFleur Is 'Human Nature' Ready for Autopsy?: Philosophy and Biotechnology

• 18 June 2003

  Victor Hori Mixing Gold with Sand to Sell it: Translating the Zenrin kushū

• 11 May 2003

  Fujita Masakatsu Passion in Emptiness

• 16 January 2003

  Walter Van Herck Four Ways of Doing Philosophy of Religion

• 6 December 2002

  Mase Hiromitsu Pluralism and Religious Studies in Japan

• 17 January 2002

  Ashida Tetsurō The Arc of Jesus and Aum Shinrikyō: Understanding and the Failure to Understand

• 8 November 2001

  Yumiyama Tatsuya Religion and 'Cults'

• 19 October 2001

  Fujita Shōji From Freedom of Religion to Freedom of the Spirit: Things Seen in Gathering Information on 'Cults'

• 31 May 2001

  Yamaguchi Hiroshi Social Problems in Religion and the Guidelines of the Japanese Bar Association

• 26 January 2001

  Nakano Takeshi New Religions and the Anti-Cult Campaign

• 12 December 2000

  Sakurai Yoshihide Entrance into "Cults": The Case of the Unification Church

• 12 October 2000

  Yonemoto Kazuhiro A Journalist's Perspective on the Problem of Cults in Japan: Religion as a Social Problem

1995—1999

• 25 June 1999

  Robin Roth Ecofeminism and Asian Conceptions of Nature

• 11 December 1998

  Ruben Habito Beyond the Images of Nichiren in Modern Japan

• 4 June 1998

  James Foard Icon, Deity, and Body in Medieval Japan: The Tale of the Burned-Cheek Amida

• 17 November 1997

  Bryan Wilson Toleration, Secularization, and New Forms of Religiosity

• 17 October 1997

  Ikado Fujio Globalization and Popularism in Religion

• 17 April 1997

  Ilse Nina Bulhof-Rutgers Derrida and the Formless Self

• 12 December 1996

  Klaus Peter Köpping Salvation in the Playful Mode: Religious Legitimization through Linguistic Means in the Case of Mahikari's Founder

• 7 November 1996

  Horio Tsutomu What Nishitani Expected from Christianity

• 30 November 1995

  Victor H. Mair Southeast Asian Bottle-Gourd Myths and their Assimilation into Chinese and Japanese Culture

• 6 July 1995

  Kurihara Toshie Women's Movements in the Sōka Gakkai

• 29 June 1995

  Kim Yung-Han Die Universal heilsgeschichtliche These der Rahnerschule vom reformierten Gesichtspunkt geleuchtet

• 15 June 1995

  Shiozu Tōru Social Action and the Sōka Gakkai

1990—1994

• 24 November 1994

  Yamamoto Shūichi Sōka Gakkai and the Problem of the Environment

• 13 October 1994

  Kobayashi Masahiro Nichiren Shōshō and the Sōka Gakkai

• 20 July 1994

  Johan Verstraeten Ethical Perspectives in Europe

• 30 June 1995

  Miyata Kōichi Makiguchi and the Origins of the Sōka Gakkai

• 28 April 1994

  Jan Swyngedouw Catholicism and the Sōka Gakkai

• 3 December 1992

  Paul Mommaers No-self in Christian Mysticism

• 2 July 1992

  Jan Van Bragt Problems of Interreligious Dialogue

• 28 May 1992

  Ueda Shizuteru Religion and Culture

• 23 April 1992

  Ueda Kenji Perspectives on Religion and Culture

• 12 March 1992

  K. P. Jog The Assimilation of Buddhism into Hinduism

• 2 January 1992

  Shimazono Susumu Dialogue and the Role of Religion in Modern Society

• 17 December 1991

  Yamaori Tetsuo Goddesses

• 13 December 1991

  Juan Carlos Scannone The Social Teaching of the Catholic Church: A Latin American Perspective

• 15 November 1991

  Okano Moriya Dialogue or Unification?

• 29 May 1991

  Karen Smyers The Inari Fox and Shinto Deities

• 16 January 1991

  Robert Duquenne The Glorification of the Buddha: From Shakyamuni to Vairocana

• 20 December 1990

  Hakamaya Noriaki Honne and tatemae from the Perspective of the Critique of Original Enlightenment Thought

• 26 September 1990

  David J. Jeremy Capitalism and Christianity

• 22 June 1990

  Miyake Hitoshi The Social Ramifications of the Genealogies of the Kumano Bettō

• 15 May 1990

  Akizuki Ryōmin The Kōan in Hakuin Zen

• 27 April 1990

  Anna Seidel The World of the Dead and Religious Activities at Tateyama

1985—1989

• 21 November 1989

  Wang Yao Tibet's Cultural Heritage

• 8 November 1989

  Raymundo Panikkar Incarnation and Inculturation

• 6 November 1989

  Thomas Luiz The Role of Communicaton in Spreading Religoius Values

• 18 October 1989

  Minor Rogers Rennyo's Legacy

• 8 September 1989

  Herman E. Schaalman Basic Concerns of Contemporary Judaism

• 26 June 1989

  Byron Earkart Mount Fuji and Shugendō

• 10 May 1989

  Eugeen Roosens Ethnic Minorities in a Unifying Europe:The Cast of Immigrant Labor

• 20 December 1988

  Yanagida Seizan The Two Prodigal Sons

• 9 December 1988

  Martin Colcutt Kannon Cult and Meiji Restoration

• 1 December 1988

  Royall Tyler The Nonduality of wakiand shite in Nō Drama

• 26 October 1987

  Jean-Yves Calvez Commitment to Justice and Faith in Education

• 14 March 1988

  Thomas Luckmann Religion and the Social Conditions of Modern Consciousness

• 11 November 1987

  Ernesto Cardenal The Nicaraguan Revolution and the Catholic Church

• 26 November 1987

  Jon Sobrino The Third World and Social Justice

• 17 November 1987

  Nagao Gadjin Upward and Downward Directions in Buddhism

• 30 May 1987

  Sulak Sivaraksa Buddhism and Development

• 15 December 1986

  Frederick Streng How to Approach the Study of Religion: The Cases of Mircea Eliade and Nishitani Keiji

• 6 December 1986

  Ivan Illich and Barbara Duden Developmental Labor and Human Independence

• 5 December 1986

  Wilfred Cantwell Smith Sacred Scriptures in Religion

• 10 November 1986

  Yuasa Yasuo Oriental Religion and Depth-Psychology

• 6 June 1986

  Paul Knitter Crossing the Rubicon in the Theology of Religions

• 19 May 1986

  Dale S. Wright Zen Buddhism in China

• 10 April 1986

  Timothy L. Smith The Evangelical Mosaic in Twentieth-Century America

• 2 December 1985

  Gustavo Gutiérrez Why 'Liberation Theology' Now?

• 22 November 1985

  William LaFleur The Thought of Watsuji Tetsurō

• 8 October 1985

  Brian Wilson New Religious Movements

1980—1984

• 26 October 1984

  Karel Dobbelaere Is Western Europe Secularized?

• 14 September 1984

  Rodrigo Carazo Political Guidance and Education for Peace

• 29 June 1984

  Quentin Quesnell Religion and Nothingness in Lonergan

• 8 June 1984

  Park Sung-Bae Faith and Practice in Korean Zen Buddhism

• 13 February 1984

  Steven Large Buddhism and Political Dissent

• 8 February 1984

  Julia Ching The Development of Confucian Spirituality

• 2 December 1983

  Kiyota Minoru The Merits and Demerits of Buddhist Studies in Japan

• 11 November 1983

  Frederick Copleston Metaphysics Today

• 28 October 1983

  Lee Wan-Jae and Yamashita Ryðji Korean Confucianism and Japanese Confucianism

• 21 September 1983

  Richard B. Pilgrim Foundations for a Religio-aesthetic Tradition in Japan

• 3 February 1983

  Zwi Werblowsky Post-Biblical Jewish Messianism

• 17 December 1982

  Robert J. Smith Ancestor Worship in Japan

• 7 December 1982

  Lawrence Highfill The Pilgrimage Tradition in Japan

• 30 June 1982

  Ueda Kenji Shinto and Systematic Doctrine

• 30 April 1982

  Philip Hefner The Future of the Seminary

• 13 January 1982

  Hans Küng The Development of My Ideas on Other Religions

• 7 December 1981

  John Dyjkstra Eusden Jonathan Edwards and Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku

• 6 November 1981

  Saki Akio Religion and Socialism

• 4 November 1981

  Gerald and Patricia Mische Human Dignity in an Era of International Interdependence

• 21 September 1981

  Thomas M. Gannon Religion and Publics: The Christian Right

• 26 June 1981

  Inugai Masukazu New Trends in Catholic Ethics: Beyond Natural Law

• 21 November 1980

  Yanagawa Keiichi The Religious Consciousness of the Japanese

• 30 October 1980

  Werner Dettloff The Essence of Christianity

• 6 October 1980

  Heinrich Rombach Man: A Dialogue

• 20 May 1980

  Miyasaka Yōshō The Structure of the Mandala in Esoteric Buddhism

• 10 January 1980

  Alfred Bloom Ethical Perspectives in Shinran

1975—1979

• 6 November 1979

  R. Baine Harris The Dialectic of Plotinus

• 27 November 1979

  Ansgar Paus The Basis of Rudolf Otto's Philosophy of Religion

• 24 November 1979

  Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka The Philosophy of Cardinal Wojtila

• 13 November 1979

  Thomas Berry Religious Research in a Global Community

• 5 June 1979

  W. Theodore De Bary The Rise of Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy in Yüan China

• 4 May 1979

  Henry van Straelen Euthanasia

• 7 February 1979

  Fritz Buri Buddhism and Christianity

• 19 June 1978

  Gorai Shigeru Shugendō: The Mountain Religion

• 14 October 1977

  Etienne Lamotte The Scriptural Sources of the Upadesa and their Respective Value

• 3 June 1977

  Nishitani Keiji "Japanese Religiosity"