Governor General's International Award for Canadian Studies:
2001 - Masako Iino
(Photo by Gérard Bordeleau)
Professor Masako Iino of Tsuda College in Tokyo has the distinction of being the first woman and the first scholar from outside North American to win the Governor General’s International Award in Canadian Studies.
A founding member of the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies, she developed her interest in Canada in the late 1970s when she expanded her study of the United States to include its northerly neighbor. She quickly became involved in the fledgling Japanese Association for Canadian Studies and over the years worked closely with JACS founder and first president, Dr. Nobuya Bamba as well as subsequent executives. In 1996 she became the first woman to head the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies, distinguishing her presidency with the organization and hosting in 1998 of the very successful 1st Asia-Pacific International Conference of Canadian Studies.
During her term and under her editorship the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies published in 1997 Shiryo ga kataru Kanada, 1535-1995: Jakku Karuchie kara reisengo no gaiko made [Documentary History of Canada, 1535-1995: From Jacques Cartier to the International Relations After the Cold War] and established the Canada-Japan Peace and Friendship Exchange Programme, sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs – a program which enables a young Japanese Canadianist to do research in Canada every year.
As well as playing a leadership role in the development of Canadian Studies in Japan, Professor Iino has contributed in a major way to Japanese scholarship relating to Canada. She has written widely in both Japanese and English on several topics including Japanese Canadians, multiculturalism and Buddhism in Canada. She has presented her scholarship at the Canadian Historical Association, published in BC Studies and in a joint work published in 1990 by the University of Toronto Press – Mutual Hostages: Canadians and Japanese During the Second World War. This later title was also published in 1994 under the title Hikisakareta chuseishin: Dai-ni-ji sekaitaisen-chi no Kanada-jinto Nihonjin (Tokyo: Mineruva shobo). In 1997 her book Nikkei Kanada-jin no rekishi [A History of Japanese Canadians: Swayed by Canada-Japan Relations] won the Canadian Prime Minister’s Award for Publishing. She has also taught at several Canadian universities including Acadia University and McGill University.
Well respected among colleagues for her rigorous and careful scholarship, her knowledge of Canada and sound judgment have also been recognized by the Japanese Government who appointed her to the Japan-Canada 2000 Committee. Professor Iino has also served as member of the Deliberation Council on Immigration (1995- ), the Japan Canada Forum (1996- ) and the Executive Committee of the Japanese Association for American Studies (1992- ) and the Executive Committee of the Japan Association of International Relations (1996- ).