Kuni Terasawa, an associate professor of religion at Wartburg, wrapped up the first half of his sabbatical with two presentations and an interview in the country’s top newspapers.

Terasawa presented “Japanese Christianity, Its Relations to Buddhism and State Shinto in Modern Japan” at Soongsil University in Seoul, South Korea. He went on to present “The Kyoto School (Nishida Kitaro), Freedom of Religion & Education, Their Struggles with Secular Nationalism in Japan” at Sogang University also in Seoul.

The Kukmin Daily News (The Citizen News), a South Korean daily newspaper, also interviewed Terasawa for its article, “The improvement of relationship between Korea and Japan through repentance and forgiveness” on Nov. 27.

Terasawa spent his the first part of his sabbatical in Seoul as a visiting scholar researching and creating interreligious cooperation among Korean Buddhists, Christians, university professors and students with those in Japan and the U.S. He intends to publish a book about interreligious/transnational solidarity of religions as resistance to ultranationalist populism in East Asia and the Pacific Rim. Beginning in February, Terasawa will continue his work in Hong Kong.