On March 27, 2015, Josai University Educational Corporation (Noriko Mizuta, Chancellor) hosted a guest lecture entitled “Haiku in the World” by former Swedish ambassador to Japan, Lars Vargö, which was held in the 3rd building of Josai’s Tokyo Kioicho Campus.

Mr. Vargö graduated from Sweden’s Uppsala University with a degree in Asian Studies. During his work at the Swedish embassy in Japan, he studied Japanese history at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Letterst. He went on to receive his PhD in Japanese ancient history from the University of Stockholm. After working as Swedish ambassador to Korea, Mr. Vargö served as Swedish ambassador to Japan from 2011 to 2014, receiving the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in 2014. Mr. Vargö has published numerous translations and collections of haiku and has worked as a specially appointed professor at Josai since his retirement from the Swedish embassy.

Chancellor Mizuta, who has served as president of the Japan-Sweden Association since 2014, provided opening remarks, introducing Mr. Vargö as “someone who has spread Japanese and East Asian culture to the world.” Mr. Vargö, giving his lecture in Japanese, gave several examples of how―as exemplified by English writer and scholar of Japanese culture Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964)―multiple Western writers were introduced to Japanese poetic forms such as haiku and senryu and stated that, “one can sense the influence of haiku even in Western poetic works.” He also gave several examples of haiku composed by Western writers and children. Mr. Vargö stated, “Haiku is often taught in Western schools, and through the verse of children one can really feel the spirit and humor of haikai.”

More than one hundred people attended the lecture including Josai University and Josai International University faculty, members of the Haiku International Association, and extension students. All participants listened with great interest as Mr. Vargö gave his lecture.
　 In December 2013, Chancellor Mizuta had the great honor to receive the Cikada Prize from the Swedish government, a prize awarded to poets who are able to express the majesty of life in East Asia through poetry. To commemorate this award, an international symposium entitled “Expressing the inviolability of Life,” in which Mr. Vargö and Haiku International Association President Akito Arima participated, was held in June 2014. The material from this symposium was published by Josai University Educational Corporation University Press as International Symposium Commemorating Winning of the Cikada Prize: Giving World to the Inviolability of Life in January 2015.