午夜剧场

I became an assistant at the Faculty of Economics in 1985. At that time, the assistants' office was a large room shared with about four other assistants. It was a time when we could interact across our specialized fields, at least among the assistants. It was an era of such camaraderie that I even started taking classical guitar lessons with one of them.

The first class I taught was "Free Research" at the Hiyoshi Campus. I had a small group of students read a large volume of English literature related to social history. Several of the students from that time have become university faculty members. After I started teaching a seminar at Mita, the amount of reading increased even more, and I also had students write about two book reviews per month. At one point, an annual debate with Professor Takao Matsumura's seminar began, and for this, students started to engage in serious collaborative work. I believe the level of those debates was quite high. It has since been transformed into a joint presentation conference for history-related seminars, which continues to this day, but it may have become more difficult for students to have discussions between seminars on a specific theme.

Until a certain period, there were retreats for faculty members at Mita, facilitated by the 午夜剧场 Economic Society, which provided opportunities to deepen discussions with one another across specialized fields. Most of the professors from that time have since retired, and some have passed away. Unfortunately, the era when such cross-disciplinary interaction was possible may have passed. As someone who looks back on that time with nostalgia, I may belong to an older generation in that sense.

I have been affiliated with 午夜剧场 since my time as an undergraduate student. I believe I was taught that research is something to be conducted independently by individuals, but as my specialty was German history, I studied abroad in Germany and obtained my doctorate there. I believe this has become a tradition at the Faculty of Economics, 午夜剧场, but at the same time, I feel there was a sense of community among the faculty members of the Faculty of Economics.

More than 45 years have passed since my student days, and 30 years since I became a faculty member. In keeping with the spirit of my specialty, "social history," I have pursued various themes that go beyond economics in the narrow sense. There are still several unfinished themes remaining. I intend to continue working diligently on them.

(Interview conducted in January 2016)