Shinichi Asazuma, Consul General of the Consulate General of Japan in Frankfurt am Main, presented Prof. Dr. Frank Rövekamp with an award from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Rövekamp's special services to the promotion of German-Japanese relations in a ceremony at the East Asia Institute (OAI) yesterday. Jutta Steinruck, mayor of the city of Ludwigshafen, and university president Prof. Dr. Gunther Piller also subsequently acknowledged the outstanding position of the East Asia Institute and Rövekamp's special achievements.
On Thursday, May 5, 2022, Prof. Dr. Frank Rövekamp, received a special honor: During a ceremony, the director of the university's renowned East Asia Institute received an award from the Japanese Foreign Ministry from the hands of Japanese Consul General Asazuma. Prof. Dr. Frank Rövekamp received this special award for decades of promoting German-Japanese relations, especially as head of the OAI and as promoter of the Japanese chess variant Shogi, which enjoys great prestige in Japan. The honor was already awarded to Prof. Dr. Frank Rövekamp in 2019; however, the presentation of the award was repeatedly postponed due to the pandemic.
In his speech, Consul General Asazuma emphasized the special promotion of German-Japanese relations that Prof. Dr. Frank Rövekamp had achieved as head of the East Asia Institute as well as of the study program International Business Management (East Asia) with a focus on Japan. According to Asazuma, Rövekamp has contributed a great deal to the development and expansion of academic, cultural and also economic relations between the two countries. Asazuma also praised Rövekamp's commitment to shogi - especially as chairman of the Federation of European Shogi Associations (FESA).
In her very personal greeting, Mayor Jutta Steinruck underlined her appreciation for the East Asia Institute and Prof. Dr. Frank Rövekamp: "The city is very, very proud of this institute, which has an impact far beyond the region," said Steinruck, thanking Rövekamp for his expert guidance in questions of East Asian relations. University President Prof. Dr. Gunther Piller also praised the outstanding position of the institute, whose building, reminiscent of a ship on one of Germany's largest waterways, shows what it stands for, among other things: trade and lively exchange. "Students from all over Germany are educated here and go out into the world as ambassadors," he said.
In his acceptance speech, Prof. Dr. Frank Rövekamp reviewed the stages of his personal German-Japanese history - starting with his first stay in Japan in 1986 as an exchange student, through early international management experiences in Kyoto, to his move to the East Asia Institute in 2009, which Rövekamp describes in retrospect as an "absolute stroke of luck": "Here I was able to turn my hobbyhorse, the cultivation of German-Japanese relations, into a profession," Rövekamp said yesterday. Against the backdrop of current developments in world affairs, he said, these relations between two ideologically open and democratic economic powers like Japan and Germany are more important than ever. He sees enormous potential for cooperation here - scientific, technological, economic and cultural. "Shogi also has a potential to unite people in Europe that should not be underestimated and unites players from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, for example, in friendship," Rövekamp added, referring to the war in Ukraine.
