At the Japan-Mexico Rectors’ Summit held in Hiroshima at the end of November 2017, I had an opportunity to hold talks with President of El Colegio de Mexico Silvia Giorguli and Director of the Center for Asian and African Studies (Centro de Estudios de Asia y Africa, CEAA) Amaury Garcia Rodriguez. President Giorguli and Director Garcia indicated strong interest in my research content, immediately inviting me to visit El Colegio de Mexico to give a lecture there. El Colegio de Mexico is a well-known research institute renowned throughout Latin America specializing in the humanities and social sciences at the highest level. As the deepening of exchanges with research institutes and researchers located in areas other than the Global North is an important task of GHC, I gladly accepted this kind invitation and visited El Colegio de Mexico in the southern part of Mexico City on the two days February 26 and 27, 2018.

The lecture meeting held on February 26 was presided over by Director Garcia and attended by President Giorguli, faculty and students of the college as well as researchers and students from nearby universities. Moreover, with Mr. Takase, the Japanese Ambassador to Mexico, and embassy staff, along with Ms. Sugimoto, Director of the Japan Foundation Mexico and several other Japanese persons residing in Mexico City also making a special effort to attend, the audience reached several dozen participants.

In the lecture, titled “Japanese Perspectives on World/Global History,” having introduced the characteristics and transformations in the comprehension of world history in Japan since the Meiji period, I pointed out the characteristics and limitations of the current understanding of world history and expressed my belief in the necessity for a new interpretation of world history appropriate for the present era of advancing globalization. I argued that efforts should be made to realize this through the use of global history methodology.

The question and answer session following the lecture was extremely active, mainly consisting of questions and comments from researchers and students of area studies and international relations. From President Giorguli, who is a sociologist, I was pleased to receive the favorable comment that she had listened to the lecture with deep interest as one of research into historical sociology rather than as historical research. At the same time, very few of the faculty and students of the Center for Historical Studies (Centro de Estudios Historicos) at the College were present at the lecture, and there were no comments or questions from historians in the narrow sense. I believe that this was because the lecture meeting was organized by the Center for Asian and African Studies and that the lecture was thought to be an area studies report due to the inclusion of the word “Japanese” in the title. In Mexico, as elsewhere, it seems that there exist barriers between different academic fields. While this was a little disappointing, a meeting for an exchange of views with faculty and staff specializing in research on Japan was arranged for the following day. It was thus possible to deepen academic exchanges with many researchers and students throughout the visit. I believe that a firm footing has been forged for advancing to the next stage, the construction of a full-fledged joint research structure. (Haneda Masashi)