“Reportage of Thailand : 2010-2015” (Nikkei Press, 2015)

Toru Takahashi (Deputy Editor, International News Department, Editorial Bureau NIKKEI Inc.)

I really appreciate to be given a treasured prize to my work.
I feel a little embarrassment as well as huge amazement because my book is a bit different from other prizewinners, all of which are quite scholarly. When it comes to my one, for example, it contains some scenes of Japanese popular sniper’s story comic “Golgo 13”, and refers to young sexy Thai lady I saw in Bangkok’s sky train.
This book covers a lot of scenes from political, economic, diplomatic and social aspects in Thailand mainly from 2010 to 2015.At that period I was a Bangkok bureau chief of NIKKEI (or Japan Economic Journal)
When I moved to Bangkok in 2010, one Japanese superior who had lived there more than 30 years told me that foreigners had to experience three big events to know Thailand well―― economic crisis, flood, and coup d’etat.　I experienced huge political unrest in 2010, the worst ever flood crisis in 2011, and finally 19th coup in 2015. What made me write a book was awareness as a witness of very important incidents in Thai contemporary history.
Although the English title of my book is “Reportage of Thailand:2010-2015”, I kept in my mind I should not depend on only what I saw but on historical and international point of views. Of course many senior studies about Thailand quite helped me to understand complex situation in that country.
When I was informed award-winning, I recalled my first work almost 25 years ago, my graduation thesis. I wrote such a thing as follows in the introduction : “I want to be a journalist with academic point of views.”
If my work was evaluated a bit scholarly, it was my pleasure more than expected. Thank you very much.

Profile
Date of Birth : 07 October, 1968
History of Schooling : Graduated from Yokohama National University in March,1992
April, 1992 : Joined NIKKEI Inc.
April 2010-March 2014 : Bureau Chief of Bangkok Bureau
April 2014-March 2015: Chief Correspondent of Asian Headquarters (at Bangkok)
April 2015-Present : Deputy Editor, International News Department, Editorial Bureau, Tokyo