Tomio Mizokami (Japanese: 溝上富夫;[1] born 1941[2]) is a professor Emeritus of Osaka University, Japan. In 2018, he was conferred the Padma Sri by the President of India, at the Civil Investiture Ceremony on 2 April 2018, for his contribution to the fields of literature and education.[3][4]
Education
He was born in 1941 in Kobe, Japan.[2] In 1965, he graduated from the Department of Indian studies at Osaka University of Foreign Studies.[2] During 1965–1968, he studied Hindi in Allahabad and Bengali in Vishva Bharati.[2] He became a research assistant in 1968 at the Hindi Department of Osaka University of Foreign Studies.[2] In 1972, he earned his PhD from the Department of Modern Indian Languages at the University of Delhi.[2] In 1983, Mizokami did his PhD from University of Delhi on Language Contact in Punjab-A sociolinguistic Study of Migrants' Language.[3]
Career
Between June and August 1994, he taught Punjabi at the University of California in Berkeley as part of their summer intensive course.[2] He retired as a professor of Indian languages at the Osaka University, Japan.[2] Post his retirement, he has been a professor Emeritus at the same university since 2007, teaching Foreign Studies.[2] His language proficiency includes English, Hindi, Punjabi, bengali, Urdu, Gujarati, Asamiya, Marathi,Kashmiri, Sindhi, Tamil, German, and French. He translated Japji Sahib, a Sikh prayer into Japanese, and he is the first Japanese-Punjabi researcher.[3][5]
Awards
Then President, Ram Nath Kovind presenting the Padma Shri Award to Tomio Mizokami, at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-II, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on 2 April 2018
In 2018, he was conferred the Padma Sri by then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, at the Civil Investiture Ceremony on 2 April 2018 for his contribution to the fields of literature and education.[3]
Publications
1977 - “Bilingualism in Punjab - A Case Study in Lyallpur City - “Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, Vol. XXVI, No. 2[2]
1980 - “Linguistic Outline of Fatehabad” & “Sociolinguistic Change among Migrants in Jalandhar,” Rural-Urban Migration And Pattern of Employment in India, Osaka[2]
1981 - PUNJABI Asian and African Grammatical Manual No.13e, Tokyo[2]
1989 - ”Some Orthographical Problems in Punjabi,” A Computer-assisted Study of South-Asian Languages Annual Report No.1, Tokyo[2]
1992 - “Punjabi” & “Lahnda”, World Languages Dictionary, edited by Eiichi Chino, Takashi Kamei & Rokoro Kouno, Sanseido, Tokyo[2]
2004 - “Status of Research in Bangla and Punjabi Literatures in Japan,” pp 323-335[2]
2004 - “Language Teaching and Cultural Interchange through the medium of Hindi Drama,” pp 341-348, Imaging India Imaging Japan: A Chronicle of Reflections on Mutual Literature, Edited by Unita Sachidanand & Teiji Sakata, Manak Publications, Delhi[2]
Translations
Translated Guru Nanak's Japji Sahib composition into Japanese[2]
Translated The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, by Owen Cole & Piara Singh Sambhi, into Japanese[2]
