CSEAS mourns the sudden passing of a beloved faculty member, Mitsuaki Nishibuchi, at the age of 65. He was Emeritus Professor and a pioneering faculty member at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University. As a recognized expert in the field of pathogenic bacteriology, researching Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, he was awarded the Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine Award of Excellence (2011) as well as an honorary PhD degree from the Prince of Songkla University (2016) and an honorary Emeritus fellowship award from the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).

Prof. Nishibuchi also had a deep passion for the natural world which spilled over into CSEAS’s physical environment. In the CSEAS courtyard there are two Sakura trees which he himself planted and devotedly cultivated over the years. He would ardently ‘light up’ the trees during the ephemeral cherry blossom period and take countless photos which would grace previous issues of our newsletter. In a final speech that he gave at his leaving ceremony on retirement, he spoke of his ‘wadachi’ (轍), the track or mark left behind in the ground by a wheel that gradually fades before weathering away. His milestones, legacy and prolific research that he has left behind will not disappear any time soon and his lifetime work will continue to be both inspiration and aspiration for us all. In memory of our colleague in this issue we carry a final interview he gave to associate professor Yoshitsugu Nakaguchi (Ishikawa Prefectural University) for his retirement speech in March 2019.

In this issue, another one of our colleagues, Emeritus professor Mizuno Kosuke retired in March 2019. We carry an interview conducted by Dianto Bachriadi that goes over Prof. Mizuno’s life trajectory in Indonesia and Indonesian Studies.

Over the last ten years CSEAS has committed to a number of large-scale projects; a Global COE program titled “in Search of a Sustainable Humanosphere in Asia and Africa” (2007–11); “Southeast Asian Studies for Sustainable Humanosphere” (2011–16); and currently, the “Japan-ASEAN Platform for Transdisciplinary Studies” (2016–2021). In this issue we carry a special feature that introduces this program, in particular with a focus on some of the younger scholars who have been invited under the post-doctoral program as well as more established members. This program has been set up to advance transdisciplinary research that integrates academic, governmental, and civil societies to create new collaborative research ventures that brings together the expertise of scholars on Southeast Asia, scientists and engineers, and the Japanese and ASEAN political and business communities.

Finally, we carry a number of special reports from our library archive. Emeritus Prof. Nagafuchi Yasuyuki (Nagoya Institute of Technology) provides a detailed overview of large-scale rituals carried out in Bali, Indonesia through materials that were donated to our library collection. Additionally, Moriwaki Yuki (University of Tokyo Graduate School of Economics), also introduces some lesser known, but nonetheless important materials from the Foronda Collection in the CSEAS library.

Mario Lopez
Editor