Japanese historian and Slovakist Susumu Nagayo has been named the recipient of the 2026 International Award of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV). He received the award at a ceremony held on Tuesday in the Mirror Hall of the Primate’s Palace in Bratislava. It was presented by Martin Venhart, President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the SAV Scientific Council. As he noted, it is the highest award the Academy presents each year to its close international collaborators who have made a major contribution to the development of individual scientific disciplines.
The International Award of the Slovak Academy of Sciences was granted to Nagayo by the SAV Scientific Council on the recommendation of the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Japan. It represents special recognition of his outstanding body of work related to Slovakia and his significant contribution to supporting science in Slovakia.
“Professor Nagayo is the most prominent Japanese Slovakist. He has worked very closely and intensively with the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences for a very long time, and his contribution to our understanding of Slovak-Japanese relations, the work and legacy of Milan Rastislav Štefánik, and the history of Bratislava has been very significant. That is precisely why the Scientific Council of the Slovak Academy of Sciences decided to recognize his decades-long cooperation with our highest international award,” said Venhart.
Nagayo is regarded as one of the most prominent Japanese and Asian Slovakists and historians specializing in Central Europe. He is considered a leading Asian expert on the life and work of Milan Rastislav Štefánik. He has translated and critically examined documents concerning Štefánik’s activities, as well as the activities of the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia and Japan.
He has maintained long-standing cooperation with the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, contributed to several international research grant projects, and helped organize Slovak-Japanese scientific events. Through his efforts, several researchers from the Slovak Academy of Sciences have had the opportunity to publish in Japan and give lectures at Japanese academic forums.
The professor has systematically incorporated Slovak topics into Japanese Slavic studies discourse and has effectively bridged the linguistic and geographical barriers between the two countries. It is for this work, his key research on Štefánik in the Asian context, his long-standing efforts to build links between Slovak and Japanese historians, and his training of an entire new generation of Japanese Slovakists that he was nominated for this year’s International Award of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
The laureate himself associates the award primarily with his long-standing ties to Slovakia.
“Bratislava and Slovakia have been part of my life for four decades, ever since I came here as a young student. For me, this award means that my academic journey, together with the work of hundreds of my students who, through it, have come closer to Slovak history and language, had meaning,” Nagayo added.
Nagayo is Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, where he taught from 1991 to 2019. He is the author of several books and dozens of studies on Slovak and Czechoslovak history, language and culture, published primarily in Japan. He is a member of the Japanese Association of Slavic Studies and the Association for East European Studies.
In 2024, he received the Plaque of the Slovak Historical Society for his outstanding contribution to the study of Slovak history abroad.
Source: TASR
