Dr Kenji Tanaka

NEWS |

It is with great sadness that the College community has learned of the death of Dr Kenji Tanaka, Foundation & Honorary Fellow of Pembroke.

Dr Tanaka was elected a Foundation Fellow at Pembroke in 1999. In 2008, the Governing Body of the College elected Dr Tanaka to an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his philanthropic engagement in educational ventures and institutions around the world, his innovative approach to education, and the integrity of his heartfelt yet visionary approach to international cultural exchange.

Dr Kenji Tanaka was a pioneer in the field of global education and an education leader throughout his career.  He received numerous honorary degrees from institutions of higher education around the world.  In 1991, the government of France awarded him La Médaille de la Jeunesse et des Sports and in 1993, President Bill Clinton honoured him as a Distinguished Educator.  Numerous international foundations and associations benefitted from Dr Tanaka’s time and expertise. In 1959 Dr Tanaka founded a technical education college in Tokyo, known today as Technos College, to meet the needs of students and industry in a rapidly changing society.

Mindful of the increasing interdependence of the global community, Dr Tanaka worked throughout his professional life to promote international understanding through educational opportunities. In 1990 he established the Tanaka Memorial Foundation in memory of his father, Juichi Tanaka, the founder of Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan. The Foundation funds collaboration between Japan and other countries through cultural exchange programmes designed to introduce participants to Japanese life, culture and the academic world. Pembroke College is one of the institutions fortunate to benefit from this programme, and is invited each year to send four undergraduate students and one Fellow on a fully funded, two-week trip to Japan.

The Technos International trip gives Pembroke students an extraordinary opportunity to experience Japanese life and culture, and has a profound and lasting impact on those who take part. Dominic Saad (Medicine, 2014), took part in the programme in 2016. He said: ‘Never in my life have I experienced such varied culture, hospitality or sheer wonder as I did on my two-week visit to the college’.  Jack Smith (Engineering, 2015), who travelled to Japan in 2017, said of his experience: “From the everlasting enthusiasm and hospitality of the Technos students and staff to the amazing places we visited, food we tried and memories we made, it's challenging to satisfactorily describe some of the unforgettable experiences I had on the other side of the world .”

Pembroke students have also benefitted from Dr Tanaka’s Technos prize, which is awarded annually to a final year Pembroke student who has demonstrated outstanding academic performance and commitment to the cause of international understanding.

The Tanaka Memorial Foundation also provides generous funding annually to endow several Fellowship positions, including the Tanaka Biochemistry Fellowship and the Tanaka Mathematics Fellowship at Pembroke, as well as providing support for the College to offer post-graduate funding for scholars in Japanese Studies as well as to host academic events.

Current Tanaka Biochemistry Fellow Prof Andre Furger comments: ‘I was lucky enough to have met Dr Tanaka when I travelled to Japan for the Technos International event many years ago and several times thereafter in New York, at the Tanaka Memorial Foundation events. These were transformational experiences for me, as I not only experienced Japanese culture first hand but more importantly I was privileged to meet the warm, kind and inspirational Dr Tanaka and his family. His support for the Biochemistry Fellowship will secure research and teaching of Biochemistry in Pembroke far into the future.’ Linda Flores, Fellow in Japanese said: ‘His generosity, under the auspices of the Tanaka U.K. Japan Educational Foundation, has profoundly enhanced provisions for teaching and learning Japanese studies at Pembroke. His legacy lives on through the Tanaka Junior Research Fellowship, the Tanaka Postgraduate Scholarship, and the Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies’. 

A private funeral for Dr Tanaka’s immediate family has already taken place and a memorial service will be held on 18th March in Tokyo. The Pembroke flag will fly at half-mast on this day in honour of Dr Tanaka.