Ikuko Sato
Ikuko Sato is a research fellow at Japan Women’s University. She specializesPhoenician and Punic history, religion and culture research based on the perspectives and methodologies of historical studies. In recent years, she has explored with Sota Maruono open studies on the ancient Mediterranean world history based on the dialogue between historical studies and history education.
Japan Women's University
Session
This paper explores how world history can be written and taught at a time marked by both deep global interconnection and the political retreat of globalization. Focusing on Japan, it examines the tension between globally oriented educational reforms and nationally bounded historical narratives through the framework of “Open Studies on the Ancient Mediterranean World History.”
Since 2022, Japan has introduced new high school subjects—“Modern and Contemporary History,” “Advanced World History,” and “Advanced Japanese History”—which emphasize inquiry-based learning, historical thinking, and citizenship education. These reforms align with global educational models promoted by organizations such as the OECD and the International Baccalaureate. However, classroom practice often continues to assume a cohesive national “we,” leaving insufficiently examined the questions of who defines this “we” and who is constructed as “others.”
The paper argues that “Open Studies on the Ancient Mediterranean World History” provides a productive alternative by rethinking identity beyond the modern nation-state. It highlights Phoenician identity as mobile, relational, and network-based rather than territorially fixed. The Phoenicians illustrate a historical world structured by trade, migration, and cultural exchange without a single dominant political center—offering a valuable precedent for today’s interconnected yet fragmented world.
Through inquiry-based classroom practices that bridge ancient and modern history, students compare constructions of “we” in modern Japanese history with identity formation in the ancient Mediterranean. By engaging with primary sources and competing narratives, they critically examine how historical boundaries are formed, whose voices define the past, and which perspectives are marginalized.
The paper concludes that world history education in a post-globalization era requires models of connection that transcend national exceptionalism. Japan’s cross-temporal and cross-regional approach to the ancient Mediterranean contributes meaningfully to reimagining the global past.