Asia Cosmopolitan Awards is an international award established by Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) in the context of commemoration of the 1300-year anniversary in 2010 of Heijo-kyo (ancient capital of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

located in present-day

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

) as the last destination of the ancient

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

and one of the first

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

cities in

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

. It is awarded to individuals or organizations who have made substantial and significant contributions to the development and enrichment of the East Asian Community in the fields of cultural and economic integration, narrowing the developmental gaps, and establishing sustainably growing societies in the region.

Outline and categories

The Asia Cosmopolitan Awards consists of three prizes: the Grand Prize, the Economic and Social Science Prize, and the Cultural Prize. Other prizes may be added as necessary. Main criteria for selection are as follows. * Grand Prize: Awarded to an individual and/or organization making the most distinguished achievements in economic, social science, or cultural fields. * Economic and Social Science Prize: Awarded to an individual and/or organization contributing to the betterment of Asia in the economic or social science fields through eminent achievements in scholarly research, business innovation, industrial technology, smart consumption activities, security/safety, social security, politics, philosophy, or other general social sciences * Cultural Prize: Awarded to an individual and/or organization contributing to the betterment of Asia in the cultural fields through eminent achievements in the arts, literature, content, cultural academic research or other cultural fields.

The 1st Asia Cosmopolitan Awards Awardees

* Grand Prize: Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) * Economic and Social Science Prize:

Benedict Anderson Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson (August 26, 1936 – December 13, 2015) was an Anglo-Irish political scientist and historian who lived and taught in the United States. Anderson is best known for his 1983 book ''Imagined Communities'', which e ...

, Professor Emeritus at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

* Cultural Prize:

Takehiko Inoue is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for the basketball series ''Slam Dunk'' (1990–1996), and the ''jidaigeki'' manga '' Vagabond'', which are two of the best-selling manga series in history. Many of his works are about basketball, I ...

, Japanese

Manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

Artist * Memorable Prize: The late Hadi Soesastro, Founder of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

The 2nd Asia Cosmopolitan Awards Awardees

* Grand Prize:

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

, former Prime Minister of the Republic of India * Economic and Social Science: Peter Drysdale, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Economics and Government, the Australian National University ; Wang Gungwu, University Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and Emeritus Professor of

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

* Cultural Prize: Rithy Panh, Cambodian Filmmaker ; Takarazuka Revue Company, Japanese theatrical music company

The 3rd Asia Cosmopolitan Awards (2016) Awardees

* Grand Prize: H.E. U Thein Sein, former President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar * Economic and Social Science: Professor Masahisa Fujita, Professor, Konan University, Project Professor, Institute of Economic Research,

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

* Cultural Prize: H.E. Prof Herman Van Rompuy,

Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

Ambassador for Japan- EU Friendship, President Emeritus of the

European Council The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body (directorial system) and a symbolic collective head of state, that defines the overall political direction and general priorities of the European Union (EU). It is composed of the he ...

The 4th Asia Cosmolitan Awards (2017) Awardees

* Grand Prize: Yasuo Fukuda, former Prime Minister, Japan * Economic and Social Science: Richard E. Baldwin, Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva * Cultural Prize: teamLab, Art Collective and Mieko Noguchi, Glass Artist * Memorable Prize: Surin Pitsuwan (1949-2017), Former Secretary General of ASEAN

References