On September 24, 2010, the “Seminar on Insurance and Risk in Asia Pacific” was held at the Kyoto City International Foundation. The seminar was sponsored by the Kyoto University Graduate School of Management, the Islamic University Malaysia, the Kyoto University Global COE Program “Global Center for Education and Research on Human Security Engineering for Asian Megacities”, and the Kyoto University Center for Research in Business Administration.

In recent years, the Islamic financial market has been developing at a rapid pace. With the economic development of Islamic countries, the need for Shari’ah compliant insurance (Takaful) with follows the teachings of the Koran will be increasingly in need. Such development in the Islamic financial and insurance markets can also be a business opportunity for non-Islamic countries through the learning of knowledge related to Islamic insurance. This seminar was conducted for the purpose of developing the Islamic insurance (Takaful) market and an opportunity to share information related to risk management in Islamic countries. The seminar was led by Graduate School of Management Dean, Professor Kiyoshi Kobayashi, who discussed the importance of the Islamic financial market in the coming future. Following Professor Kobayashi’s talk, Professor Khairuddin Abdul Rashid from the Islamic University Malaysia talked about the recent turnings in Islamic insurance. In addition, Dr. Azman Mohammad Noor, an evaluator of Islamic products related to the financial sector, shared various characteristics of Islamic insurance and topics in risk management.

Greeting message from Prof. Kiyoshi Kobayashi

A scene of the seminar