He was innovator of traditional science facing the challenges of modern times, a brilliant scholar and an ingenious mediator between cultures.

Michiyasu Nakajima was a true friend, cheerful and humorous.

In the late 90ties a Japanese delegation visited the German University of Augsburg. From this day on a fruitful international cooperation between the Japanese and the German partners began, eventually extending to an international scientific network including not only many European countries but also partners in the USA, Australia, Asia and South America. Spiritus rector and innovative brain behind this rapid development was Prof. Michiyasu Nakajima from prestigious Kansai University in Osaka, Japan.

Prof. Nakajima, originally a professor for conventional and traditional Management Accounting, in early days had grasped the challenges of modern times, extending his research and teaching from the economic core of narrow Managerial Accounting towards the wider scope of Environmental Accounting, Sustainability Management, Material Efficiency, Material Flow Cost Accounting. In this his academic field of competence he was a brilliant scholar, internationally recognized, proven with a high number of scientific articles, awarded with prices, high rankings and numerous citations. In his lectures, here e.g. at the University of Augsburg, the lecture room soon was overcrowded, but not only with students. Prof. Nakajima had the rare gift of not only being able of addressing university students regarding academic topics and science. He was one of the rare academic examples who were at the same time able to talk to and fascinate representatives from the corporate world, addressing managers, accountants and CEOs. He was one of the rare academic specimens to speak the managerial language, to understand the deficiencies of the corporate world and transfer scientific results towards problem solving in the real world and vice versa.

And he was also able to apply these seldom qualifications in international settings, to attract international scholars and experts from the corporate world, to generate cooperative networks and to inspire enthusiasm together with his international cooperation partners towards today’s challenges. In brieve: the challenges of a sustainable world.

These characteristics also allowed him generating an international network of standardizing international language terms and concepts for material efficiency, for eco-efficiency.

One result of this years lasting endeavour was the today internationally acknowledged ISO Norm 14051 “Material Flow Cost Accounting”. This standard, today practically applied in countries all over the world, is bridging the gap between traditional management and accounting and the challenges of a sustainable economy. Prof. Michiyasu Nakajima was the innovator and inspirator to introduce this groundbreaking idea to the international academic as well as corporate world.

All these achievements were only possible on Prof. Nakajima’s basis of an extraordinary intercultural sensitivity and competence. This was the basis of constructively accompany international communication processes, elegantly steering them, often from the sideline, with humour and a light hand. Prof. Nakajima was able within international dialogs to open up the understanding for specific foreign cultural requirements, a property frequently underestimated within international contacts.

For me personally he opened the fascinating world of Japanese culture. He introduced me to features of Japanese literature, Manyoshu, Haiku…, to Japanese religion, food, gardens and family life, and not at least Japanese corporate culture. With this background knowledge it was a lot easier to understand preconditions in Japanese companies while, e.g., introducing sustainability management, accounting or reporting systems. He was a brilliant translator. One could sit in a corporate setting and not even realize that we talk different languages, because Michi, as he was called in the international community, would translate back and forth sensitively, attentively, and constructively.

Prof. Nakajima bridged international corporation in many varied ways and represented his country and his home university, Kansai University. He invited international scholars to Japanese Congresses, - world famous the yearly Eco-Balance Conference, to research residencies, to METI projects and joint publications. And he represented his country and his University around the world, from Malaysia to Germany, in most cases accompanied by Japanese colleagues who by this were able to profit from his widespread contacts to universities, companies and governments.

Again in short. Michiyasu Nakajima was an ingenious international meditator and bridge builder, an outstanding scholar, an innovator of traditional science, a pioneer promoting a sustainable economy

 

and he was a good friend. We miss him dearly.