The President, Board of Governors, Faculty, and Staff of Intercultural Open University Foundation (IOUF) are extremely pleased to announce that the 2012 IOUF Peace Award recipient is Dr. Muneo Yoshikawa.  Dr. Yoshikawa is an author, professor, researcher, world-peace advocate, and consultant in the field of intercultural communication and human development.

Dr. Yoshikawa has developed communication theories in education, health, and business fields with the best known among them being the double-swing model (also known as the Moebius integration philosophy) of intercultural communication.  He holds the rank of Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii and serves as a Core Faculty Professor as well as a member of the Board of Governors for IOUF.  Dr. Yoshikawa is also Co-director of the Moebius Graduate School in Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. Yoshikawa’s Double Swing Model of Intercultural Communication conceptualizes how individuals, cultures, and intercultural nations can meet in constructive ways.  The dialogical mode draws upon the Buddhist philosophy (the logic of soku hi) and the ideas of philosopher Martin Buber (the I-Thou relationship) in seeing human beings as complete only in relationship.