Monte Cassim, 65, slips effortlessly from English to Japanese and back, as befits one of the few non-Japanese to have served as president of a major Japanese university. After heading Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, from 2004 to 2009, the Sri Lankan architect and engineer is now a professor at Ritsumeikan University, vice chancellor of The Ritsumeikan Trust and director of the university's Peace Museum.
During a recent interview in his office on the university's Kyoto campus, Cassim explained his impressive career trajectory — from a Sri Lankan government post to the University of Tokyo to the United Nations to the peaks of academia — modestly, if not quite convincingly. "I've never been master of my life — others have pulled me in different directions," he says.
He was born in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, the only child of an engineer and a "liberal-minded" housewife. While studying at the University of Sri Lanka, he decided to switch his major from biology to architecture because "the faculty of architecture had all the nice-looking girls. Architecture included art, history, the sensory sciences. It allowed me to work with wealthy clients as well as people in the construction industry. I learned to think outside the box, when to conform and when not to conform. It was a fantastic discipline."