Donald Keene, the renowned scholar of Japanese literature, has decided to make Japan his permanent home.
Keene, professor emeritus of Japanese literature at Columbia University, decided in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake to spend his remaining days in the country he has studied all his adult life.
Keene, who is 89, will apply for Japanese citizenship in late September.
He flew into Japan on Sept 1.
"We will be able to get over (the earthquake) if we just have hope. When I visited Tokyo immediately after World War II, chimneys were the only things that remained, but it later turned into a magnificent metropolis. Miracles will also smile on the Tohoku region," he said.
"Because I plan to be naturalized, I now have the responsibility to learn more about politics and the economy, which I haven't been reading a lot about," he told reporters.
He said he wanted to make a three-day trip in the near future to Chusonji temple in Iwate Prefecture, which he has visited on many occasions.
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