Dead Indonesian gets PhD in Japan

JAKARTA (JP): An Indonesian national has become the first person to get a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Japan after his death.

Halwany Microb, an Indonesian education and culture ministry official who died of cancer on July 3 last year, was posthumously conferred his PhD in archeology at Chiba University, Japan, on March 26.

The news was conveyed by the university's Professor Nakamura who visited Jakarta on Monday.

Nakamura said the conferring of the academic title to a dead man had stirred a hot debate in Japan, which does not have a regulation on the matter.

Halwany, born in the West Java town of Banten on Feb. 14, 1938, died before completing his dissertation titled Historical Reconstruction and Modern Development of the Islamic City of Banten, Indonesia, Antara reported.

Nakamura said he added the finishing touches to the dissertation which a team of professors agreed was good enough to earn Halwany the doctorate.

He was considered the best among the three archeology students at the university who graduated in the same period.

Halwany, whose last stint was as an expert staffer at the National Archeology Agency in Jakarta, continued his post graduate study in Chiba University after getting his master's degree in Pennsylvania University in 1995. (pan)