Please note that this event has changed to an online only format.  Given China’s indisputable economic and geopolitical importance, China cannot be ignored, passed or de-coupled. It is at the same time a partner, a competitor as well as an ideological and potential military opponent in the evolving multipolar world order. When dealing with China, how should we balance these different relational aspects? How can we maintain a constructive exchange without jeopardizing our own interests? Through a dialogue between European and Japanese China experts, the conference How to deal with China will address these questions from different perspectives. Speakers include Hans van Ess (LMU Munich),  Mats Lennart Harborn (Traton China Group), Shigeto Sonoda (University of Tokyo), Osamu Mogi (Kikkoman Corporation), and Junichiro Ikeda (Mitsui O.S.K. Lines). The conference is co-organised by the University of Tokyo’s Global Asian Studies, the Keizai Doyukai, and the DIJ. Details and registration here

After the physical and moral devastation brought by the defeat in the Asia-Pacific War, Japanese administrations in the Cold War era charted a course of gradual rearmament against the backdrop of substantial anti-militarist sentiments among the wider society. This tension placed members of the newly rebranded Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in an uneasy position. This research project examines the institutional socialisation of the SDF’s leadership through a one-year ethnography of Japan’s National Defense Academy (NDA), where the bulk of the future senior officers of the SDF’s three branches are educated. Through this anthropological inquiry, this presentation seeks to answer how history, tradition, and identity of the Japanese SDF are negotiated at the NDA. Details and registration here

Rural areas in Japan have been facing challenges due to ongoing demographic decline and high rates of aging — but they are often also home to vibrant places offering space for deliberation, communication, networking, and political activities. While some of these spaces can be small in size, focusing on specific local problems, others may have goals reaching far beyond the local sphere. The DIJ workshop Conceptualizing communicative spaces in rural areas in Japan and Germany brings together scholars who have been analysing and conceptualising such spaces in their research in Japan and Germany. The speakers will present their research, followed by a discussion to conceptualize these dynamic spaces and to reflect on the differences between Japan and Germany. The aim of the workshop is to exchange ideas on how these places might help to deal with current challenges in rural areas and to establish a network of scholars and practitioners working on the topic. Details and registration here

This presentation explores how career-minded Japanese women experience and respond to identity conflict. Based on 125 in-depth interviews with Japanese women who face incompatible expectations for their roles in their professional and private lives, it shows how this dilemma leads to an identity conflict to which the women react with different identity work strategies: Individuals may either sacrifice their career ambitions or forego starting a family; alternatively, they might attempt to reconcile professional and personal role expectations by relinquishing perfectionism in both spheres, or seek partners whose personal expectations align more closely with their career objectives. While these strategies may resolve incompatible external role expectations, this study reveals that they do not effectively diminish internalized dilemmas. Possible solutions to resolve the dilemma will be discussed. Details and registration here

Between 1595 and 1610, the first recorded contacts between Europeans and Japanese took place. In the Jesuit Colleges in Kyushu, lectures were delivered on Aristotelian philosophy, theology, and Ptolemaic cosmology. In Germany, almost 450 years later in 2019, this tripartite work on science and religion is discovered in the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: the first complete Japanese translation of the so-called Compendia compiled in Japan. Bridging the gap between computer science and historical linguistics, this talk will present a novel approach of understanding this written artefact by applying the possibilities artificial intelligence offers. It will address the challenges of finetuning AI-powered tools to historical Japanese, training AI models for text recognition in multiple text directions and writing systems, coding scripts tailored to historical romanization, and conducting quantitative analysis of a comparative text corpus of Jesuit codices. Details and registration here

In recent years, feminist foreign policy (FFP) has become a buzzword in foreign policy. Since 2015, the Japanese government has been trying to push for more gender equality in its foreign policy and adopted a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. In 2023, the Kishida cabinet appointed the second woman in Japan’s history as foreign minister and Japan’s latest National Action Plan includes even more gender-sensitive norms. At the same time, Japan is under intense scrutiny for consistently ranking last among G7 countries on gender equality and women’s empowerment. This clashes sharply with Japan’s international image as an ethically “good state”. Against this background, this lecture examines how Japan attempts to catch up with the international trend of FFP and the promotion of pro-gender norms in its foreign policy. Details and registration here