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Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien

German Institute for Japanese Studies

Research focused on modern Japan, in global and regional perspectives. Located in one of the important economic and political hubs of East Asia, Tokyo.

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Events and Activities

Publications
August 30, 2024

Open access book by Nicole M. Mueller studies Japanese Thomas Mann translations

© SpringerLink

In her new book Japanische Thomas Mann-Übersetzung zwischen Kulturheteronomie und Emanzipation: Tonio Kröger-Retranslations im digitalen Topic Modeling (Japanese Thomas Mann translation between Cultural Heteronomy and Emancipation: Digital Topic Modeling of Tonio Kröger Retranslations), DIJ researcher Nicole Marion Mueller uses innovative digital methods to study Japanese translation pluralism in the 20th century. Focusing on Japanese translations of Mann’s novel Tonio Kröger, she retraces the intensive reception of Mann’s literary works in Japan while paying special attention to the interrelations between translation and a variety of historical contexts and actors – most prominently the elitist kyoyoshugi movement rooted in Japan’s prewar education system. Nicole combines this extensive research work with a topic modeling-based mixed methods approach, which enables her to reveal the previously hidden interactions between the re-translated texts as well as patterns of influence and distinction spanning decades of translation history. The book is published by J.B. Metzler in the Digital Literary Studies series and available open access.

Other
August 1, 2024

Japan-Stipendien für Promovierende

Auch dieses Jahr vergibt das DIJ wieder attraktive Stipendien zur Förderung von Forschungsaufenthalten in Japan im Rahmen von Promotionsvorhaben. Die Stipendien sind mit zurzeit 2400 Euro/Monat dotiert und werden für die Dauer von drei bis maximal zwölf Monaten vergeben. Gefördert werden Forschungsaufenthalte, deren Beginn in den Zeitraum zwischen 1. Februar und 1. Dezember 2025 fällt. Über die Voraussetzungen sowie das Bewerbungsverfahren informiert unsere Ausschreibung und Stipendienordnung hier. Bewerbungsschluss für diese Ausschreibung ist der 15. September 2024.

Event Series
Events
September 18, 2024

Hybrid Study Group on Attitudes Toward Facial Analysis AI

Computer vision AI systems present one of the most radical technical transformations of our time. Such systems are given unparalleled epistemic power to impose meaning on visual data despite their inherent ambiguity. This becomes particularly evident in computer vision AI that interprets the meaning of human faces in face recognition or emotion expression systems. Despite scientific, social and political concerns, facial analysis AI systems are widely deployed also in Japan, for example, for training employees to show certain facial expressions. This talk presents findings from a study of public perceptions of facial analysis AI across Argentina, Kenya, Japan, and the USA. It reveals similarities in justification patterns but also significant intra-country and inter-country diversity in response to different facial inferences. The study suggests that there is no “common sense” facial classification that accords with a general, homogeneous “human intuition”. Details and registration here

Speaker: Chiara Ullstein, Technical University of Munich
 
Publications
August 24, 2024

Barbara Holthus explains Germany’s fertility rate development in Japanese journal article

Unlike Japan, Germany’s total fertility rate has shown a slow but steady increase since its lowest point in the early 1990s. What are the factors behind this development? In the article 「ドイツの出生率推移を紐解く」(“Unraveling Germany’s fertility rate development”, in Japanese), DIJ sociologist Barbara Holthus explains how Germany has implemented a mix of family policies targeting time, money, and infrastructure measures for parents. Over the last 20 years, they have had varying influences on the fertility rate. As data shows, migration trends into Germany also play a complex role for its fertility rate, as many migrants are of child-bearing age and first-generation migrants have higher birthrates. In addition, there are significant differences in fertility rates at the sub-national level. Recent macro level influences like war and climate change are also important influences on Germany’s youth, coupled with rising rates in mental health problems. The article is published in a special section on countries facing a rapidly declining birthrate in the summer issue of the Japanese journal Pension and the Economy (『年金と経済』).

Event Series
Events
September 19, 2024

Hybrid Study Group on Taiwanese Dissidents and Japan

Photo courtesy of WUFI Taiwan HQ

This talk explores a series of deportations of Taiwanese dissidents from Japan that occurred between 1967 and 1968. The four individuals in question faced the threat of death penalty in Taiwan for political crimes. The presentation demonstrates that these deportations, along with the resistance they sparked, had a profound and lasting impact on both Taiwan and Japan. They played a crucial role in the failure of the Japanese government’s attempts to toughen immigration laws, led to a series of court rulings that eventually established a de facto right to asylum in Japan by 1971, and resulted in the founding of Amnesty International Japan. These events also triggered an ideological shift within the Taiwanese independence movement and led to its ongoing entanglement with the international human rights movement. Details and registration here

Speaker: Wolfgang G. Thiele, Free University of Berlin/DIJ Tokyo
 
Publications
September 5, 2024

Book chapter by Nicole M. Mueller on the historical and institutional contexts that shaped Japanese retranslation

Since ancient times, translation into Japanese has facilitated innovation across a variety of disciplines. Translators functioned as mediators of a foreign culture that was commonly perceived as superior. This tradition became all the more essential after Japan’s forced reopening in the late 19th century after 200 years of self-imposed cultural isolation. In this context, retranslations of Thomas Mann’s classic novel Tonio Kröger form a crucial interface between Japan’s academic, educational, and literary history shaped by the elitist kyōyōshugi movement and its idealisation of 19th century European culture. Based on the digitally augmented analysis of 15 such retranslations, DIJ researcher Nicole M. Mueller retraces how 20th and 21st century Japanese retranslation can be understood as the result of an ongoing negotiation between heteronomy and autonomy toward the West that shaped Japan’s cultural self-image. “Japanese Retranslations in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: Between Heteronomy and Autonomy toward the West” is published in the Routledge Handbook of East Asian Translation.

Publications
August 23, 2024

Working Paper by Harald Kümmerle on Japanʼs COVID-19 response, surveillance capitalism and cyber civilization

© KGRI

A new working paper by DIJ researcher Harald Kümmerle examines Japan’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to other East Asian countries. Drawing on Shoshana Zuboffʼs perspective of surveillance capitalism and Jiro Kokuryoʼs theory of cyber civilization, it argues that Japanʼs aerosol and droplet simulations on the supercomputer Fugaku helped devise efficient countermeasures that did not aim for the complete elimination of the virus. The paper also demonstrates the importance of understanding how the measures in Japan related to the idea of trust and successfully relied on self-restraint (jishuku). Calibrating Social Theories of Digital Technology based on Japan’s COVID-19 Response: Surveillance Capitalism and Cyber Civilization is published open access as Working Paper No. 3 by Keio University’s Global Research Institute.

Publications
June 26, 2024

Open access article by Celia Spoden on end-of-life decision-making in ALS

How do people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) deal with their diagnosis and engage in end-of-life decision-making? This new study, co-authored by DIJ researcher Celia Spoden, Olga Wenzel, Anke Erdmann, Gerald Neitzke, and Irene Hirschberg, addresses these and related questions based on qualitative interviews with 13 people with ALS. Data collection and analysis followed a grounded theory-based approach and revealed close relationships between coping, informational needs, and the preparedness for decision-making. The authors identified the coping strategies ‘avoid thinking about end-of-life’ and its counterpart, ‘planning ahead to be well-prepared,’ and differentiated the latter into the patterns ‘withdrawing from life and taking precautions against life-prolongation’ and ‘searching for a new meaning in life and preparing for life-sustaining treatment’. The study recommends healthcare professionals to be sensitive to illness experiences beyond medical aspects and foster coping as a biographical process to better support people with ALS. The article is available open access here

Upcoming Events

18/09/2024
  • DIJ Study Group
    18:00 ~ 19:30

    Attitudes Toward Facial Analysis AI: A Cross-National Study Comparing Argentina, Kenya, Japan, and the USA

19/09/2024
  • DIJ Study Group
    18:30 ~ 20:00

    Secret Agreements, Public Consequences: The 1960s Deportation Crisis of Taiwanese Dissidents

27/09/2024
  • DIJ Study Group
    18:00 ~ 19:30

    Fathers Need Friends: Changing Paradigms of Sociality and Family Engagement among Japanese Men Involved in Parenting-Focused Groups

30/09/2024
  • DIJ Study Group
    18:00 ~ 19:30

    From Providers to Nurturers – Depictions of Male Care Work in Japanese Manga

07/10/2024
  • DIJ Study Group
    18:30 ~ 20:00

    The Coordination State: Industrial Policy and Technology Transfer During Japan’s Postwar Economic Boom, 1950-76

09/10/2024
  • DIJ Forum
    18:00 ~ 21:00

    Imagined Futures in Japan and Beyond

10/10/2024
  • International Workshop
    10:00 ~ 17:00

    Imagined Futures in Japan and Beyond

11/10/2024
  • International Workshop
    10:00 ~ 18:00

    Imagined Futures in Japan and Beyond

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    Call for Submissions

    Contemporary Japan
    current issue Vol. 36, No.1
    Contemporary Japan is open year-round for rolling submissions, with accepted publications published immediately online. Please see the instructions for submission here.

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    DIJ Tokyo
    Jochi Kioizaka Bldg. 2F
    7-1 Kioicho Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
    102-0094 Japan
    Where to find us

    +81 (0)3 3222-5077
    +81 (0)3 3222-5420
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    DIJ-ARI Asian Infrastructures Research Partnership