Events and Activities
DIJ Study Group talk discusses Japan’s economic management
Back in the 1970s, Japanese policymakers earned the reputation of being the most competent within advanced economies for successfully weathering the second oil shock. Where has this reputation gone? The high growth of the late 1980s proved to be transient as a succession of financial crises led to the “lost decade” of the 1990s. Ben Bernanke (1999) famously described the initial measures to fight deflation that would dominate the 2000s as “a self-induced paralysis”. A more forceful set of policies called “Abenomics” in the 2010s ultimately failed to achieve its ambitious goals of 2% GDP growth and 2% inflation, a shortcoming blamed on either error in design or pusillanimity in implementation. This presentation focuses on three cases (the lost decade, Abenomics, Covid-19) to discuss to what extent the narrative of a never-ending crisis reflects hindsight bias, theoretical assumptions, and narrowly defined comparisons. Details and registration here
Speaker:
Brieuc Monfort, Sophia University
Web Forum Series ‘DT’ session on Governance in the Digital Age
Kaori Hayashi (University of Tokyo), Melike Şahinol (OI Istanbul), and DIJ director Franz Waldenberger will be the speakers in the second session of our MWS Web Forum Series ‘The Digital Transformation’ on September 30. Their presentations will address the theme Governance in the Digital Age from different perspectives. Kaori Hayashi’s paper “Toward a Gender-Equal Society in the AI Era: A Distant Goal for Japan?” will introduce a new initiative that strives to create a more gender-equal media and information culture. In her presentation “Digital Cultures of Health”, Melike Şahinol will question how digital transformation in healthcare has led to empowerment (and for whom) and what new challenges have arisen as a result. Franz Waldenberger’s paper “Regulation in the context of dispersed and contested knowledge” will discuss how regulation strategies to cope with dispersed and contested knowledge are influenced by the new challenges and opportunities caused by the digital transformation. Details and registration here
DIJ lecture on Kawabata Yasunari and his writing of adolescents
Kawabata Yasunari’s (1899–1972) literary works have often been discussed in relation to the objectification of the (female) body as well as his orphan background. Having witnessed a number of deaths in his early life, Kawabata’s acute attention to the loved object seems inseparable from his fundamental awareness of its unreachability. In this talk, Fusako Innami will examine how writing as a medium functions as a mode of connection through special attention to Kawabata’s writing of adolescents. Often attracted to the untouched, not yet touched, or unreachable, his writing creates and re-creates the loved object while extending the self with an extent of reciprocity. This session of the DIJ History and Humanities Study Group is part of the DIJ Gender and Sexuality in East Asia Lecture Series. Details and registration here
Speaker:
Fusako Innami, Durham University
Workshop on International/Global Japanese Studies
The study of Japanese culture, the Japanese economy, and Japanese society by foreign scholars can be traced back as far as the Edo period. However, it was not until the early 21st century that such external perspectives began to attract significant academic attention and public interest inside Japan. Research institutes, faculties, and departments named “International Japanese Studies” or “Global Japanese Studies” have gradually emerged in Japanese higher education and opened up innovative areas of research. As a new field of study with an interdisciplinary and highly international nature, International/Global Japanese Studies is confronted by many challenges and uncertainties. On September 27, the DIJ, together with the Center for Japanese Studies of Fudan University (Shanghai) and the Global Japanese Studies Education and Research Incubator (GJS-ERI) of Osaka University will hold an online workshop to approach International/Global Japanese Studies from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and cultural backgrounds. Details and registration here
Nora Kottmann presents COVID survey findings at JSAA conference
DIJ researcher Nora Kottmann will present her paper “Space, place and the pandemic: First insights into changing spatial configurations of singles’ intimate practices” at this week’s Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA) 2021 Conference. It is part of the panel “Singles and Intimate Practices in COVID times: Perspectives from an Original Survey” which also includes presentations by her cooperation partners Laura Dales and Akiko Yoshida. The panel presents findings from the analyses of the survey data, with an aim to better understand the lives and non-familial relationship worlds of unmarried adults, and the experiences and practices from COVID-19 related changes to lifestyle and social practices. This research is part of Nora’s project COVID-19 and its effects on singles in Japan: Personal relationships and practices of intimacy in the time of ‘social distancing’ and ‘self-discipline’. The panel session takes place on Thursday, September 30th, from 11.30 am JST. Conference programme here
DIJ researchers at EAJS, EACS, and ICAS virtual conferences
Every three years, Japanese Studies experts from all over the world present their latest research at the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) conference. From 24-28 August, Franz Waldenberger, Susanne Brucksch, Isaac Gagné, Sonja Ganseforth, Barbara Geilhorn, Markus Heckel, Nora Kottmann, Harald Kümmerle, Torsten Weber, and Yufei Zhou will participate in this year’s virtual EAJS conference as presenters, discussants, or chairs in the sections ‘Anthropology and Sociology’, ‘Economy, Business and Political Economy’, ‘Language and Linguistics’, ‘Intellectual History and Philosophy’, ‘Urban, Regional and Environmental Studies’, and ‘Performing Arts’. Programme and details here. In addition, Yufei Zhou will give a presentation on “Transoceanic Contacts in the Making of Sinological Knowledge” at the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) conference on August 27 and Sonja Ganseforth will present her book publication Rethinking Locality in Japan (Routledge 2021), co-edited with DIJ alumnus Hanno Jentzsch, at the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) on August 28.
Keynote talk by Susanne Brucksch at Robotics Conference
DIJ Principal Researcher Susanne Brucksch will be one of four keynote speakers at the 17th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO 2021). In her keynote on Friday, July 9, Susanne will reflect on how the relationship between humans and devices in medical contexts can be specified when the sociocultural dimension of a particular locale is included. For instance, the study of the social context provides manifold insights on knowledge production, research and development processes, user contexts, and the institutional background of the making and application of medical devices. Examples from the research literature and case studies will illustrate these intersections. Her talk draws on her recently published co-edited volume Humans and Machines in Medical Contexts in Japan and her book chapter “Robotic Care Devices: Aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Pflegerobotik in Japan” in Genese und Folgen der Pflegerobotik (in German).
Workshop ‘Technology & Society in Japan and Beyond’
Technical artefacts, technologies, and infrastructures are shaping our everyday life in manifold ways. At the same time, their development, promotion and/or rejection is influenced by cultural patterns, ethical principles, social values as well as power relations. This one-day workshop of the Research Initiative ‘Technology & Society in Japan and Beyond’ brings together scholars who share an interest in the analysis of co-construction processes of technology and society in Japan and beyond. Twelve speakers will address the themes ‘User, Visions and Technology Development’ and ‘Ethics, Health and Technology in Context’. The workshop takes place online on June 25 and is organized by Susanne Brucksch and Cosima Wagner (FU Berlin). Details and registration here
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Contemporary Japan
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