On November 4, Japan’s new Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, Hidenao Yanagi, visited our institute. Director Franz Waldenberger and Administrative Director Joachim Röhr informed Ambassador Yanagi about the ongoing research at the DIJ and the international network of the Max Weber Foundation. In perfect German, Mr. Yanagi reported that he is very much looking forward to his second posting in Berlin, also to deepen his understanding and connection to the new German states. Furthermore, he is looking forward to the upcoming celebrations of the 160th anniversary of the relations between Japan and Germany next year, even though not all of them may be realised due to the ongoing pandemic.
During his visit Mr. Yanagi praised the important role the DIJ has played over the past 30 years in developing German-Japanese relations. From 2014 to 2017 Mr. Yanagi was Consul General in Munich, followed by almost three years as Ambassador to Jordan. We are very pleased and honoured that Ambassador Yanagi took the time to visit our institute a few days before his departure for Berlin.

Deputy director and sociologist Barbara Holthus is quoted in the current issue of the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit (46/2020). In the article “Zurücktreten, bitte”, Barbara criticizes the restrictions imposed by the Japanese government on foreigners seeking to re-enter Japan during the Corona pandemic.
Historian Torsten Weber is quoted in the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel (45/2020). In “Globaler Kampf”, Torsten comments on nationalist elements in exhibitions promoting the Tokyo Olympics and Japan’s Olympic history. His remarks draw on research he has done for the DIJ’s special project on the Tokyo Olympics.
In the context of recent discussions about politics and academic freedom in Japan, historian of science Harald Kümmerle is quoted in a Kyodo article that was printed in several Japanese daily newspapers, including the Chūgoku Shimbun (1 November 2020). Giving the example of Albert Einstein’s expulsion from the German National Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina in 1933, Harald explains the treatment of Jewish scientists in Nazi Germany.

On September 25, DIJ director Franz Waldenberger was guest speaker in the SJCC webinar series, organized by the Swiss-Japanese Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with JETRO Switzerland and the Japan Club of Geneva. Even 30 years of ongoing reforms and structural changes have not improved the image of Japanese corporate governance among foreign investors. In his talk “Japan’s system of corporate governance – bright and dark sides”, Franz Waldenberger explained why Japanese boards remain to be insider controlled and what implications this has for performance. However, he also stressed the positive sides of a system where shareholders can be assured that managers are loyal to their company. A video of the webinar is available on the SJCC’s website.

DIJ researcher Barbara Geilhorn has appeared in the SRF Swiss radio feature “Verstrahlte” Gesellschaft: ein japanisches Trauma (“Radiated” society: a Japanese trauma) by Martin Fritz. Drawing on her ongoing research project Local Issues Take Stage – Culture and Community Revitalization, Barbara provided expert commentary on how theatre in Japan has dealt with the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima in 2011. Theatre plays addressed the situation after the accident and the different reactions of people to it: either ignoring the nuclear dangers or facing them and acting accordingly. They also problematized issues of social conformity and the reluctance of Japanese people to voice criticism openly, Barbara explains. The radio programme is available as podcast on the SRF website here (in German)

Our research fellows Isaac Gagné and Sonja Ganseforth have presented their latest research on social and economic developments in Japanese rural and fishing communities at the AAS-in-Asia 2020 conference, held online from August 31 to September 4. Isaac analyzed how residents and volunteers conceptualize and actualize local moral worlds of care through community-based services in his paper ‘Moral Worlds of Welfare: Social Isolation and Community-based Care in Aging Japan’. Sonja’s paper ‘New Marinalities of Japanese Fishing Villages’ discussed how structural change in rural Japanese fishing villages can be understood through the analysis of interconnected local, national, and global dynamics. Their panel “Rurality Check: Tracing the Nascent Global Countryside in Asia” was chaired and organized by Wolfram Manzenreiter (University of Vienna) and also had presentations by Heesun Hwang (Seoul National University) and Michael Leung (City University of Hong Kong).

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Japan, Torsten Weber has made several comments in German media on the legacy of the war in East Asia (in German) and participated in an online outreach event on the global commemoration of the war (in English). For Deutsche Welle, Torsten explained how territorial and ideological disputes in the region have remained a burden of the war in East Asia. In Badische Zeitung and Berliner Zeitung, Torsten commented on the role of the Japanese Emperor during and after the war. Together with Yukiko Koshiro (Nihon University), Torsten also appeared in the Histocon talk event “Global Perceptions of WW2: Japan” which is part of an online series to discuss how the Second World War is commemorated globally. It is sponsored by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung).

“Technology that enables more people to work from home could also help women, said Barbara G. Holthus, deputy director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo.” Read more of Barbara Holthus‘ comments on post-Abe Japan, teleworking, the role of women and her advice for Japan’s next prime minister in Motoko Rich’s article Many Want to Be Japan’s New Leader. Do They Know What Awaits Them? in the New York Times.

Our research fellows Sonja Ganseforth and Isaac Gagné presented their latest research on different aspects of rural Japan at the ‘Asia’s New Ruralities’ online conference (August 12-13) at the University of Vienna. Sonja’s paper (“Remaking rurality in Japanese fishing villages”) on global dynamics and structural change in rural Japanese fishing villages emphasized the need to pay close attention to the maritime side of fishing communities. Isaac’s paper “Local Economies of Care: The Impact of Demographic Changes on Social Welfare in Rural Japan” argued that it is in the rural areas, which are often seen as the most backward, most vulnerable, and least adaptive, where some of the most innovative transformations in welfare have been taking place. Among others they were joined by former DIJ research fellow Hanno Jentzsch who gave a presentation on “Wine Tourism and Rural Revitalization in Yamanashi”, based on fieldwork he conducted during his time at the DIJ. The full conference programme and abstracts are available here.