This open access book examines how the Covid-19 pandemic exposed structural tensions in innovation systems and capitalist models in the global economy, with a particular focus on Asian healthcare systems. Co-edited by DIJ Visiting Research Fellow Sébastien Lechevalier, Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Kathryn Ibata-Arens, and Kayo Takuma, Capitalism, Innovations, and Health after Covid-19. An Asian Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan 2026) contributes to debates on post-pandemic capitalism, technological development, and global healthcare management. The book interrogates systemic crises in capitalism and innovation; analyzes Covid-19 responses as a critical moment for rethinking health governance; and presents Asian experiences that challenge dominant models. Chapters draw on comparative political economy, science and technology studies (STS), and health policy to illuminate how Asia’s diverse trajectories offer lessons for more inclusive and sustainable innovation. Sébastien Lechevalier contributed the chapter “Care-led Innovation. A New Paradigm and an Application in the Japanese Context of Society 5.0”

The summer issue of our DIJ Newsletter is now available online! We hope you enjoy this latest edition, which provides insights into our research, new publications, outreach activities, job and research grant opportunities, and a new edition of our Catchword series. We also introduce new team members and bid farewell to two colleagues who have left the DIJ. The DIJ Newsletter is published four times a year and features updates on our research, publications, events, outreach activities and team. If you haven’t done so yet, you can subscribe to receive our Newsletters directly to your inbox. The full issues and subscription form are available here.

The book Unleashing Innovation the East Asian Way. Startup Ecosystems in Japan, South Korea and China (Springer Singapore 2026) provides new perspectives on startup ecosystems in East Asia – a region which has over decades shaped innovation and global competition. Focusing on Japan, South Korea, and Mainland China, the chapters sketch the dynamic and diverse development of East Asian startup ecosystems considering their wider historical and national contexts. The authors Ying Cheng, Adam Cross, Martin Hemmert, Agata Kapturkiewicz, Masahiro Kotosaka, and DIJ director Franz Waldenberger systematically analyze and compare startup ecosystems. In this way, they show commonalities and differences across East Asia. The chapters use both secondary sources and data from the authors’ decade long collaborative work. Published open access, this book aims to make these findings, which have so far only been presented in academic journals, accessible to a wider readership.

DIJ researchers Carolin Fleischer-Heininger and Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus have contributed articles to the DIJ’s Sustainability in Japan and Beyond blog and the TRAFO Blog for Transregional Research, respectively. Carolin’s article “Tracing Sustainability at the Aichi Triennale 2025 in Japan” reports on her experience as a visitor of the Aichi Triennale 2025, a well-established art festival mainly held in the city of Nagoya, from the perspective of someone who is visually impaired. “Addressing cultural, social and ecological dimensions of sustainability and often also gaining inspiration and authority from personal experience”, she writes, the Triennale “validates sustainability as a matter of responsibility and of justice to give voice to the perspectives that are less prominent in most debates on eco-social sustainability.” Dolf’s article “Beyond Binaries: Decentring Foreign Knowledge in 20th Century Korea”, part of the blog series “De-centering Academia: InterAsian Perspectives”, draws on the history of education in 20th century (South) Korea to examine the historical development and adaption of foreign epistemologies and knowledge systems in Korea. 

Contemporary Japan Volume 38 Issue 1 is out! The six original research articles include “Rainbows and Ratings: Assessing indices of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the Japanese workplace” (Clasen & Conrad) on Japanese companies attempts at improving diversity, “Perks or burdens? Being ‘nearly (Im)mobile’ as IT foreign professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan” (Muranaka) on Vietnamese IT professionals, “Leadership in crisis: Comparing Prime Minister Abe’s and Chancellor Merkel’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic” (Gaunder & Wiliarty) on leadership style, institutional coordination, and policy narratives, “Portraying the refugee crisis: The framing of Afghan, Burmese, and Ukrainian asylum seekers in Japanese print media” (Mitsui & Green) on media portrayals of refugees/asylum seekers, “The Bibliography of Post-War Documentary Literature: Processing war and defeat in post-World War II Japan” (Jeong) on subjective narratives in postwar literature, and “Workers’ uprising: Japanese factories and labor movement in Thailand during the Pacific War” (Takahashi) on anti-colonial labor activism during the Pacific War. The articles are complemented by Wolfram Manzenreiter’s review of Kate Sylvester’s book Women and Martial Art in Japan.

Digital capitalism and science, disability and inclusion, recruitment strategies, and ‘akiya’ problem: the spring issue of our DIJ Newsletter features updates on our research, publications, and events as well as news from the Institute, our team, and our outreach activities. We hope you will enjoy exploring this new edition of the DIJ Newsletter. If you haven’t done so yet, you can subscribe to receive our Newsletters directly to your inbox. The full issues and subscription form are available here.

The new open access article “REALIGN Toolkit: Reflexivity, Adaptability, Leadership, and Inclusion as Pillars of Responsible Research and Innovation” (Wellcome Open Res 2026, 11:8), co-authored by DIJ’s Celia Spoden, discusses how research and innovation can be made more ethically responsible for societal needs. It introduces a new toolkit — which focuses on the four main principles reflexivity, adaptability, leadership, inclusion (REALIGN) — for those involved in innovation to help ensure that new technologies are developed in ways that are fair, thoughtful, and truly useful to the people they are meant to serve. Based on three real-life examples of technologies designed to help people with frailty, including individuals with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations, the article makes recommendations to ensure key stakeholders are meaningfully involved from the very start of research and development. The article includes a discussion of Celia’s research at Tokyo’s Avatar Robot Café DAWN.

Known for its frequent occurrence of natural disasters, Japan follows an exceedingly proactive approach in most areas of its disaster management protocols. They include comprehensive disaster response plans at the national, prefectural, and local levels. Utilizing document analysis, participant observation, and informal interviews, the book chapter “Disaster Preparedness and Response for Companion Animals in Japan” by DIJ sociologist Barbara Holthus explores laws, directives, and preparatory work in place to aid companion animals (pets) during disasters. The study focuses on animal welfare, barriers to successful evacuation, and international best practices. While disaster awareness and preparation are considered as a regular focus of public life in Japan, urban-rural disparities are seen to have considerable impacts on the preparedness of pet owners in disaster settings. The chapter is published in The Palgrave Handbook of Human-Animal Interactions in the Global Context of Climate Change, Disasters, and Other Crises, edited by H. Wu, K. Breen, and S. E. DeYoung (Springer Nature 2026).