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.

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.

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

A new book chapter by DIJ researcher Harald Kümmerle analyzes the structure, reception, and production of mathematical knowledge in the early 1930s. Based on a case study of the history of a paper on duality written by the Japanese mathematician Tannaka Tadao in 1938, the chapter provides insights into the development of Tannaka’s research and into processes of cooperative knowledge production, including influences from and exchanges with mathematical communities in Japan and abroad. “Tannaka Tadao‘s 1938 paper on the duality of noncommutative topological groups and its historical background” is published in Duality in 19th and 20th Century Mathematical Thinking (Science Networks. Historical Studies series, vol 63. Cham: Birkhäuser 2024), edited by Ralf Krömer and Emmylou Haffner.

Japan gehört zu den reichsten Ländern der Welt. Gleichzeitig hat das Land den mit Abstand am höchsten verschuldeten Staatssektor. Welche Entwicklungen zeichnen sich – auch vor dem Hintergrund der demografischen Herausforderung – für Japans Wirtschaft und die Staatsfinanzen ab? In seinem Gastbeitrag “Reiches Land – armer Staat: Japans Wirtschaft im Griff der Demografie” erklärt DIJ-Direktor Franz Waldenberger u.a. wie Japans niedrige Arbeitsproduktivität, Alterung, Bevölkerungsrückgang und Japans Geldpolitik zusammenhängen. Angesichts sehr gut ausgebildeter und leistungswilliger Arbeitskräfte sowie einer exzellenten Forschungs- und Entwicklungslandschaft sieht Waldenberger gute Voraussetzungen, die aktuellen Herausforderungen zu meistern. Ebenfalls im Japan-Heft: DIJ-Alumna und ehemalige Beiratsvorsitzende Verena Blechinger-Talcott mit einem Beitrag zum Wandel in Japans Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik sowie der stellvertretende Beiratsvorsitzende David Chiavacci mit einem Artikel zur Arbeitsimmigration und dem Sozialvertrag in Japan. Die gesamte Ausgabe ist hier erhältlich.

A new, open access article by DIJ historian Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus analyzes the early interactions between Japanese and Korean Protestants who came to Tokyo to study between 1880 and 1895. The article argues that this encounter played a crucial role in generating enthusiasm among Japanese Protestants to disseminate their religious teachings in Korea through evangelization. Divided into three parts, the article first contextualizes the rise of Protestantism in relation to the evolving bilateral relationship between Japan and Korea; second, it delves into the interactions between Korean students and Japanese Protestants in the early 1880s; and third, it examines the emerging debate among Japanese Protestants regarding the potential for missionary activities in Korea. The article “El encuentro del protestantismo japonés con la Corea antes de la primera guerra sino-japonesa” (The encounter of Japanese Protestantism with Korea before the first Sino-Japanese War) is published in Spanish in the Revista Internacional de Estudios Asiáticos (vol. 3, no. 1) and can be downloaded here