With the pandemic since early 2020, the use of online platforms has increased in most societies. Consequently, providers of digital platforms have gained substantial influence on how people inform themselves, for example about the novel coronavirus or political topics. However, many posts and publications include falsified or unproven data (better known as “fake news”), also in Japan. In the course of our research we raise the question how the status quo and the future of the aforementioned digital platforms can be explored collectively with regards to issues like fake news, democratic values or privacy. We argue that the resulting scenarios, which arise from the subjective experiences of their speculators and, hence, reveal individual hopes and fears, allow us to explore and discuss utopian and dystopian visions of technological futures and alternative realities. Details

Speakers:
Michel Hohendanner, Munich University of Applied Sciences
Chiara Ullstein, Technical University of Munich

Lecture Series ‘Gender and Sexuality in East Asia’ (3/5)
A convenience store is a reflection of Japan’s society. The way people behave, act, react, and interact is a display of contemporary Japan’s common sense. It reveals how social life is organized in terms of interpersonal relations, habits, norms, values, etc. What, however, happens when someone does not fit Japan’s common sense? This presentation will elaborate on how Murata addresses the fundamental question of an individual’s place within society by focusing on how the novel deals with social conventions, gender constructions, and work. The analysis of these issues shows how Murata deconstructs Japan’s common sense and reveals its naturalized, unspoken, and taken-for-granted rules that organize contemporary Japanese society. Details

Speaker:
Ronald Saladin, Trier University

Lecture Series ‘Gender and Sexuality in East Asia’ (2/5)
Around 2010, cute male characters, drawn visually identical to bishōjo (beautiful girl) characters, moved beyond erotic computer games (erogē) and into cosplay and cute cross-dress fashion subculture, on campuses and online. By the middle of the 2010s, M2F cute and girlish boys were also a tangible theme in advertising and major media production. The well-trained bodies and willing faces of young girls lining screens and interfaces in the city, became infiltrated by male talents and pop idols in cute cross-dress. This paper explores the pick-up and adaptation of cute as a male visual aesthetic in subcultural practices and fashion and considers its complex play with transformation and masculine identity. Details

Speaker:
Sharon Kinsella, The University of Manchester

DIJ MFJ Web-Forum
The number of infections, reproduction numbers, doubling speeds, death rates: national pandemic statistics are updated, compared and discussed daily. The numbers are shocking, but so are the huge national differences. Why are there so few people infected in Japan? Why is the death rate in Germany so low? Why is the situation in France so bad? For sure, countries apply different testing and reporting methods. Simple comparisons are likely to be misleading. Nevertheless, these numbers are relevant as they influence important policy decisions. In our Web-Forum we ask leading experts in the field from France, Germany, and Japan to explain the apparent differences in national data related to the COVID-19 pandemic and what the numbers can really tell us about the situation in the three countries. Details
Speakers:
Ansgar Lohse, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Paul-André Rosental, Sciences Po Paris
Kenji Shibuya, King’s College London
You can access this online event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnOfeA8nbts

This lecture series sets out to explore ‚Gender and Sexuality in East Asia‘ from a cultural studies and social science perspective. It is structured as a set of three online lectures to be followed by a DIJ Forum and a film screening and talk with the producer and one protagonist (dates t.b.c.). Topics that will be addressed are: Sexualities and migration, ‘new’ masculinities, ‘new’ life courses for women, gender constructions in film and literature, bodies and postfeminism.
Online Lectures
An Huy Tran, University of Duisburg-Essen/Waseda University: ‚Towards a Transnational Sexual and Masculine Field: Male Vietnamese Migrants in Contemporary Japan‘ (9 June)
Sharon Kinsella, The University of Manchester: ‚Cute Masculinity: Investigating the Meaning of Virtual Shōjo and Girl Parody by Young Men in the 2010s‘ (25 June)
Ronald Saladin, Trier University: ‚Murata Sayaka’s ‘Convenience Store Woman’ – Discussing Gender Identity and Society in Contemporary Japanese Literature‘ (7 July)
Join us to discuss these issues with internationally established scholars! Further information, incl. technical details will be announced here and on Twitter (@dij_tokyo) in due time. Download Poster

Lecture Series ‘Gender and Sexuality in East Asia’ (1/5)
Transnational movements of people across borders have been one of the most prominent forces in shaping sexualities and genders. While migrants’ economic and labour practices have constituted a relatively wide spectrum of both academic and non-academic interests, the sexual and gendered dimensions of migration attract less attention. In particular, sexualities have historically been marginalized, and are still ‘absent as a social factor in mainstream sociological studies of migration’ (Carrillo 2017; Manalansan IV 2006). Moreover, in contrast to female migrants’ sexual and gender identities and behaviours, the sexual and gendered experiences of male movers have not been adequately investigated. Details

Speaker:
An Huy Tran, University of Duisburg-Essen/Waseda University

Access (Zoom Meeting):
https://zoom.us/j/92470344725?pwd=c09oRFFoMnRDVktvY2l5cVplT2x3QT09
Meeting ID: 924 7034 4725
Password: 329921

DIJ DWIH Web-Forum
The perception, assessment, communication and containment of risks is an ongoing challenge for individuals, organizations and societies at large. The present COVID-19 pandemic reveals the profound problems countries confront and the difficult trade-offs they have to make when facing systemic risks combined with a high degree of uncertainty. It also shows remarkable differences in the way national governments, businesses and citizens are prepared for the crisis and are trying to cope with its various dimensions. In our online forum, two leading risk researchers from Japan and Germany will analyze and evaluate the crisis responses in their countries. The discussion will explore the similarities and differences in the national approaches, possible reasons and implications. Details
Speakers:
Ortwin Renn, Director, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies
Norio Okada, Prof. em. Kyoto University, Disaster Prevention Research Institute
You can access this online event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdGa3jF7et0

Please note: this event has been postponed. A new date will be announced in due course. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

The transformation of the Japanese agricultural sector and the development of rural regions in the course of extensive infrastructure measures during the economic boom led to changes in many areas of rural life. Not only the often mentioned out-migration of younger generations but also the changing economic structures and the conditions for a livelihood in rural settlements were subjected to fundamental change. Among others, this also affected common work and the management of commons (common-pool resources) in the settlements, which had been embedded as a complex local system of cycles for a livelihood fitting the local environment.

By examining the grassland management of Aso (Kumamoto Pref.), I will first outline the natural conditions and then proceed to show how this transformation took place in the livestock farming sector and what problems the local population involved is currently exposed to. The lecture closes with an outlook on possible solutions, which I am currently exploring during a three-year field stay on behalf of the Japanese Ministry of Environment researching “Regionally cycling and symbiotic area” (地域循環共生圏) in order to initiate a discussion within this working group about other possible forms of sustainable development in rural Japan.

Speaker:
Johannes Wilhelm, Kumamoto University (Kumamoto)