Japan is enthusiastic about developing and applying innovative technology in the context of health- and elderly care. Research and development in care robotics, sensor technology (mimamori sensā), or ICT applications are widely promoted by the government. Despite these manifold efforts and activities, many devices fall short of meeting the needs expressed by users. Therefore, this DIJ Forum raises the question, what is necessary to fulfil user’s needs in healthcare? What needs to be done to improve user acceptance and usability of technology regarding innovation in health- and elderly care? Our two speakers are best suited to discuss these questions from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

Speaker:
Sarah Cosentino, Waseda University
Nobu Ishiguro, Osaka University

The progress of digital technology creates new opportunities in all areas of the civil soci-ety. The expansion of citizen science is one example. With citizens taking part in re-search activities, their understanding about science deepens. At the same time, civic engagement can support and advance scientific research. Nevertheless, compared to the natural sciences, practices of citizen science in the social sciences and the humanities (SSH) are still rare.

Combining experiences and insights by leading experts from Japan and abroad, our conference will take a closer look at the opportunities and challenges for citizen science in SSH. Where and how can civil society get engaged? What are the potential benefits? What risks need to be addressed? How can respective collaborations be initiated and coordinated? How will this effect both society and research in SSH?

The two-day academic workshop – jointly organized by the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), the German Centre for Research and Innovation Tokyo (DWIH Tokyo) and the Nippon Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA) – discussed the impact of DT on the social sciences and humanities with regard to three subtopics.

It first addressed the impact of DT for research questions and research design. What questions do we need to ask and how can we make best use of DT in the way we conduct research? Second, it elaborated the possible implications of DT with regard to the dissemination of research outcomes. Finally, it considered how DT might change the organization and institutional set-up of academia. Who will conduct research? Where will it be conducted? Will disciplinary boundaries remain relevant?

Environmental scholar Lawrence Buell defined toxic discourse as a mode of writing that expresses “anxiety arising from a perceived threat of environmental hazard“ (2003, 30-31). Fictional works from the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents feature characters who appear to be mentally unstable because of this anxiety. Rather than their insanity discrediting them in the eyes of the nuclear industry, this presentation draws inspiration from Buell to consider how insanity can be used by victims of nuclear disasters to claim authority through toxic discourse by crafting narratives of resistance. One of the most controversial images stemming from nuclear disasters is of people who remain in highly irradiated areas unfit for human habitation. In novels by Kimura Yūsuke (Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa’s Deluge) and Alina Bronsky (Baba Dunja’s Last Love), the so-called insanity of these characters allows them to comment critically on the postdisaster situation, specifically the evaluation of risk and the bankruptcy of credibility. They provide insightful voices of resistance to the narratives of containment and safety perpetuated by the government and nuclear industry. The presentation ends with a consideration of actual residents in contaminated zones in Kamanaka Hitomi’s documentary Little Voices from Fukushima.

Speaker:
Rachel DiNitto, University of Oregon

What do political parties have to say about the issue? What are their policy proposals, who is pushing them, and how high does immigration rank on the respective political agendas?

Rural communities in Japan have been facing accelerating structural and demographic decline in recent decades. Yet, there is limited evidence on how these challenges impact communities and the quality of life of their inhabitants in Japan. Much of the available international data shows that rural municipalities report higher subjective well-being than urban areas despite being affected by greater structural decline in objective well-being indices.

This presentation will introduce a comprehensive, multidimensional approach to well-being, sensitive to individual and ‘Japanese’ constructions of happiness, and provide tentative insights into well-being in the rural Japanese town of Aso, Kumamoto Prefecture, which is average in terms of its demographic and economic situation.

Speaker:
Dionyssios Askitis, University of Vienna

Citizen energy, known as “Bürgerenergie”, forms a major pillar of the transition to renewable energies (RE) in Germany. From as early as the 1990s German citizens pioneered in in solar and wind power or biomass energy projects and invested into RE as individual households, companies or as members within more than 900 energy cooperatives. Similarly, though less known, Japan as well has a long-established vibrant citizen energy movement, also referred to as “community power”. While initially focusing on building RE capacity, a growing number of citizen energy companies ventured into direct marketing of “green energy”.

The shift from a feed-in-tariff (FIT) to a feed-in-premium (FIP) and auction scheme, the institutional framework for grid integration, the deregulation of electricity markets, but also the changing social acceptance of RE and the ecological consciousness among the wider public present major challenges for citizen energy projects and their business models. Highlighting differences in the regulatory environment and public opinion, our speakers will be comparing the development of citizen energy in Germany and Japan. Despite differences, the citizen energy movement in both countries is presently challenged by tighter regulations for RE, growing local resistance to RE projects, and barriers to market integration. At the same time, direct markets for “green energy” are underdeveloped in Japan and, albeit more developed, contribute little to the expansion of renewables in Germany. Eiji Oishi will comment the discussion from a practitioner and business point of view.

Speakers:
Carsten Herbes, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Germany
Jörg Raupach-Sumiya, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka
Eiji Oishi, Minna Denryoku, Tokyo