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Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies On Site
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DIJ Newsletter 67
Spring 2022
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Welcome to the Spring 2022 issue!
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The first months of 2022 have unfortunately not brought the hoped-for turnaround in the global fight against the pandemic. In fact, during the past months Japan has experienced its highest wave of COVID cases since the start of the pandemic. And as if the worldwide suffering caused by the pandemic were not enough, the war in Ukraine has put the world in a state of shock. The Max Weber Foundation, which also maintains institutes in Moscow and Warsaw, has expressed its distress regarding the military aggression against Ukraine (link). In response to the war, our colleagues in Warsaw have launched a scholarship programme to support researchers from Ukraine (link).
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In this situation, people are clutching at straws: what good news has there been in the past three months? One is certainly that the Japanese government has finally relaxed the entry regulations to Japan, so that scientific exchange between Japan and the rest of the world can slowly pick up speed again. Another is that, after a break of more than two years, we also hope to be able to welcome PhD students in our scholarship programme back at the DIJ and to hold our first hybrid event with guests on site in the second half of this year. You will find more information on our upcoming events and a selection of recent DIJ activities and publications in this spring issue of the DIJ Newsletter.
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We hope you will enjoy exploring this edition of the DIJ Newsletter. If you haven't done so yet, you can subscribe to receive it directly to your inbox here. We also welcome your feedback and updates to your email address via email to newsletter@dijtokyo.org
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We wish you a pleasant spring and more than anything else: peace for all!
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New Publications ・Gerade erschienen ・新刊
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Book covers © publishers
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Financial Systems in the Digital Age
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The increasing capacity of digital networks and computing power, together with the resulting connectivity and availability of big data, are impacting financial systems globally. This volume, co-edited by DIJ economists Franz Waldenberger and Markus Heckel, brings together scholars, policymakers, and regulators with professional backgrounds in finance to analyse the digital transformation of financial systems. The Japanese version デジタル時代の金融システム―欧州と日本からの視点 was published by the Kinzai Institute for Financial Affairs, the English version by Springer. The English eBook edition is freely available under an open access licence.
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Cover © Taylor&Francis
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CJ Special Issue on Employment and HR
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The latest issue of Contemporary Japan is a special issue on “Japan’s Employment System and Human Resource Management". It is guest edited by Parissa Haghirian and includes four research articles on legal, social, economic, and business implications of non-regular forms of employment, as well as on the increasing diversity in the workforce. In addition, the book review section features reviews of new publications in the fields of international relations, history, anthropology, media studies, literature, and religious studies.
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Recent articles and book chapters by DIJ researchers include:
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- Sonja Ganseforth, “Shifting Matter and Meanings in Japanese Seafood Assemblages: Fish as Functional Food Cyborgs and Emblematic Cultural Commodities”, Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, January 2022 (online first).
- Markus Heckel (with Kiyohiko G. Nishimura), “Unconventional Monetary Policy through Open Market Operations: A Principal Component Analysis”, Asian Economic Papers, 21-1, 2022, 1–28.
- Barbara Holthus, "Review of Amorphous Dissent: Post-Fukushima Social Movements in Japan, edited by Horie Takashi, Tanaka Hikaru, and Tanno Kiyoto. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2021", Social Science Japan Journal, January 2022 (online first).
- Nora Kottmann, “‘Doing family’ on a global stage. German expatriates in southern Tokyo”, Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques, 52-1, 2021, 149–169.
- Harald Kümmerle, “Japanese data strategies, global surveillance capitalism, and the ‘LINE problem'”, Matter. Journal of New Materialist Research, 3-1, 2022, 134–160.
- David M. Malitz, "Kaiser Meiji als Vorbild für die Monarchien des halbkolonialisierten Asiens im Vorfeld deren konstitutionellen Revolutionen im frühen 20. Jahrhundert", Japans moderne Monarchie. Beiträge japanologischer Forschung zur Wahrnehmung und Geschichte der Tenno, ed. Daniel F. Schley, Münster: Lit Verlag 2022, 205–252.
- Celia Spoden (with Anke Erdmann, Irene Hirschberg, Gerald Neitzke), "Talking about the end of life: communication patterns in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – a scoping review", Palliative Care & Social Practice, Vol. 16, 2022, 1–18.
- Torsten Weber, "Alternative Internationalisms in East Asia: The Conferences of the Asian Peoples, Japanese-Chinese Rivalry, and Japanese Imperialism 1924-1943", Placing Internationalism. International Conferences and the Making of the Modern World, eds. S. Legg/M. Heffernan/J. Hodder/B. Thorpe, London: Bloomsbury 2021, 199–215.
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Upcoming Events ・Kommende Veranstaltungen・今後のイベント
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Poster © NUS
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Exploring Health Infrastructure in Asia
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The DIJ and the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS) are organisers of the workshop 'Health Infrastructure and Asia’s Epidemiological Transitions: Historical Perspectives'. It aims to explore East and Southeast Asian experiences in crafting health infrastructures during the long twentieth century. It also seeks to produce new ways of understanding the dynamics of health and disease under the processes of decolonization and development. The online workshop takes place on April 13 and 14, 2022 and is co-convened by DIJ's David M. Malitz.
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Photo © Gobierno de Chile (Wikimedia)
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DIJ-MFJ-NIRA Conference on Liberalism
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Thomas Piketty, French economist and author of Capital in the Twenty-first Century, will be the keynote speaker at the conference 'The Future of Liberalism: Japan, France and Germany in global context'. It will take place online from June 7 to 9 and is jointly organised by the DIJ, the Institut français de recherche sur le Japon (MFJ), and the Nippon Institute of Research Advancement (NIRA). In addition to Piketty's keynote, the conference features 18 speakers, including DIJ director Franz Waldenberger and DIJ alumna Yufei Zhou, who will give presentations on "Governance in a Knowledge-driven Society" and "The Transition of the Dominant Economic Ideology in China in the 21st Century", respectively.
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DIJ News ・Aus dem DIJ・研究所ニュース
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Photo © Yufei Zhou
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Goodbyes after three, six, and 30 Years
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Social scientist Susanne Brucksch (2016-22) and historian Yufei Zhou (2019-22) have left the DIJ to take up new positions at Teikyo University. Yufei has just started her position as Lecturer (Japanese Intellectual History) in the Department of Global Japanese Studies, Faculty of Language Studies. Later this month, we will also say goodbye to our secretary Marga Dinkel. She will retire after 30 years at the DIJ. We wish our (former) colleagues all the best for their new endeavours.
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Poster © DIJ
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Join the DIJ in Research or Administration
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Past Events ・Vergangene Veranstaltungen・最近のイベント
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Poster © DEA
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Recent Trends in Digital Currencies in Asia
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Central banks around the world have started to design their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as a reaction to the competitive dynamics by cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. In this webinar, jointly hosted by the DIJ and the Digital Euro Association, four experts from Japan and Europe discussed initiatives in Asia to promote digital money, stablecoins, and CBDCs – and their lessons for Europe. The event was co-moderated by DIJ economist Markus Heckel and can be viewed on YouTube.
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Slide © Yufei Zhou
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Symposium 'Globalizing Social Sciences'
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At the end of the 19th century, Germany was widely recognized as the premier place to study political economy, law, and social sciences as summarized under the umbrella term of Sozialwissenschaften. Their approach significantly influenced elites from the so-called catch-up countries, including Russia, Japan, and China. Organised in cooperation between the DIJ, the German Historical Institute Rome, and the China Branch Office Beijing, this symposium reexamined the legacies and pitfalls of the German Sozialwissenschaften in East Asia from historical and transnational perspectives.
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Slide © Slidesgo/Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt
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Lecture Series 'Environmental Humanities'
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In this new DIJ lecture series, organised by Barbara Geilhorn, researchers from the humanities are invited to discuss pressing questions, recent trends and approaches in the field of environmental humanities. Topics include ecocriticism, climate change, and the relation between humans, nature, and other living beings. The lecture series kicked off in February with a presentation on Toxic Food and Slow Violence in Japan’s Post-3/11 Literature by DIJ alumna Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt (Nagoya University) and Aidana Bolatbekkyzy (University of Oregon).
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Library News ・ Aus der Bibliothek・図書室ニュース
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Poster © DIJ
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Joint Book Exhibition 'The City of Tokyo'
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In 1868, the name of Edo was changed to “Tokyo Prefecture”. From which perspectives has Tokyo been viewed and researched abroad since then? In this special exhibition in March, the libraries of the International House of Japan, the Maison franco-japonaise, and the DIJ displayed books about the city, its past and present in English, French, and German. The book exhibition at the DIJ is open to the public until April 28. For more information, please contact our library. Details and a list of books and articles at the DIJ library are available for download here.
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Alumni News ・Unsere Ehemaligen ・DIJ 同窓会
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Screenshot © DIJ
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Second Virtual DIJ Alumni Shinnenkai
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In January, nearly 40 former and current DIJ employees met for the second DIJ Alumni Shinnenkai – the traditional first social gathering of the new year. Moved to virtual space as in the previous year, the event had the advantage that alumni from all over the world could attend. Deputy director Barbara Holthus hosted the meeting and guided the alumni via video on a bicycle tour from the DIJ's previous location in Kudan-minami to the current institute. The unanimous opinion of those present: even after the pandemic, there should be virtual alumni meetings again.
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Podcast on China and Knowledge Transfer
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In the seventh episode of the Knowledge Unbound project's podcast, our alumna Yufei Zhou (see above) and Christina Philips (China Branch Office Beijing) explain how they approach their research on the history of transnational knowledge transfer with a focus on China. In the podcast, Yufei reports about her recently completed project at the DIJ, "The Making of Modern Social Sciences in East Asia", which studied the history of the institutionalisation of social sciences in East Asia from a global history perspective.
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If you are part of the growing group of DIJ alumni and have recently published a book or have any other news to share with us, please contact us via newsletter@dijtokyo.org
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Aktueller Begriff ・Catchword・流行語
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Chart © Barbara Holthus
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Agency for Children: Kodomo Kateichō
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Low fertility rates, child poverty, domestic violence and child abuse, bullying and rising suicide rates: the Covid-19 pandemic has further aggravated social and economic problems among Japan's young. To tackle all of this, the Government announced the launch of an Agency for Children and Families (Kodomo Kateichō) as of April 2023. The publication “Basic Policy for a New Promotion System for Child Policies” lays out in detail how three ministries are to work closely together for the sake or children and families. But the plan has already come under criticism.
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Social Media ・Soziale Medien・ソーシャルメディア
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Poster © IUPERJ
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Digital Currencies & Corporate Governance
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We have recently added two new videos to the DIJ's YouTube channel. In February, DIJ director Franz Waldenberger discussed Japan's 'performance puzzle' in a webinar organised by the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro. He outlined Japan’s recent corporate governance reforms and explained their limited influence on the performance of Japan’s economy.
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Also new on YouTube: a video of the joint DIJ & DEA Web-Forum on Digital Currencies (see above) with DIJ's Markus Heckel.
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