Two new studies by DIJ researcher Harald Kümmerle were recently published. His book chapter “Bridging Göttingen and Tokyo: Oral Culture and the Dynamics of Mathematical Knowledge”, published in Felix Klein’s Foreign Students. Opening Up the Way for Transnational Mathematics (Birkhäuser Cham 2025), examines the reception of Felix Klein’s school of mathematical productivity in Japan, particularly at Tokyo Imperial University, whose central position within Japan contrasts with Göttingen University’s peripheral position within Germany. The study focuses on the work of two Japanese mathematicians, Tsuruichi Hayashi and Takuji Yoshiye. Harald’s article “Datenströme und Raumordnung. Japans Regulierungsmodell im globalen Kontext” (Data flows and spatial order. Japan’s regulatory model in a global context), published in German in the Zeitschrift für Digitalisierung und Recht (4/2025), studies how data flows are embedded in geographical and economic orders and constitute spaces themselves. Focusing on developments in Japan, the article shows that data flows are not only technical or regulatory objects, but space-constituting phenomena in which Japan’s consensus-oriented regulatory model appears as a relevant factor in global order-making.

How have Germany and Japan used digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic? From the perspective of two divergent epistemologies of data, the open access article “From Data Universalism to Data Particularism: Epistemologizing Digital Sovereignty Based on Germany’s and Japan’s COVID-19 Responses” (Global Studies Quarterly, Vol. 5, Issue 3)  by DIJ’s Harald Kümmerle and Johannes Thumfart (Brussels) compares both countries’ use of data and their responses to the pandemic. Observing that Japan outperformed Germany in terms of selected key metrics at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the article argues that data particularism, as exemplified in Japan’s COVID-19 response, can be a valuable strategy to address the epistemic and political shortcomings of data universalism. In particular, the authors argue that in the context of the broader debate about digital sovereignty, data particularism is attractive for traditional manufacturing powers, such as Japan and Germany, that are rich in context-specific data but dependent on US and Chinese Big Tech.

The autumn 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 issue of Contemporary Japan includes six original research articles plus our book review section, covering topics ranging from religion and politics to education, women’s empowerment, elderly workers, and Takarazuka fans. The research articles include “faith talk” in Japanese political rhetoric (Ernils Larsson), the “afterlife” of prime ministers, particularly Satō Eisaku (Taro Tsuda), an ethnographic study of a Korean international school (Kunisuke Hirano), literacy movements and female empowerment among Buraku (Chiara Fusari), elderly reemployment (Kazue Haga), and a spatial analysis of Takarazuka fandom (Zuzanna Baraniak-Hirata). Our book review section includes a monograph on the history of the Japanese destroyer Yukikaze (reviewed by Samuel P. Porter) and a handbook on postwar Japan (reviewed by Florian Coulmas).

This open access volume (in German; English and Japanese translations forthcoming) contains four short research articles presenting approaches to communicative places in Germany and Japan, as well as seven essays by researchers involved in the projects, local actors, or visitors to these places. The publication facilitates both a conceptual discussion of communicative places and a deeper understanding of practical social projects in both countries. The authors understand the concept of communicative places as an umbrella term for the spatial aspects of (re)vitalisation practices in rural communities – that alternatively are also referred to as ‘social places’ or ‘places of resilience’. The volume’s theoretical texts complement the case studies and excursion reports. The publication is co-edited by Claudia Neu, Norio Okada, Yoshiyuki Yama, and DIJ’s Sebastian Polak-Rottmann who also contributed a short research article on places of resilience in rural Japan.

Übersetzungen sind niemals nur Übersetzungen von Wörtern, sondern umfassen auch kulturelle Bezugshorizonte. Als Beitrag zur Bildung, Abgrenzung und Konsolidierung kultureller und sozialer Identitäten bietet das Kulturelle Übersetzen verschiedene thematische, theoretische und methodische Ansätze für die literatur- und textimmanente Forschung und regt zur Reflexion über disziplinäre Grenzen an. Der Sammelband „Schwarze Löcher im Gewebe der Sprachen“: Kulturelles Übersetzen in der japanischen Literatur, herausgegeben von DIJ-Literaturwissenschaftlerin Carolin Fleischer-Heininger und Kevin Schumacher-Shoji, untersucht das Kulturelle Übersetzen anhand von neun Fallstudien, darunter auch zu Japans Verlagspluralismus und Praktiken der Retranslation von DIJ-Forscherin Nicole M. Mueller. Das Buch ist erschienen bei Iudicium als Band 68 der DIJ-Monographienreihe.

What does sustainability mean in Japan and how can it be researched? The multidisciplinary blog ‘Sustainability in Japan and beyond’ highlights current research on sustainability in Japanese society. The blog posts are based on projects by members of the DIJ research cluster ‘Sustainability in Japan’ and contain reflections and reports from ongoing research. Sebastian Polak-Rottmann, head of the research cluster and editor of the blog, also invites contributions from external researchers dealing with sustainability in Japan or other countries and regions. The first five blog posts include reports on research excursions to post-disaster areas in Ishikawa, rural parts of Tokyo, and to the Expo in Osaka; a report of a conference on sustainability; and an article on meat consumption.

A new journal article by DIJ anthropologist Sebastian Polak-Rottmann and DIJ alumnus Dionyssios Askitis (Vienna University) introduces yorokonde morau (making others happy) as a novel concept of well-being originating from lay discourse on happiness in Japan. Their article “Yorokonde Morau: the shared well-being experience of making others happy (and feeling happy because of it)” was published open access in the summer issue of the Social Science Japan Journal. The study explains yorokonde morau as an interactive and reciprocal understanding of well-being. The concept is the outcome of a mixed-methods research project focusing on the ‘positive feedback loop’ of reciprocal well-being observed in high-trust communities. Combining qualitative and quantitative findings, the authors found that the reciprocal experience of yorokonde morau is characterized less by negative social capital and more strongly linked to generalized trust in others than interdependent happiness. Grounded in the real-life experiences of everyday Japanese people, this approach represents a new reciprocal facet of sociocentric well-being.