The legacies of war continue to resonate in Japan as it reckons with its actions in the Second World War and continues to struggle with historical reconciliation, especially with its Asian neighbors. The scholars in this panel will discuss how we can assess the nature of Japanese war crimes in a global and comparative perspective...

In this presentation, Mathieu Deflem will lecture about the celebrity activism on racial justice that emerged in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing especially on the activities by tennis star Naomi Osaka. Celebrity activism during the first year of the pandemic radically turned to matters of racial justice in the wake of the video-taped police killing of George Floyd. In this lecture, activism is analyzed in terms of the motives and objectives on the part of the celebrities, on the one hand, and the reception thereof by the public and in the media, on the other...

Popular culture in Japan includes a wide and wild variety of commodities, practices, and styles. Pop-Culture Japan, however, is a different figure altogether: a version of Japan-as-national culture that is imagined primarily by Japan’s male bureaucrats as a potential remedy to the nation’s declining economic prowess and perceived geopolitical influence since the early 1990s. In this regard, Pop-Culture Japan emerges in response to a growing sense of anxiety among state administrators and is managed by bureaucrats who are emotionally sensitive to the state’s image abroad and endeavor to care for it accordingly...

Looking at young Europeans who migrated to Singapore and Tokyo, this book sheds light on early-career migration and on the changing outlook of Japan and Singapore. We see how migration to Asian business centres has become a way of distinction and an alternative way of middle-class reproduction for young Europeans. It also reveals how perceived insecurities in the crisis-ridden EU result in these migrants’ migration or prolonged stays in Asia...

In the past few months, the Japanese government has announced plans to significantly increase its defense budget, develop new military capabilities, and strengthen its ties with security partners.  Some observers see a paradigm shift in Japanese strategy, while others see these developments as more evolutionary than revolutionary. Professor Guibourg Delamote of Inalco and Robert Dujarric of Temple University Japan will discuss these issues and engage in a Q&A session with the audience...

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has given the go-ahead for a major redevelopment of Jingu Gaien, the cluster of sports facilities and green space adjacent to the National Stadium in Sendagaya. The project has recently become a focus of attention in Tokyo, with many people from across the political spectrum speaking out with concerns about the project. The redevelopment plan is made possible by a loosening of height restrictions in the area that was implemented in conjunction with the Olympics, and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was involved in conceptualization of the plan. The redevelopment will eliminate nearly a thousand trees, two historic stadiums and several public sports facilities, and put in three high rise office buildings...

Tag Murphy will discuss the origins and the state of the dollar-based order. The Bretton Woods systems collapsed more than half a century ago during the 1971 "Nixon shocks." Since then, there have been countless predictions of the end of the dollar's reign, based on a belief that others (China, Russia, Iran, etc) could establish a "counter-order," the creation of the euro, the declining percentage of world GDP accounted for by the US, and multiple crises since the early 1970s. Yet, 51 years after Richard Nixon's 15 August 1971 speech, the US dollar is still at the center of the world monetary system. Japan, one of the apparent victims of the Nixon Shocks, has played a critical role in this order. As currency markets are facing a stronger dollar and weaker yen, and a host of other challenges, Tag will discuss causes and consequences of dollar hegemony.

Since the mid-19th century, Japan has lived in a region where wars or the risk of major conflicts have been the norm. Japan's current security environment is far less critical than it was in many periods in the past 150 years. However, it has evolved. Some external threats to the country's well-being have gotten less salient, while others have grown more worrisome. During this session, we will seek to shed light on the impact of developments in the past decade, such as the evolution of China's policy, the turmoil in the United States, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We will start with a conversation with Hiroyuki Akita, one of Japan's leading commentators and analysts, with Robert Dujarric of TUJ, followed by Q&A from the audience.

Alex Kerr is a leading authority on traditional Japanese art, culture and aesthetics.While living in Japan off and on since the 1960s, with interludes at Yale University (Japanese Studies) and as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, he has seen Japan undergo dramatic change as modernization has increasingly displaced traditional modes of life and transformed the landscape. Living nearby Kyoto in the village of Kameoka, he worked for a number of years at the Omoto-Kyo Shinto Sect, teaching Japanese arts (calligraphy, tea ceremony, Noh). Seeking a deeper connection with Japanese tradition, he took over a 400 year old Shinto shrine in Kameoka and converted it to a residence and, in the Iya valley, restored a 300 year old Minka farmhouse. Both have been acclaimed in architectural magazines as archetypes of how tradition and modernity can be integrated in ways that combine contemporary and traditional elements while being authentic to its history.