ICAS : The struggle in Japan over climate change (In-person)

Thursday, May 18, 2023 - 19:00

It’s easy to feel frustrated about Japan’s climate change policies. It often feels as if the country only makes progress kicking and screaming, that the fossil fuel lobby is in charge, and that the government sets low goals that Japan does not meet. This view, while having much merit, is too one-sided. It ignores all of the economic and political forces that have forced faster change than the fossil lobby desired: from the scrapping of planned new coal plants to the growth of solar power at a pace that the fossil lobby claimed was impossible. Loss of sales overseas has...

Tags: Richard Katz, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : Democratizing Luxury: Name Brands, Advertising and Consumption in Japan (In-person)

Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 18:30 to 20:00

Democratizing Luxury: Name Brands, Advertising, and Consumption in Modern Japan (forthcoming, University of Hawaii Press) explores interconnections between advertising and consumption in modern Japan by investigating how Japanese companies at key historical moments assigned value, or "luxury," to mass-produced products as an important business model. The first comprehensive 150-year history of iconic Japanese name brand luxury and accessibility in modern Japan and elsewhere, Democratizing Luxury explores company histories and strategies leading domestic and global customers to consume commodities conferring affordable, high-quality status...

Tags: Annika A. Culver, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : China after Covid and Xi's reelection (In-person)

Monday, April 24, 2023 - 19:00 to 20:30

The past few years have been particularly challenging for the Chinese Communist Party. After draconian restrictions, it pivoted radically from its Zero Covid policy. Its only significant ally, Russia, failed in its attempt to destroy Ukraine. Hostility towards China is the only bipartisan consensus left in the United States. To better understand these issues, we will have a conversation followed by a Q&A session with Valérie Niquet.

Tags: Valérie Niquet, Robert Dujarric

ICAS :An update on US politics by Paul Sracic (In-person)

Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 19:00 to 20:30

Although President Biden has been in office for less than two and a half years, the race to replace him in 2024 has already begun. Former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor and ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley have formally declared that they will be candidates, and several others, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are expected to make similar announcements. Many believe that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will be joining all of them as they prepare to gather for the first Republican Presidential Debate in about four months in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

Tags: Paul Sracic, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : Can Japan resist dual citizenship? (In-person)

Tuesday, April 4, 2023 - 18:30 to 20:00

Dual citizenship was once universally reviled as a moral abomination, then largely marginalized as an anomaly. During the twentieth century, states were able to police the status and manage incidental costs to the extent that full suppression proved impossible. More recent decades have seen wide acceptance of dual citizenship as those costs dissipated for both states and individuals. Powerful nonresident citizen communities have played a crucial role in winning recognition of the status. A handful of states -- Japan notable among them -- have held out against this clear trend and increasingly vocal emigrant and immigrant constituencies and children of bi-national couples. This session will situate Japan's resistance to dual citizenship in a global historical context.

Tags: Peter Spiro, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : Birthgap - Childless World: Documentary screening and discussion with filmmaker Stephen J. Shaw (In-person)

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 - 18:30 to 20:00

Childless World, followed by a conversation with the film director Stephen J Shaw. Shocked by data on declining birth rates in Europe and Japan, Stephen embarked on a 24-country journey in order to understand the causes of this phenomenon. Along the way, he came face-to-face with the economic, social and individual consequences of childlessness and declining birth rates. At a time where Japan faces an uncertain future due to population decline, this thought-provoking documentary combines deeply personal stories with never-seen-before demographic data to reveal the surprising reality of what has been happening across the globe.

Tags: Stephen J. Shaw, Benoît Hardy-Chartrand

ICAS : Assessing Japanese War Crimes (Online)

Tuesday, March 28, 2023 - 15:50 to 17:20

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...

Tags: Robert Cribb, Sandra Wilson

ICAS : Rabbi Andrew Scheer Religious Life on Rikers Island (In-person)

Thursday, March 16, 2023 - 17:45

Rabbi Andrew Scheer, currently the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Japan (JCJ) in Tokyo, served as a chaplain at Rikers Island, New York City's largest jail. The facility holds around 10,000 inmates, with about 100,000 admissions every year. It is one of the largest detention facilities in the United States. He will discuss his experience as a chaplain with the New York City Department of Correction at Rikers Island.

Tags: Rabbi Andrew Scheer, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : Racial Justice in Pandemic Times: The Celebrity Activism of Naomi Osaka (Hybrid)

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 - 18:30 to 20:00

Mathieu Deflem
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...

Tags: Mathieu Deflem

ICAS : Book Talk: "Addressing Japan's Population Crisis" Mary Brinton in discussion with David H. Slater (Online)

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - 15:45 to 17:20

Mary Brinton's book
Please joins us for a discussion with Mary Brinton (Harvard University) to speak about her new book,縛られる日本人-人口減少をもたらす「規範」を打ち破れるか(中公新書2715) (Japan Tied Up in Knots: Can the Norms Leading to Population Decline Be Broken)? We will discuss the population crisis, the topic of her new book, from both an economic and social perspective. The publication of this new book, targeted for a popular Japanese audience, will also allow us to talk about the role of the scholar in society today...

Tags: Book Talk, Mary Brinton, David H. Slater

ICAS : Book Talk: "Pop-Culture Japan: Administering Soft Power, Gender, and Emotion" by Daniel White (Online)

Tuesday, February 21, 2023 - 15:50 to 17:20

ICAS : Book Talk: "Pop-Culture Japan: Administering Soft Power, Gender, and Emotion" by Daniel White (Online)
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...

Tags: Daniel White

ICAS : Discussion with families of former US POWs in Japan (In-person)

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 - 17:00 to 18:00

We are happy to invite you to a special event with family members of former American Prisoners of War (POWs) in Japan. They will be visiting Japan at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of a cultural diplomacy program that started in 2010. The Japanese/POW Friendship Program seeks to promote a mutual understanding between the Japanese and American people by inviting former POWs, their family members, and caregivers to Japan as a gesture of reconciliation.

Tags: Robert Dujarric

ICAS : Book Talk: co-sponsored with the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) with Helena Hof: The EU Migrant Generation in Asia (In-person)

Friday, February 10, 2023 - 19:00

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...

Tags: Book Talk, Helena Hof, Robert Dujarric

ICAS Activities | Yokohama Tour

Sunday, January 29, 2023 - 12:00 to 17:00

The TUJ Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) has prepared a nice outing in Yokohama! In this visit, we will walk around the Minatomirai Area and enjoy its breathtaking views and learn more about the history of this city in the Yokohama Historical Archives Museum. We will finish the day in Yokohama Chinatown, where we may be able to enjoy the Chinese New Year celebrations!

Tags: Local Events, Other TUJ Events, Student Activities

ICAS : Japan's defense policy: Paradigm shift or evolution? (Online)

Wednesday, January 25, 2023 - 16:00

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...

Tags: Guibourg Delamotte, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : After Ukraine: Is Taiwan next? With Valérie Niquet (In-person)

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 - 17:00 to 18:30

With Vladimir Putin's absence, Chinese President Xi Jinping played his cards successfully at the G20 and APEC summits. World leaders all rushed to meet him, including a three-hour session with President Joe Biden and a better-than-expected session with Japanese premier Fumio Kishida. In the context of the ongoing Ukraine war what does this mean for the strategic balance of power and the future of Taiwan?

Tags: Valérie Niquet, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : The Jingu Gaien redevelopment controversy: A talk with Rochelle Kopp (In-person)

Monday, November 28, 2022 - 19:00 to 20:30

Rochelle Kopp
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...

Tags: Rochelle Kopp, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : The Weaponization of Nuclear Energy in the Russia / Ukraine war (Online)

Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 19:00

From the outset of the ongoing Ukraine war, Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, have threatened to use nuclear weapons, dramatically ratcheting up the stakes for the war to escalate exponentially. Russia's occupation of the ZNPP is the first time in history that a nuclear plant has been caught in a hot war, but the threat to the ZNPP is just one of the nuclear threats in the war in Ukraine, making preventing nuclear calamity in Ukraine more challenging. This panel of authorities in diverse areas of nuclear expertise will explore the security, safety, and social implications of Russia's weaponization of the atom in the war in Ukraine and examine what can be done to avert another nuclear disaster. (Photo: Charles Casto, James Platte, Mark Hibbs, Azby Brown)

Tags: Charles A. Casto, James E. Platte, Mark Hibbs, Azby Brown, Kyle Cleveland

ICAS : The surprising endurance of the US dollar's hegemony

Monday, November 21, 2022 - 19:00 to 20:30

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.

Tags: Tag Murphy, Robert Dujarric

ICAS : Understanding the 2022 US midterm elections (Online)

Thursday, November 17, 2022 - 09:30 to 10:30

8 November 2022 was the last day of voting for the US midterm elections. These elections reflected the mood of American voters and give us some idea of the future course of American policy and of the political and ideological balance of power in the United States. They will also affect the ability of the Biden Administration to pursue its agenda.

Tags: Paul Sracic, Robert Dujarric

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