Registration is now open for the 16th meeting of the German-Japanese Society for Social Sciences (GJSSS), held online on March, 2nd-4th, 2022, on the theme of “Sustainable Societies”. Its seven sessions will address the transition to sustainable living approaches; sustainability in the contexts of education, social systems, policy, and finance; SDGs in public communications. The virtual conference is jointly organised by former DIJ senior research fellow Carola Hommerich (Sophia University) and Masato Kimura (Toyo University). It is co-sponsored by the DIJ and Sophia University. Registration is possible via the registration form on the GJSSS website by February 20th (Sunday). Conference participation is free, but registration is mandatory. Details and Zoom information will be sent out to registered participants after February 20th.

How is the underperformance of Japan’s economy during the past two decades related to corporate governance? Upon invitation by the Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro (IUPERJ), DIJ director Franz Waldenberger discussed this question within the IUPERJ’s Comparative Political Economy Webinar Series: Asia 2020/2022. In his talk, Franz outlined Japan’s recent corporate governance reforms and explained their limited influence on the performance of Japan’s economy. By Japan’s ‘performance puzzle’, he refers to the country’s relatively low GDP per capita despite its excellent resource conditions. In his analysis, Franz demonstrated that institutionalized in-house careers which worked well during Japan’s economic and technological catch-up period now obstruct resource allocation at the company, industry, and international levels. In conclusion, he suggested that corporate governance reforms will only be successful if they contribute to the establishment of market based careers for higher ranked managers. The full talk, including comments by Yasushi Ueki (IDE-JETRO), can be viewed on YouTube.

One week before Christmas Eve, DIJ historian Yufei Zhou will give a presentation on “The ‘Reactionary Modernist’ and His Transnational Legacy: Werner Sombart and Japan” at the 7th German-Asian Study Day in Literary Studies and the Humanities. The online Study Day on December 17th is organised by the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies at FU Berlin and the Mori Ōgai Memorial Center (HU Berlin). One day earlier, DIJ principal researcher Susanne Brucksch will participate as discussant in a panel on social innovation among helpers and the helped at the conference “Care-led innovation: The case of elderly care in France and Japan”. The one-day event on December 16th is organised by the France-Japan Foundation of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). On the same day, DIJ senior research fellow David M. Malitz will give a paper on “The First Visit of a Head of State: King Prajadhipok’s Visit to Japan in 1931” as part of a panel on Japanese-Thai relations at the 7th Biennial International e-Conference of JSA-ASEAN. 

As part of a new cooperation between the DIJ and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, DIJ deputy director Barbara Holthus and principal researcher Markus Heckel taught two courses in the University’s Q+ study programme. Within the unit “Japan and Germany during the Sars-CoV2 Pandemic”, Barbara co-taught the course ‘Family Life in the Pandemic: Comparing Germany and Japan’ (with Marina Hennig, Mainz) focusing on how the pandemic and the regulations to contain it have affected family life in both countries. Together with Philipp Harms (Mainz), Markus co-taught the course ‘Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy-Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Japan and Germany’. Their course focused on the monetary policies of the Bank of Japan and of the European Central Bank as well as on programmes by the fiscal authorities in Japan and Germany since the beginning of the pandemic. Both courses were received well by the interdisciplinary group of students. Further teaching and research cooperation activities are planned for 2022. 

Recent years have seen a growing demand for more systematic and transparent research practices in Area Studies. Based on their recently edited handbook Studying Japan, a comprehensive guide on qualitative methods, research designs, and fieldwork in social science research on Japan, DIJ principal researcher Nora Kottmann and co-editor Cornelia Reiher (FU Berlin) will discuss the role and potential of qualitative methods for Area Studies in the QUAL Speaker Series at the University of Washington. In their online talk on December 1, 12.20 pm (PST)/December 2, 5.20 am (JST), they will outline general discussions, give concrete examples, and introduce recent developments and trends. Details and registration here

At the end of the nineteenth century, Germany was widely recognized as the premier place to study political economy, law, and social sciences as summarized under the term Sozialwissenschaften. With its relatively state-centric perspectives and a tendency to grasp society in the context of the interplay of institutional, economic, and psychological factors, the German Sozialwissenschaften significantly influenced elites from the so-called “catch-up countries” such as Russia, Japan, China, and Southern Europe. As a consequence it became the standard reference for scholars from these countries, in some cases even until after World War Two. Focusing on the multinational personal links and multi-fold intellectual entanglements in the context of the globally rising theoretical quest for connections and correlations of empirical facts, this one-day online conference will reexamine the legacies and pitfalls left behind by the German Sozialwissenschaften in East Asia from historical and transnational perspectives. Details and registration here

Several DIJ researchers and alumni will present, moderate, and discuss latest research on Japan in disciplinary sections of the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF) on November 20. Among others, DIJ alumna Carola Hommerich (Sophia University) will present her co-authored paper “Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Household Income and Mental Well-Being: Evidence from a Panel-Survey in Japan” in the section Sociology and Social Anthropology. This section is co-convened by Carola, together with DIJ researchers Nora Kottmann and Celia Spoden. DIJ alumni Katharina Dalko and Sebastian Hofstetter (both Halle-Wittenberg University) will give their paper “Technical innovations in the health care sector: Challenges and risks of co-creative approaches using the example of the project DigiVid19” in the Technology section which is convened by DIJ researcher Susanne Brucksch and DIJ alumna Cosima Wagner (FU Berlin). Further section meetings include Economics, convened by DIJ alumnus Harald Conrad (Dusseldorf University), and Culture and Media, organized by DIJ alumna Elisabeth Scherer (Dusseldorf University). The complete programme (in German) is available here