Last week’s assassination of former prime minister Abe Shinzō has shocked Japan and the world. How can we make sense of this event and what does Abe’s death mean for the future of Japanese politics and society? DIJ director Franz Waldenberger will join DIJ alumni Axel Klein (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Alexandra Sakaki (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik) to discuss the implications of Abe’s assassination for Japan on July 15, 18.00-19.00 (JST)/11.00-12.00 (CEST), online, hosted by the Japanese-German Center Berlin. The round table discussion „Das Attentat auf Premierminister a.D. Abe – Einordnung und Folgen“ will take place in German. Details and registration here     

DIJ social scientist Celia Spoden will give insights into her research project Cyber-physical spaces and avatar technologies: new opportunities for an inclusive society? at the upcoming conference of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) in Madrid. Celia’s paper „Visions and Realizations of Cyber-Physical Spaces in Japan: Solving societal issues by Cybernetic Avatars“ is part of a panel on Aging technofutures: futuring old age in technological societies. It takes place on Thursday, July 7. In her paper, Celia discusses the technoscientific futures imagined by the Japanese government and compares them to the visions of researchers in the “Moonshot Research and Development Program“ which was launched by the Japanese Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation in 2020. More information on the EASST 2022 website here

Aging inhabitants, economic decline of the primary sector, outmigration of the young generations – the postgrowth state of Japan’s peripheries challenges local communities to sustain rural living in the globalized age. To stop or even reverse this structural decline, various actors such as regional governments and research institutions forge strategies of revitalization, following national aims as well as global frameworks. For the investigation of these new and complex formations of power and knowledge in rural Japan, actor-and-network theory (ANT) can provide a window to shed light on how different allies find their goals unified in a common project and how links between centers and peripheries are established. It can, moreover, help to understand the impacts that such projects may – or may not – have on the local communities, which are supposed to benefit from them.