DIJ researchers Susanne Brucksch and Harald Kümmerle as well as DIJ alumna Katharina Dalko will give talks at the conference “Digital Technologies in the COVID-19 Pandemic” (14-18 March), organized by Ruhr University Bochum. On March 15, Harald will give his paper “Contextualizing Data Practices in Japan during Covid-19 Pandemic: Local and Global Entanglements” and Susanne will give a keynote on “The Locale of Japan. Approaches to the Social Study of (Digital) Health Technologies “. On the closing day, former DIJ PhD student Katharina Dalko (University Halle-Wittenberg) will give a presentation on methods to integrate patients into participatory technology development. Details and the full programme can be accessed here. Susanne will also give a talk on “Telehealth-Networks in Japan” at the workshop “Digital Transformation in East Asia. Impacts on Economy and Society II” (18-19 March), organized by the University of Bonn. At the same conference, DIJ alumni Volker Elis and Felix Spremberg (both University of Tübingen) will give papers on ideological implications of the information society in Japan and Japanese political discourse on digitalisation, respectively. Details and programme here 

In the “Moonshot Research and Development Program” launched in 2020, the Japanese Council for Science, Technology and Innovation formulated the goal of a society in which people will be free of physical, cognitive, spatial, and temporal limitations by 2050. Elderly or physically impaired people and people with obligations such as caring for children are to be enabled to function in the labour market, regardless of restrictions due to space and time or physical and mental abilities. For this purpose, so-called cybernetic avatars and a cloud-based infrastructure are to be developed. In her talk, DIJ social scientist Celia Spoden will discuss the Government’s vision of this future society where cyberspace and the physical world are to be merged into a perfectly connected, highly efficient, and inclusive society. She will also explore what these new technologies mean for living together. Celia’s online talk is part of the OAG’s lecture series and will take place on Wednesday, March 16 online in German. Details

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