Our research fellows Sonja Ganseforth and Isaac Gagné presented their latest research on different aspects of rural Japan at the ‘Asia’s New Ruralities’ online conference (August 12-13) at the University of Vienna. Sonja’s paper (“Remaking rurality in Japanese fishing villages”) on global dynamics and structural change in rural Japanese fishing villages emphasized the need to pay close attention to the maritime side of fishing communities. Isaac’s paper “Local Economies of Care: The Impact of Demographic Changes on Social Welfare in Rural Japan” argued that it is in the rural areas, which are often seen as the most backward, most vulnerable, and least adaptive, where some of the most innovative transformations in welfare have been taking place. Among others they were joined by former DIJ research fellow Hanno Jentzsch who gave a presentation on “Wine Tourism and Rural Revitalization in Yamanashi”, based on fieldwork he conducted during his time at the DIJ. The full conference programme and abstracts are available here.

The value of tender offers, i.e. public takeover bids to purchase a major portion or all of a companies outstanding stock, have risen to a record in Japan this year. According to some experts the surge has been caused by the COVID-19 crisis because companies are now rushing to consolidate amid the business slowdown. On NHK World TV, DIJ director Franz Waldenberger explains what the increase in tender offers means for the Japanese economy and how the surge is related to the digital transformation. The interview was broadcast on NHK World’s Newsroom Tokyo programme on July 14, 2020 and can be viewed for one month on NHK World’s website.

「日本および東京は、オリンピック・パラリンピック競技大会を通じて多様で、インクルーシブ（包摂的）で、コスモポリタンで（世界に対して開かれていて）、クールで（かっこよくて）、ホスピタリティ（おもてなしの心）に溢れた場として生まれ変わろうとしています。また、福島の原子力災害を「克服済」として提示するよう試みています。2020年東京オリンピック・パラリンピック競技大会は全体として、さまざまな関係者の希望と国際オリンピック委員会（ＩＯＣ）やスポンサー企業の商業的利害関係を凝縮したプリズムとして機能します。」

バーバラ・ホルトス副所長がベルリン日独センター機関紙 jdzb echoのインタビューに応じ、東京オリンピックと共同編集する出版プロジェクトJapan through the Lens of the Tokyo Olympicsについて語りました。(４月２日にベルリン日独センターで開催される予定だったイベントは延期になりました。) 

ドイツ日本研究所は日本の厚生労働省の勧告に従い、コロナウィルス拡散を防ぐ措置として、当面のあいだ公開イベント、並びに図書室の一般閲覧を見合わせていただきます。

どうぞ宜しくご理解のほど、お願い申し上げます。

Harald Kümmerle, senior research fellow at the DIJ since January of this year, has been selected as the recipient of the Johannes Zilkens Dissertation Prize 2020. Every year, the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) awards this prize for an outstanding dissertation from the humanities and social sciences. It is endowed with 5,000 euros.

Kümmerle has defended his dissertation on the “Institutionalization of mathematics as a science in Meiji- and Taishō-era Japan” at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in January 2019. According to the interdisciplinary jury, it “impressively bridges mathematics, Japanese Studies, and social sciences”. The work gives “important impulses for the advancement of Japanese Studies, and extending beyond this, for the understanding of the development of sites of science and the organization of knowledge transfer”.

https://www.studienstiftung.de/aktuelles/artikel/studienstiftung-vergibt-promotionspreise-2020-arbeiten-aus-der-chemie-und-japanologie-ausgezeichnet/

　この度、慶應義塾大学琴坂将広研究室では、ドイツ日本研究所(DIJ)と協力し、国内における「技術集約型スタートアップの経営環境等に関するアンケート調査」を実施することとなりました。
　本調査は、慶應義塾大学と日本ドイツ研究所が、高麗大学、湖西大学、リバプール西安交通大学、及び重慶大学の研究者と共同で実施する国際研究活動です。

詳細を見る …

Barbara Holthus was interviewed for BBC on the continuing importance of mothers for providing lunch bento boxes to their children.

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