The DIJ travels to Leiden. The ICAS conference is held July 10 to 15 in Leiden, the Netherlands. More than 2000 scholars are expected to present their research.

The DIJ is represented through Barbara Holthus, Hanno Jentzsch and Nora Kottmann. Nora is the organizer of the panel on (No) Sex in the City, in which she and Barbara present their research. Hanno will present his paper on Governing the Man-Made Disaster – Revitalizing Local Governance in Japan’s Peripheries.

Detailed information on the breadth of the DIJ research activities and publications is available at the Max Weber Foundation exhibition table in the book exhibit hall. Please come see us there!

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Leiden!

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland had invited 18 doctoral and postdoctoral scholars from the humanities and social sciences to attend a Transregional Academy convened at the National University of Singapore (NUS) on the topic of “Infrastructures, Regions and Urbanizations”. The Academy was chaired by Weiqiang Lin and James D. Sidaway (National University of Singapore), Franz Waldenberger (Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien, Tokyo) and Simone Lässig (Deutsches Historisches Institut Washington). It was arranged in cooperation with the Asia Research Institute and its director Jonathan Rigg as well as the Max Weber Foundation Research Group on Borders, Mobility and New Infrastructures at NUS.

Read the full report by Franz Waldenberger

Deputy Director Barbara Holthus introduces the DIJ at the Monumenta Nipponica 80th Anniversary Symposium:

The event’s full video playlist is available on YouTube.

Many modern societies are increasingly confronting demographic change, i.e. the ageing and shrinking of population. This is particularly true for Japan and Germany, which are the worldwide “front-runners”. The social, economic and political implications are most strongly and directly felt at the level of local communities.

The idea of the WeberWorldCafé on “Demographic Change – Challenges and Answers for Local Communities” jointly conceived and organized by the German Institute of Japanese Studies (Tokyo) and the Institute of Gerontology at the Technical University of Dortmund is to bring together researchers, policy makers and civic society representatives with proven expertise in local demographic policies from Germany, the EU and Japan, to discuss how local communities can best prepare to cope with the demographic challenge.