イベント&アクティビティ
VSJF Annual Conference ‘Continuity and Change 10 years after 3.11’
The DIJ is cooperation partner of the 2021 Annual Conference of the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF), organized by DIJ alumni Anna Wiemann and Tobias Weiss together with Florentine Koppenborg. The one-day online conference ‘Continuity and Change 10 years after 3.11’ takes place on Friday, 19 March 17-25h (JST)/9-17h (CET). It features panels on ‘Change and Continuity in Energy Policy’, ‘Tōhoku – Life between Nuclear Radiation and Reconstruction’, and ‘Civil Society and the State since 3.11’. Participants include the DIJ’s director Franz Waldenberger, principal researcher Isaac Gagné, and DIJ alumna Phoebe Holdgrün. Isaac will present the paper “Haunting Memories of 3.11 and the Heaviness of Trauma in Post-Disaster Miyagi” which is part of his ongoing research project Listening to the Community: Grassroots Mental Healthcare in Local Communities. The conference is organized by the Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) and the VSJF, in cooperation with the DIJ and supported by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and the Universität Zürich. Details, programme, and registration link here.
New DIJ Miscellanea Double Debt Disaster
Double Debt Disaster by Julius Weitzdörfer and S.J. Beard is latest volume published in our DIJ Miscellanea series. It offers a detailed examination of obstacles to recovery from catastrophes caused by the concurrence of pre-disaster obligations with post-disaster capital needs and the destruction of collateral assets. The convergence of growing risk from natural hazards, coupled with ever-higher levels of public and private indebtedness will soon propel the quest for micro-and macro-economic policy solutions to global attention. No case is more instructive for understanding these problems than the Great East Japan Earthquake. In its wake came a second disaster, as former home-owners and businesspeople found themselves in need of loans to rebuild and invest, while being unable to pay off pre-disaster debts. Treating issues of property-, insurance-, debtor-creditor-, social welfare-, charity-, financial-, and insolvency law, this volume examines Japan’s double debt disaster from the perspective of social justice and disaster recovery. It proposes that policymakers take sustainable steps to avoid socioeconomic disasters. More details and link to download the PDF here.
New book chapter by Barbara Geilhorn on post-3.11 plays
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DIJ research fellow Barbara Geilhorn has contributed the chapter “Genjitsu wo henyō saseru fikushon. Okada Toshiki no engeki kara kore kara no nihon shakai wo yomitoku” (Fiction that transforms reality: understanding the future of Japanese society through the plays of Toshiki Okada) to a new book publication on post-3.11 literature. Barbara’s chapter in Sekai bungaku toshite no ‘shinsaigo bungaku’ (‘Post-disaster literature’ as world literature) discloses the political potentialities of theatrical space through an in-depth evaluation of two post-‘Fukushima’ plays by Okada Toshiki, who gained reputation for his socially engaged theatre. While Unable to See (2012) is a harsh satire, written for a foreign audience, Current Location (Genzaichi, 2012) addresses the fear of nuclear threat from the perspective of Tokyo inhabitants as science fiction. The chapter scrutinizes the significance of Okada’s recent concept of fiction as ‘recessive reality’ and argues for a major turning point in his work as triggered by the catastrophe. Barbara’s chapter is a result of her ongoing research project Local Issues Take Stage – Culture and Community Revitalization.
Barbara Holthus interviewed about 3.11 by German newspaper
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The German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau has interviewed DIJ deputy director Barbara Holthus about the continuing effects of the ‘triple disaster’ on Japanese society. In “Fukushima war eine Zäsur” (Fukushima was a watershed), Barbara explains how 3.11 has caused the rebirth of social movements in Japan, increased mistrust of the Japanese government and of mainstream media, and also influences the critical attitude of many Japanese towards the Tokyo Olympics. “The anti-Olympics movement is directed, among other things, against the idea of the so-called Recovery Olympics: that the problem of Fukushima has been overcome. Of course, this is absolute eyewash, but that’s how the Games were advertised”. Barbara’s current research includes projects on Social movements and gender in post-3.11 Japan and a special project on the Tokyo Olympics. The newspaper article appeared online and in the FR‘s print edition on March 10. A collection of DIJ research and publications related to 3.11 is available here.
Wir suchen Verstärkung in Wissenschaft und Verwaltung
Das DIJ sucht wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterinnen/Mitarbeiter (w/m/d) mit einem abgeschlossenen Hochschulstudium mit Promotion, sehr guten Kenntnissen der japanischen Sprache und Forschungserfahrung in Japan. Erwartet wird die selbständige wissenschaftliche Arbeit zu einem der beiden aktuellen Schwerpunkte „Digitale Transformation“ bzw. „Japan in transregionaler Perspektive“ oder zu dem neu geplanten Schwerpunkt „Nachhaltigkeit und Resilienz“. Die Stellen sind ab September 2022 zu besetzen, Bewerbungsfrist ist der 30. April 2022. Die Ausschreibung und Details finden Sie hier. Außerdem suchen wir möglichst ab 1. September, spätestens aber zum 1. November 2022, zwei Kolleginnen/Kollegen (w/m/d) in der Verwaltung. Bewerbungsfrist ist der 30. April.
Virtual lecture on ‘Love in the Time of COVID-19’
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DIJ researcher Nora Kottmann and DIJ alumna Elisabeth Scherer (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) will be the next speakers in the virtual lecture series at the University of Vienna’s Japanese Studies programme. Their presentation “Love in the Time of COVID-19. The ‘New Normal’ in the TV Series #rimorabu (‘Remote Love’)” focuses on the television series #rimorabu. Futsū no koi wa jadō which aired from October to December 2020 on NTV. The series is situated in the context of the ongoing pandemic and discusses how calls for self-restraint and the avoidance of ‘the 3Cs’ – closed spaces, crowds and close contact situations – affect the dating- and love-life of unmarried individuals. The presentation will address challenges on the production side and critically discuss depictions of a ‘new normal’ in the context of current single- and gender-discourses in Japan. More information on this talk and link to register here.
DIJ research presentation at ISA Forum of Sociology
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DIJ senior research fellow Nora Kottmann presented her paper “‘We Are All One Extended Family in This House!’ Shifting Boundaries of Housing and ‘(Post)Familial’ Relationships in Japan” at the virtual IV ISA Forum of Sociology on February 26, 2021. Her presentation was part of the panel “From the Changing Idea of ‘the Family’ to a Shifting Notion of Home?” which examined practices of doing family and home with foci on the temporal, spatial, material, and affective aspects of everyday life. Based on qualitative data from an ongoing field study in Tokyo, Nora’s paper addressed the interrelation of housing and ‘(post)familial’ relationships and the perception of dwelling spaces with regard to understandings of ‘family’. Her findings reveal that housing is highly interrelated with various ‘(post)familial’ relationships and that ‘new’ spaces are actively created and done by people living ‘new’ or rather unconventional relationships. Nora’s presentation was part of her ongoing research project on Spatial Perspectives on Personal Relationships in Contemporary Japan.
DIJ research presentations at “Sporting Japan” conference
DIJ principal researchers Sonja Ganseforth and Torsten Weber have been invited by the Japanese Studies Program at Ateneo de Manila University to give research presentations at the 19th Annual International Conference of Japanese Studies. This year’s theme is “Sporting Japan: Manifestations of Society in Transition” and both will present papers related to their research on the Tokyo Olympics. Sonja’s paper “Spectacle and disaster – Opposition against the Tokyo 2020+1 ‘Recovery Games’” is part of the panel “Prospects of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics” (March 5, Friday, 11-13 JST). Torsten will give his paper “1940, 1964, 2020: Tokyo’s Olympic Pasts as Selective Memory, Nostalgia, and Denial” in the panel “History, Remembrance, and Representation of the Olympics” (March 5, Friday, 14-16 JST). Both papers draw on research Sonja and Torsten undertook for the DIJ’s special project on the Tokyo Olympics and the open access book publication Japan Through the Lens of the Tokyo Olympics. You can register for this online conference here.