DIJ Newsletter 61, June 2020

Contents:

Japan and research at the DIJ in times of COVID-19

So far, Japan has handled the pandemic extremely successfully in terms of its low mortality rate. Nevertheless, the pandemic has affected the DIJ, its research and events to a considerable degree during the past months. Conferences, events, business and research trips were cancelled, postponed or conducted virtually. The institute was closed in mid-March and resumed operations with restrictions in early June. In the meantime, we were able to gain a lot of experience with different video conferencing tools, which we have used for meetings and events, including a joint DIJ/MFJ web forum on the importance of statistics in the COVID-19 crisis, with experts from Germany, France and Japan.

How have Japan and Germany dealt with the pandemic?

Japan and Germany seem to have survived the worst phase of the pandemic for the time being. Both countries got off comparatively lightly in terms of the number of infected and dead, although their strategies for dealing with the crisis could hardly have been more opposite. In our joint DIJ/DWIH web forum, Norio Okada (Institute of Disaster Area Revitalization, Regrowth and Governance, Kwansei Gakuin University) and Ortwin Renn (Institute for Transformative Sustainability Research, IASS Potsdam) explained the different perceptions and measures in Germany and Japan.

Digital transformation in Japan: discourse analysis based on the concept of data

In Japan, stakeholders from politics, finance and IT have introduced a system of state-approved “information banks” (jōhō ginkō) to create a data market. Using a conceptual history approach, a new research project by Harald Kümmerle examines why this original model for regulating the use of data was adopted. How was the originally European concept of data received in Japan? How did the dominant translation dēta develop in Japanese as a concept of its own? What specifics of data practices in Japan are formulated using the term dēta?

Japan and the Olympic Games

What was supposed to be a glorious year for Japan, 2020 instead catapulted the world into a pandemic, sees the Olympic Games postponed and their future for Tokyo uncertain. Written by scholars from and cooperation partners of the DIJ, Japan Through the Lens of the Tokyo Olympics assembles 34 easily accessible chapters and spotlights covering all relevant aspects of society, economics, culture, and politics, including technology, food, media, security, work, city planning, history, cinema, linguistics, volunteering, disability, architecture, advertising, and – of course – sports!

…and on Page 4: New publications, staff news & more!