Facing globalization, many advanced countries struggle to readjust their social, economic and political institutions to address the challenges imposed by financial crises, shrinking populations, and global power shifts. East Asia’s economic growth has become a major driving force of global change. As an economically and technologically advanced society, Japan finds itself at the intersection of these East Asian and global developments. Thus, understanding Japan’s policy choices is critical for understanding the future of East Asia and the world. As Japan seeks to define its role and responsibilities in global affairs, two decades of low economic growth, rapid demographic change, and the implications of the 11 March 2011 triple disaster have generated a sense of national decline. This project revisits these notions of decline and demonstrates how discourses on crisis and decline have been a crucial force for innovation and the reform of public policy institutions. To show how fears of national decline in the past and the present shape – and are shaped – by social and political transformations, this project brings together scholars of political science, economics, sociology, media and cultural studies, and history.
Workshop: Political and Social Dynamics of Crisis and Innovation in Japan, Asia and the World
Information
Date
February 9, 2018
Venue
TOKYO ELECTRON House of Creativity 3F, Lecture Theater, Katahira Campus, Tohoku University【Access】
Speakers [Feb. 15, 2018 Updated]
David Chiavacci (University of Zurich)
Koichi Hasegawa (Tohoku University)
David Leheny (Waseda University)
Sebastian Maslow (Tohoku University / Kobe University)
Ra Mason (University of East Anglia)
Paul O’Shea (Lund University)
Hiroko Takeda (Nagoya University)
Bryce Wakefield (Leiden University)
Iris Wieczorek (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
Christian Wirth (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
Time Schedule [Feb. 15, 2018 Updated]
- 9:00 – 9:10
- Introductory Remarks
- Sebastian Maslow (Tohoku University / Kobe University)
Christian Wirth (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
- 9:10 – 9:20
- Welcome Address
- Toshiya Ueki (Vice President, Tohoku University)
- Keynote Speech (including Q&A)
- 9:20 – 10:15
- David Leheny (Waseda University)
- Chapters of Crisis: Narratives and Status in Japan’s International Relations
- 10:15 – 10:30
- Coffee Break
- Introduction
- 10:30 – 11:00
- Crisis Narratives and Institutional Change
- Sebastian Maslow (Tohoku University / Kobe University)
Christian Wirth (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
- Session 1: Narrating Japan’s Social Crisis
- Moderator: Paul O’Shea (Lund University)
- 11:00 – 13:00
- Hiroko Takeda (Nagoya University)
- A Nationalized Crisis: Demographic and Life Style Changes, the Institutional Reforms and State-led Moral Panics
- David Chiavacci (University of Zurich)
- Japan’s Evaporating Core: Narratives of Rising Inequalities and Their Political Impact
- Koichi Hasegawa (Tohoku University)
- Japan’s Civil Society Before and After the Fukushima Disaster
- 13:00 – 14:30
- Lunch Break
- Session 2: Narrating Japan’s Political-Economic Crisis
- Moderator: Ra Mason (University of East Anglia)
- 14:30 – 16:30
- Iris Wieczorek (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
- Deep Crisis of Science, Technology and Innovation in Japan? Narratives of Urgency for Structural Reforms and Their Impacts on Science Policy
- Christian Wirth (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
(On behalf of Saori Shibata (Leiden University)) - Contradiction and Discontent in Japan: Abenomics as a (Failing) Path Dependent Response to Long-term Economic Stagnation
- Bryce Wakefield (Leiden University)
- Populism without popularity: Abe Shinzo’s Dual Discourse and the Conquest of Unrepresentative Democracy
- 16:30 – 16:45
- Coffee Break
- Session 3: Narrating Crisis in Japan’s Foreign and Defence Policy
- Moderator: Christian Wirth (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
- 16:45 – 18:00
- Paul O’Shea (Lund University)
- The Role of Narratives of Crisis Mismanagement in Japan's Foreign Policy
- Ra Mason (University of East Anglia)
- Conflated Crises on the Korean Peninsula as a Catalyst for Restoring Japan’s Standing
- 18:00 – 18:15
- Concluding Remarks and Next Steps
- Sebastian Maslow (Tohoku University / Kobe University)
Christian Wirth (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies)
Contact
Sebastian Maslow (Tohoku University / Kobe University)
E-mail: maslow＊law.tohoku.ac.jp (change ＊ to @)