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Events from Academic Year 2015/16

Tracing Empire: Japanese Imperial cinema and its legacy

20 May 2016, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Kate E Taylor-Jones, Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary

Tracing Empire: Japanese Imperial cinema and its legacy

The Normality of Abnormality: Understanding Strategy and Military Identity in Post-war Japan

13 May 2016, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Alessio Patalano, Senior Lecturer in War Studies, King's College London

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary

The ‘Normality’ of ‘Abnormality’: Understanding Strategy and Military Identity in Post-war Japan

The Role of Mapping in the Emergence of Japan as a Sea Power in the Late-nineteenth-century

6 May 2016, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Radu Leca, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary

The Role of Mapping in the Emergence of Japan as a Sea Power in the Late-nineteenth-century Abstract: The development of maritime mapping in nineteenth-century Japan is indebted both to the legacy of earlier surveying activities and to the use of British and French expertise. After 1860s, maps were promoted as one of the symbols of the period’s spirit of ‘civilization and enlightenment’. In this context, in what ways did the uses of maritime maps align with the development of the Meiji state? I focus on three moments of maritime military engagement where maps played a significant role: the Taiwan Expedition of 1874, the Ganghwa Island incident of 1875, and naval engagements during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. These show that maritime mapping often preceded aggressive military engagement by the Japanese Empire. Additionally, the wider significance of maritime mapping in the Meiji period emerges when considering the perception of maps in vernacular culture, as visible in contemporary woodblock prints and newspaper reports.

Decentring the Urban: Reclaiming Rural Space for Modern Living in Colonial Korea and After

28 April 2016, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Albert Park, Claremont McKenna College

Convenor(s): Dr. J.B. Lewis, MA and Prof. Sho Konishi, MA

Decentring the Urban: Reclaiming Rural Space for Modern Living in Colonial Korea and After Abstract What place does the rural have under modernity? How have those in the rural negotiated social transformations that have resulted from modernization projects that emphasize industrialization and urbanization? This presentation engages these questions through a study of religious-based agrarian movements in 1920s and 1930s colonial Korea. These movements carried out elaborate drives to reorder the countryside for the birth of a rural modernity that would feature an agricultural-based moral economy and forms of identity and consciousness rooted in the present. These pursuits to reconstruct rural Korea into a modern agrarian paradise were fraught with immense challenges as they battled two opposing forces: modernists who desired an electric urban future and traditionalists who longed for a pristine rural past. This presentation studies how the movements created a form of rural modernism through the theory of reclamation—a concept from landscape architecture that stresses a temporal and spatial framework for modernity that is centred on the present and sensitive to place. In showing why and how they created an alternative form of modernity, this presentation shows how they subverted the standard meaning of modernity that had ironically tied together the norms of Korean modernism and of Japanese colonialism. In so doing, it reflects on the place of the rural and agriculture in Korean and East Asian Studies today as scholars have primarily focused on happenings in urban settings over rural issues.

Slow Cities?: The Revitalisation of Shrinking Communities in Japan

10 March 2016, 9:30 am Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Gert-Jan Hospers, Radboud University, University of Twente, Mr Pier Giorgio Oliveti, General Secretariat, Cittaslow International, Ms Heuishilja Chang, PhD student, University of Oxford, Professor Hirokazu Sakuno, Shimane University, Dr Peter Matanle, University of Sheffield, Dr Taro Hirai, Hirosaki University

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi, Professor Hugh Whittaker and Professor Ian Neary

Cittaslow (Slow City) is a rural development movement of small towns started in Italy in 1999. The movement aims to improve their quality of life and sustainability by emphasizing the individual towns’ unique identities, the local asset-based economy, and by promoting an eco-friendly environment. Cittaslow has rapidly grown into a transnational phenomenon. In recent years, the movement has attracted increasing interest from shrinking towns in EU countries as a community revitalisation instrument. In Japan, Chihō-sōsei (regional revitalisation) has been a top policy agenda, to create strategies for improving the quality of life in shrinking communities. Various actors have developed different forms in movements to (re)settle in country side. This workshop offers an opportunity for a transnational dialogue between scholars and practitioners of Japanese revitalization programmes, and key participants of the Cittaslow movement. A full copy of the programme for the day can be viewed here.

Meiji-Era Photographs in the Pitt Rivers Museum: An Overview of the Collections

4 December 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Philip Grover, (Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Meiji-Era Photographs in the Pitt Rivers Museum: An Overview of the Collections

Japan’s Freud: Kosawa Heisaku and Buddhist Modernism

27 November 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Chris Harding (University of Edinburgh)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Japan’s Freud: Kosawa Heisaku and Buddhist Modernism

Politics and Society in Japan in the 21st Century

25 November 2015, 10:00 am Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Hideki Asari (Minister, Director of the Japan Information and Cultural Centre (JICC), London), Machiko Osawa (Professor of Economics, Director of Research Institute for Women and Careers, Japan Women’s University), Hiroshi Shiratori (Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Director of Policy Science Institute, Hosei University), Masanobu Ido (Professor of Political Science, Waseda University), Nanako Fujita (Associate Professor of Economics, Nagoya City University), Hideko Magara (Professor of Political Science, Waseda University)

Convenor(s):

This seminar is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) #25245023.

The Burma-Siam Death Railway and the British War Crimes Trials at Singapore

20 November 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Yuma Totani (University of Hawaii)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Professor Takehiko Kariya

The Burma-Siam Death Railway and the British War Crimes Trials at Singapore

Muddy Labor: Nonreligion and the Making of Persons as Aid Work

13 November 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr. Chika Watanabe (University of Manchester)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Muddy Labor: Nonreligion and the Making of Persons as Aid Work

Dilemmas of learning of Japanese as a foreign language and English as an international language: perspectives from applied linguistics research

6 November 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Heath Rose (University of Oxford)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Dilemmas of learning of Japanese as a foreign language and English as an international language: perspectives from applied linguistics research

Future Past Entanglements: Modern Japan and the Work of History

30 October 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Carol Gluck (Columbia University)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Future Past Entanglements: Modern Japan and the Work of History

Automobility and the Urban Environment: Japan in the Mai-kaa Era

22 October 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Susan Townsend (University of Nottingham)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Automobility and the Urban Environment: Japan in the Mai-kaa Era

Taoka Reiun (1870-1912) and the Turn Against the Modern

16 October 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Ron Loftus (Williamette University)

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi

Taoka Reiun (1870-1912) and the Turn Against the Modern

Events from Academic Year 2014/15

Memorial Event to Commemorate the Work and Influence of Dr Mark Rebick

16 June 2015, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Hiroaki Watanabe (University of Sheffield), Dr Ayumi Takenaka (University of Oxford), Professor Yuji Genda (University of Tokyo), Professor Richard Freeman (Harvard University)

Convenor(s): Professor Roger Goodman

Memorial Event to Commemorate the Work and Influence of Dr Mark Rebick (Nissan Lecturer in the Japanese Economy and Fellow of St Antony’s College, 1994-2012) PLACES ARE STILL AVAILABLE. The event is free but registration is strongly recommended due to seating limit. To book your seat, please contact Jane Baker (jane.baker@nissan.ox.ac.uk) by Wednesday 10th June, 2015. Further information can be found in the attachment below.

Locating Marriageable Communities: Cross-Border Matchmaking between Japan and Northeast China

22 May 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Chigusa Yamaura, Research Associate, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Oxford

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi

Locating Marriageable Communities: Cross-Border Matchmaking between Japan and Northeast China

Time and Culture

8 May 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Florian Coulmas, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany and former director of the German Institute of Japanese Studies

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi

Time and Culture

“Mitsui is People”: Mitsui & Co., Ltd in the 21st Century

1 May 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Clare Weaver, Deputy General Manager, Legal and Compliance Departments, Mitsui & Co Europe Plc

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi

“Mitsui is People”: Mitsui & Co., Ltd in the 21st Century

Film on Aum Shinrikyo

13 March 2015, 2:30 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Mr Tatsuya Mori, Film maker

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

This Friday the Nissan Institute will have a special event on the occasion of the 20-year anniversary of the Tokyo Sarin Attack in the Tokyo subway in March 1995. The controversial documentary film on Aum Shinrikyo by Mr. Mori Tatsuya will be shown in our Nissan Lecture Theatre from 1430 on Friday. After a coffee break, we will then welcome the film producer and journalist Mori Tatsuya himself who made this documentary to speak about the affair, from 1700. We expect that the conversation will touch upon various urgent themes and issues of contemporary Japan and religious terrorism in a rapidly shrinking world. About Mori: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatsuya_Mori About the fillm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_(1998_Japanese_film) Please note that this will take place on Friday 13th March and start at 2.30 p.m. in the Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre followed by the usual seminar starting at 5.00 p.m.

Engineering the Empire: Comprehensive Development in Japan’s Colonial Borderlands

6 March 2015, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Aaron S. Moore, Arizona State University

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Engineering the Empire: “Comprehensive Development” in Japan’s Colonial Borderlands Please note that this seminar will take place on Friday 6th March and start at 5.00 p.m. in the Pavilion Room.

Japan’s New Security Cooperation in Counter-Piracy Missions

26 February 2015, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Wilhelm Vosse, International Christian University

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Japan’s New Security Cooperation in Counter-Piracy Missions

The Greece of the East: Writing the History of Music in Meiji Japan

19 February 2015, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Jonathan Service, Wadham College, Oxford

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

The Greece of the East: Writing the History of Music in Meiji Japan

Placing Japan's First Psychotherapists, 1930 - 1950 - HAS BEEN CANCELLED

12 February 2015, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Chris Harding, University of Edinburgh

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

TODAY'S SEMINAR HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Placing Japan's First Psychotherapists, 1930 - 1950

Is Japan a Closed Society of Immigration? - Issues on International Migration and Territoriality in Japan

5 February 2015, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Midori Okabe, Sophia University

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Is Japan a Closed Society of Immigration? - Issues on International Migration and Territoriality in Japan

How modern Japan fostered young elites? Education, Institution and Promotion

29 January 2015, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Yuichiro Shimizu, Keio University

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

How modern Japan fostered young elites? Education, Institution and Promotion

Labour market deregulation in Japan: its causes and consequences

22 January 2015, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Hiro R Watanabe, University of Sheffield

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Professor Takehiko Kariya

Labour market deregulation in Japan: its causes and consequences

Devouring the Empire of Japan: Hayashi Fumiko’s Food Narratives and Memories

5 December 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Noriko Horiguchi, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee, Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

Devouring the Empire of Japan: Hayashi Fumiko’s Food Narratives and Memories

A Rakugo performance by Katsura Sunshine

28 November 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

Japanese Traditional Comic Storytelling A Rakugo performance by Katsura Sunshine

The Work of the UN Human Rights Committee: the case of Japan

21 November 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

The Work of the UN Human Rights Committee: the case of Japan

Take jellyfish for headaches: language, print and presentation in early 17th-century medical manuals

14 November 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Peter Kornicki, Emeritus Professor, Cambridge University

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

Take jellyfish for headaches: language, print and presentation in early 17th-century medical manuals

The Downward Spiral of Japan's Relations with China since 2012

7 November 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Taku Tamaki, Loughborough University

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

The Downward Spiral of Japan's Relations with China since 2012

Washoku and UNESCO

31 October 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor T Bestor, Director Reischauer Institute, Harvard University

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

Washoku and UNESCO

Memory, performance, and Chinese-style literature in the world of Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book

24 October 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr. Jennifer L. Guest, University of Oxford

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

Memory, performance, and Chinese-style literature in the world of Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book

Fukushima - A personal perspective. Screening of an internationally coproduced film, My Atomic Aunt

17 October 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Kyoko Miyake, Independent Filmmaker

Convenor(s): Professors Ian Neary and Hugh Whittaker

Fukushima - A personal perspective. Screening of an internationally coproduced film, My Atomic Aunt

Events from Academic Year 2013/14

A Tale of Two Forests - Comparing the Historical Patterns of Deforestation and Conservation in the Brazilian Atlantic and Amazon Forests - 1930-2012

28 May 2014, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s): Jose Augusto Padua, (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Rachel Carson Centre in Munich)

Convenor(s): William Beinart

Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan

23 May 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Sharon Kinsella, University of Manchester

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan

A Journey into Fairyland: An American Professor in Meiji Japan

16 May 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Andrew Porwancher, University of Oklahoma and Alastair Horne Fellow, St. Antony’s College

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

A Journey into Fairyland: An American Professor in Meiji Japan

Rebuilding Japan Airlines: the Inamori Way

9 May 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Kazuo Inamori

Convenor(s):

In 2010 legendary business leader Dr Kazuo Inamori took on the monumental task of turning around Japan Airlines, Japan’s national carrier which had just gone bankrupt. Within three years the airline was successfully re-listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and became the most profitable airline in the world. Many called this feat a miracle but Dr Inamori maintains that his particular vision of management has universal application to business success in companies around the world. Drawing on his experiences over 55 years building up his two companies Kyocera and KDDI from scratch to currently having combined sales of nearly 7 trillion yen, Dr Inamori will describe the importance of igniting the minds of all employees so that they all take an active role in the success of their company. Dr Inamori has outlined his inspirational philosophy for business and life in a number of books which have become best-sellers in Japan, China and other parts of Asia. For the first time in May he will give a major public lecture in Europe in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. This lecture is a unique opportunity to hear from one of Japan’s great business legends about his theories on finding success and fulfilment in both life and work. Online registration for this very special event is now open through the link below. All are welcome. Friday 9 May 2014 16:30 – Doors open 17:00 – 18:10 Lecture Welcome by Prof. Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford Lecture by Dr Kazuo Inamori (with simultaneous interpretation) Question and Answer Sheldonian Theatre (Enter via Door B) Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AZ Bookings for this event will open in mid March Map to the Sheldonian Theatre Make your booking here

Ruinscape and Slumscape: Picturing History and Violence in Global East Asia

7 May 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Tong Lam, University of Toronto

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Ruinscape and Slumscape: Picturing History and Violence in Global East Asia Please note the change in date and venue for this lecture to Wednesday 7th May in the Dahrendorf Room. It was originially scheduled for 9th May 2014. Joint seminar with the Institute for Chinese Studies, University of Oxford

Economic Uncertainty and Fertility: Insights from Japan’s Long Recession

28 April 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor James Raymo, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Convenor(s): Professor Sho Konishi and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Economic Uncertainty and Fertility: Insights from Japan’s Long Recession Joint seminar with the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford

Social factors and demographic trends, Japan as a case study

14 March 2014, 4:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Mary Brinton, Reischauer Institute and Professor of Sociology, Harvard University and Professor Ralph Lützeler, Department for Japanese and Korean Studies, Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, Universität of Bonn

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

At 4.00 p.m. Professor Mary Brinton will present her paper Productive Motherhood: Women’s Labor and Japan’s Lowest-Low Fertility followed by Professor Ralph Lützeler who will give his paper on The Geography of Ageing and Population Decline in Japan. Professor Brinton and Professor Lützeler will then take questions about their papers together.

The political arena of low fertility - comparing Japan and Germany

7 March 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Prof. Dr. Axel Klein, Institute of East Asian Studies, Universität of Duisburg-Essen

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

The political arena of low fertility - comparing Japan and Germany

Declining Fertility Rates in Japan and other Low Fertility Nations: Can We Diagnose and Cure this Disease?

28 February 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Leonard Schoppa, Department of Politics, University of Virginia

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Declining Fertility Rates in Japan and other Low Fertility Nations: Can We Diagnose and Cure this "Disease"?

A Comparison of the Determinants of Low Marital Fertility between Japan and Korea

21 February 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Kazuo Yamaguchi, The University of Chicago

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

A Comparison of the Determinants of Low Marital Fertility between Japan and Korea

Little paid and Overworked: Marriage prospects of low income Japanese men

14 February 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Little paid and Overworked: Marriage prospects of low income Japanese men

The return on IT spending for Japanese firms: empirical evidence

13 February 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Masaaki Hirano, Waseda University Business School (WBS)

Convenor(s): Professor Roger Goodman

The return on IT spending for Japanese firms: empirical evidence This extra seminar will take place on Thursday, 13th February at 5.00 p.m. in the Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre.

Productive Motherhood: Women’s Labor and Japan’s Lowest-Low Fertility

7 February 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Mary Brinton, Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology, Harvard University

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

DUE TO BAD WEATHER IN THE UNITED STATES THIS TALK HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Productive Motherhood: Women’s Labor and Japan’s Lowest-Low Fertility

What types of marriage have declined since the 1970s in Japan? Projected Composition Ratios of First Marriage using Multiple Decrement Life Tables

31 January 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Dr Miho Iwasawa, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Tokyo

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

What types of marriage have declined since the 1970s in Japan? Projected Composition Ratios of First Marriage using Multiple Decrement Life Tables

Population reproduction: a new fertility regime (with remarks on the role of migration)

24 January 2014, 5:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Francesco Billari, Nuffield College, University of Oxford

Convenor(s): Dr Ekaterina Hertog and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Population reproduction: a new fertility regime (with remarks on the role of migration)

Nissan Seminar: Timely and Untimely Politics: Art and Protest in 1960s Japan

6 December 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Dr Bill Marotti, UCLA Timely and Untimely Politics: Art and Protest in 1960s Japan From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: A Demographic Revolution in Japan

29 November 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Dr Fabian Drixler, Yale University A Demographic Revolution in Japan Please note that this seminar has been moved to the Dahrendorf Room, Founders' Building, St. Antony's College. From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: The Last Utopian: Hayao Miyazaki and the Uses of Enchantment

28 November 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Professor Susan Napier, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA The Last Utopian: Hayao Miyazaki and the Uses of Enchantment This seminar will be held in the Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre at 2.00 p.m.

Nissan Seminar: Cultural Diversity and the Law: From the Perspective of Cultural Policy

22 November 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Mr Ryu Kojima, Kyushu University Cultural Diversity and the Law: From the Perspective of Cultural Policy From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Noh Workshop

21 November 2013, 2:30 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Noh Workshop Presented by Prof Yamanaka Reiko of the Hōsei University Noh Theatre Research Institute. A historical, practical and comparative view of noh theatre, including a lecture by Professor Yamanaka, demonstration and workshop by professional noh actors, and a short presentation by the noh actors and a British modern dance artist. This will be held in the Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre and Foyer from 2.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Further details about the event can be found below.

Nissan Seminar: Runaway woman, pirate queen: life on the margins of the Japanese empire

15 November 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Dr David Ambaras, North Carolina State University Runaway woman, pirate queen: life on the margins of the Japanese empire From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: The search for the “true” body: sacred simulacra of power and the process of modernity in Japan

8 November 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Professor Massimo Raveri, Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia The search for the “true” body: sacred simulacra of power and the process of modernity in Japan From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: Britain and Japan; reflections on the bilateral relationship

1 November 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Tuukka Toivonen

Sir David Warren, Chairman, The Japan Society Britain and Japan; reflections on the bilateral relationship From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: Conserving Photographs after Japan’s Tsunami: The Example of the RD3 Project

25 October 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Mr Keishi Mitsui, Curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography Conserving Photographs after Japan’s Tsunami: The Example of the RD3 Project The seminar coincides with the Pitt Rivers Museum’s exhibition Surviving Tsunami: Photographs in the Aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake www.prm.ox.ac.uk/rd3.html From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: Revival of the Japanese Film Industry through Media Mix Promotion Alliances: The Power of Film Production Consortiums

25 October 2013, 10:00 am

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Special Seminar by Professor Naoki Wakabayashi, Faculty of Economics, Kyoto University Revival of the Japanese Film Industry through Media Mix Promotion Alliances: The Power of Film Production Consortiums This seminar will be held in the Nissan Seminar Room at 10.00 a.m.

Nissan Seminar: Modern Miracles: Koreeda’s Kiseki, trainspotting in Kyushu and the 21st-century Japanese family

18 October 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Dr Alex Jacoby, Oxford Brookes University Modern Miracles: Koreeda’s Kiseki, trainspotting in Kyushu and the 21st-century Japanese family From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2013/14 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Transnational History and Japan

17 October 2013, 2:00 pm Nissan Seminar

Speaker(s): Professor Sheldon Garon, Nissan Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Department of History, Princeton University

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary, Dr Hiroaki Matsuura and Dr Tuukka Toivonen

Transnational History and Japan A podcast of this talk can be found on our podcast site.

Events from Academic Year 2012/13

Nissan Seminar: The Department Store, the Mannequin Girl, and the Politics of the Gaze in Interwar Japan

17 May 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Dr Irena Hayter, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Leeds The Department Store, the Mannequin Girl, and the Politics of the Gaze in Interwar Japan From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: From 1585 to 1615: Revisiting the Historical Narratives of Japan’s Unification Era

3 May 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Tomoko Kitagawa, Visiting Scholar, Needham Research Institute (Former College Fellow/Lecturer, Harvard University) From 1585 to 1615: Revisiting the Historical Narratives of Japan’s Unification Era

Nissan Seminar: Robotics for Self Driving (Nissan) cars

26 April 2013, 5:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Ian Neary and Dr Hiroaki Matsuura

Professor Paul Newman, BP Professor of Information Engineering, University of Oxford Robotics for Self Driving (Nissan) cars From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Engaging with Japanese Studies revisiting the question of why Japan matters

14 March 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Professor Takehiko Kariya and Professor Roger Goodman, University of Oxford; Dr Yuki Imoto, Keio University, and Mrs Suzuko Anai, Oxford Brookes University

Aims This conference aims to engage scholars and public figures working on ‘Japan’ as a field of study in a reflexive discussion on the state and future of Japanese Studies, specifically to reconsider ‘why Japan matters’. This question has been a recurrent theme for those in the field. Why and how has it been answered over time? Who gets to define why Japan matters? How can we situate and understand the present situation of Japanese Studies in larger patterns of discourse? Perhaps, China’s rising power as well as the restructuring of area studies with increased regional integration may have some impact on answers to these questions. The crises following the 3-11 disasters have ironically brought attention back to Japan in new dimensions of research, and it may be possible to envisage the present moment as a critical point to redefine the meaning and role of ‘Japanese Studies’ internationally. Unlike several decades ago, today’s academics in the field must rigorously face such questions as what contributions their own research on Japan can make to the disciplines concerned, and how; how meaningful the research can be for people who only have minor interest in Japan, or for Japanese people (including scholars) who may not read works that are not written in Japanese. Knowledge on Japan written in languages other than Japanese has richly accumulated in the last decades; nonetheless, we are still struggling to answer these questions with firm persuasion. As Japan’s position in the global context has been changing, answers to the question of ‘why Japan matters’ have changed accordingly; younger scholars’ views on and experiences in Japanese Studies have thus become more important to understand the present and future state of Japanese Studies. It is therefore expected that this conference will evoke intergenerational dialogues between scholars across different institutions from different countries, which will shed new light on the ‘why Japan matters’ question through contrasting different views on Japan in the past, present, and future. Supported by the Nippon Foundation, Japan Foundation Endowment Committee, the Oxford Sasakawa Fund, the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Registration for the conference has now closed.

Nissan Seminar: The Role of Aligning Acculturation Strategies in Addressing Japan’s Labor Shortage

28 February 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen and Professor Ian Neary

Adam Komisarof, Reitaku University The Role of Aligning Acculturation Strategies in Addressing Japan’s Labor Shortage From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: Revisiting Siblings and Grandchildren: The Meaning of Japanese Family Relationships in the Old Age Society

21 February 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen and Professor Ian Neary

Susan Long, John Carroll University Revisiting Siblings and Grandchildren: The Meaning of Japanese Family Relationships in the Old Age Society From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: Samurai Abroad: Photographs of the Takenouchi Mission to Europe (1862)

14 February 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen and Professor Ian Neary

Philip Grover, Assistant Curator, Photograph and Manuscript Collections, Pitt Rivers Museum Samurai Abroad: Photographs of the Takenouchi Mission to Europe (1862) From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: The Institutional Context for Rapidly Internationalizing Japanese Firms: Constraint to resource, bilateral to multilateral

7 February 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen and Professor Ian Neary

Masahiro Kotosaka, Said Business School The Institutional Context for Rapidly Internationalizing Japanese Firms: Constraint to resource, bilateral to multilateral From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: The Pedagogical Power of Noh: An Ethnographer's Journey

31 January 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen and Professor Ian Neary

Katrina Moore, University of New South Wales The Pedagogical Power of Noh: An Ethnographer's Journey From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: Towards a low carbon society: Halving global CO2 emissions from the transport sector by 2050

24 January 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen and Professor Ian Neary

David Banister, Professor of Transport Studies and Fellow of St. Anne's College, Director of the Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and the Environment Towards a low carbon society: Halving global CO2 emissions from the transport sector by 2050 From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.

Nissan Seminar: Environment and Technology: the view from prehistory

17 January 2013, 2:00 pm

Speaker(s):

Convenor(s): Dr Tuukka Toivonen and Professor Ian Neary

Dr Pamela Wace, The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford Environment and Technology: the view from prehistory From its start in the 1980s the institute has organised a series of Nissan Seminars in Japanese Studies. In the academic year 2012/13 they run on Friday evenings at 5.00-6.30 p.m. in the first (Michaelmas) and third (Trinity) terms, and on Thursdays at 2.00 p.m. in the second (Hilary) Term. We invite scholars based in the UK to present their most recent research. Members of the general public are welcome to attend.