Description

Prof. TAKAHARA Akio will deliver a lecture on his research on the security in East Asia in light of the growing influence of China and current Japan-China relations. Prof. Takahara will be joined by Prof. Stephen Nagy and Mr. Jonathan Berkshire Miller for discussions following the presentation. This webinar will be moderated by Ms. Deanna Horton.

Speaker Bios:
TAKAHARA Akio
Akio Takahara is Professor of Contemporary Chinese Politics at the Graduate School of Law and Politics and the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP) at The University of Tokyo. He received his Dphil in 1988 from Sussex University, and later spent several years as Visiting Scholar at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, Harvard University, Peking University, and at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. Before joining The University of Tokyo, he taught at J. F. Oberlin University and Rikkyo University. He served as President of the Japan Association for Asian Studies, and as the Secretary General of the New Japan-China Friendship 21st Century Committee. Akio was Dean of GraSPP from 2018 to 2020. He currently serves as Senior Adjunct Fellow of the Japan Institute of International Affairs, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Japan Forum on International Relations, and Director of JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development. His publications include The Politics of Wage Policy in Post-Revolutionary China, (Macmillan, 1992), and Japan-China Relations in the Modern Era, (co-authored, Routledge, 2017).

Jonathan Berkshire Miller
Jonathan Berkshire Miller is currently a senior fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). Miller is also Director and Senior fellow of the Indo-Pacific program at the Ottawa-based Macdonald Laurier Institute, Senior Fellow on East Asia for the Tokyo-based Asian Forum Japan and the Director and co-founder of the Council on International Policy. He also holds appointments as Canada’s ASEAN Regional Forum Expert and Eminent Person (EEP). Previously, he was an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, based in Tokyo. Other former appointments and roles include terms as a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, and Senior Fellow on East Asia for the New York-based EastWest Institute. In addition, Miller previously spent nearly a decade working on economic and security issues related to Asia with the Canadian federal government and worked both with the foreign ministry and the security community.
(https://www.jberkshiremiller.com/about.html)

Stephen R. NAGY
Stephen is a Senior Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the International Christian University. Previously he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Japanese Studies from December 2009 to January 2014. He obtained his PhD from Waseda University, Japan in International Relations in December 2008 and worked as a Research Associate at the Institute of Asia Pacific Studies at Waseda University from October 2007 to November 2009.
His recent funded research projects are “Sino-Japanese Relations in the Wake of the 2012 Territorial Disputes: Investigating changes in Japanese Business’ trade and investment strategy in China” and “Non-traditional security Cooperation in Northeast Asia” and “Human Security Paradigm in Japan: Exploring the Challenges and Possibilities of International Cooperation in Northeast Asia”.
His research interests include international relations of Northeast Asia, Sino-Japanese relations, Asian regional integration and regionalism in Asia, non-traditional security related issues. In conjunction with his research focus on Asian regional integration, in March 2010 he was appointed a Senior Fellow with the Global Institute of Asian Regional Integration (GIARI), Waseda University. He is also a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies’ International Affairs Research Centre (IARC) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Deanna Horton
As part of her Canadian foreign service career, Deanna Horton spent a total of twelve years in Japan, including as Deputy Head of Mission, and also served as Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. She was a NAFTA negotiator, followed by two postings in Washington, most recently as Minister (Congressional, Public and Intergovernmental Affairs). As a Munk School Senior Fellow she has led a digital mapping project on Canada’s footprint in Asia https://archive.munkschool.utoronto.ca/canasiafootprint/ and related research on Canadian technology multinationals. Ms. Horton is also affiliated with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, and the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, commenting on economic and trade policy issues with a focus on Asia.

Description

Is migration a plausible option in combating aging and shrinking populations in countries with a strong emphasis on ethnic homogeneity? What kind of policies would be ideal to realize a multicultural society in such countries? To answer these questions, this presentation explores Japanese people’s views on citizenship (their views on naturalization) and migration (factors impacting their views on migrants). Based on several survey experiments, it aims to provide evidence to influence policy discussions in regard to the future direction of these policies under the new Cabinet. Specifically, it aims to highlight limitations with the current one-way assimilationist approaches pursued by the past Cabinets and to suggest a consolidation of social integration policies for both Japanese natives (i.e., recognizing and appreciating cultural diversities) and incoming migrants (i.e., understanding Japanese language and culture).

Speaker Bio:
Yujin Woo is an assistant professor at Graduate School of Law of Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo, Japan) and a research fellow at Waseda Institute of Political Economy of Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan).

Description

This talk challenges the conventional “normal nation” narrative in international relations scholarship by explaining why Japan has not remilitarized despite the changing international context. By way of examining Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) recruitment limitations to peace monuments, the talk reveals how Japanese security policy is shaped by the interaction of ideas and the material world, such as demographics, gender norms, and technology.

Speaker Bio:
Tom Le is an associate professor of politics at Pomona College and a research associate at the PRIME Institute at Meiji Gakuin University. Le is the author of Japan’s Aging Peace: Pacifism and Militarism in the Twenty-First Century (Columbia University Press, June 2021). Le received a PhD in political science from the University of California, Irvine, and Bas in history and political science from the University of California, Davis.