Description

Despite the concern over teachers’ heavy workload both in Japan and the U.S. especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how teachers’ work is distributed across various tasks and responsibilities and to what extent their workload is equitably distributed across various school and teacher characteristics. Dr. Motoko Akiba explored the distribution and disparities in teachers’ workload using nationally representative teacher and school survey data from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) in Japan and the U.S.  Policy and leadership implications will be discussed regarding how to support the teaching profession by assigning reasonable and equitable workload to teachers in both countries.

Dr. Motoko Akiba is a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University (FSU). She received a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Tsukuba in Japan and a dual-title Ph.D. in Educational Theory & Policy and Comparative & International Education from Pennsylvania State University-University Park. She worked as a post-doc at Mills College to conduct lesson study research, a senior researcher at McREL, a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Columbia before joining FSU. Dr. Akiba’s research expertise is in comparative teacher policy, teachers’ working conditions, and teacher equity. She is a recipient of the NSF Career Award and published 4 books and many journal articles including International handbook of teacher quality and policy (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2018), Teacher reforms around the world (Emerald Books, 2013), and Improving teacher quality: The U.S. teaching force in global context (Teachers College Press, 2009). She enjoys teaching aspiring school leaders in the Educational Leadership program and critical survey research methods.    

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Global Japan and the Initiative for Education Policy and Innovation, University of Toronto.

Description

Facing the globalised economic competition, education came under increasing pressure to raise necessary human resources in Japan. In other words, Japan needs to solve the paradox of internationalising its national education system. The business sector was particularly vocal of this demand and the government labelled such resources ‘Global Human Resources’ (Gurobaru Jinzai), launching several internationalisation measures since 2012. Using one of them, the policy goal of establishing 200 International Baccalaureate schools, as an example, Professor Iwabuchi will examine how this internationalisation attempt emerged, changed, and exercised influence on schools in Japan. As in other studies, business actors played a key role. Yet, a new policy actor (the Cabinet) drove the reform, interacting with the Ministry of Education. By analysing the policy process of this reform, Professor Iwabuchi will highlight how complex interactions between the two affected the policy process and outcome. In addition, Professor Iwabuchi will present the cross-level perspective on education by showing the result of his current study on how teachers respond to the policy imperatives.

Lunch will be provided.

Kazuaki Iwabuchi, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education, the University of Tokyo, Japan. He earned his doctoral degree in comparative and international education from Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University. He’s been examining the policy aspect of Japan’s attempt to internationalise education. Currently, he’s exploring internationalisation initiatives not only at the policy level but also at the meso-level (Boards of Education) and at the micro-level (teachers).

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Global Japan and the Initiative for Education Policy and Innovation, University of Toronto.

Description

A growing literature finds high returns to firms connected to legislative office. Less attention has been paid to benefits from bureaucratic connections and to organizations beyond for-profit firms. Using new data recording the first non-bureaucracy position occupied by all former civil servants in Japan, I first shed light on the descriptive patterns of employment of former civil servants, showing that industries reliant on government contracts and highly regulated industries are overrepresented in hiring compared to the overall economy, and that nonprofit organizations (NPOs) hire roughly one-third of former bureaucrats. Next, I combine this revolving door data with new datasets of all government loans to private firms, stock prices, and all government contracts with NPOs in Japan to test for benefits that accrue to organizations that hire former bureaucrats. Using various differences-in-differences approaches, I find that (1) the volume of government loans increases in the years following a bureaucratic hire, (2) firms receive stock price boosts following high-ranking bureaucratic hires, and (3) the value of contracts negotiated between government agencies and NPOs are higher in years when former bureaucrats are on staff. These findings suggest that the practice of hiring former bureaucrats may represent a form of unofficial government assistance to politically-connected organizations.

Trevor Incerti is an Assistant Professor of Political Economy at the University of Amsterdam. His main area of research is in comparative political economy, and broadly examines economic drivers of political behavior. This includes topics such as money in politics, business-government relations, corruption, interest group influence, and collective action. Much of his work focuses on East Asia, particularly Japan. He also conducts research in quantitative methods, where he is particularly interested in the reliability and validity of measurement strategies. Trevor’s research is published or forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis, among other outlets, and has received coverage by media such as The Economist, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. Trevor received his Ph.D. from Yale University (2022) and B.A. from UC Berkeley (2012), and was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Global Japan, University of Toronto.

Description

Under Prime minister Abe Shinzô, Japan showed increased leadership in the Indo-Pacific region. Tokyo was the first to adopt an Indo-Pacific vision (FOIP), which it called "free and open", terms since used by the UK and the EU. The concepts THAT FOIP uses, such as "connectivity" and "qualify infrastructure", have become cornerstones of international cooperation in the region. From 2007, Japan also added a defence dimension to some of its bilateral or multilateral relations, inaugurating a defence diplomacy. Most of its initiatives serve to counterbalance China in the Indo-Pacific or beyond. Under Prime minister Kishida Fumio, China conditions Japan’s position over the war in Ukraine, or on economic security. This lecture, which draws on a book published in French in April 2023 (Le Japon, un leader discret, Eyrolles), will analyse the various dimensions of Japan’s newly found influence on the international scene.

A French and Australian dual citizen, Guibourg Delamotte is a tenured Full-Professor of Political Science at the Japanese studies department of the French Institute of Oriental Studies (Inalco), of which she is presently the Head and a Research Fellow with the French Research Institute on East Asia (Ifrae). She is aso Invited Senior Research Fellow, ROLES-RCAST, the University of Tokyo. She works on Japan’s foreign and security policies, and Japanese domestic politics. She most recently published Le Japon, un leader discret (Eyrolles, 2023), La Démocratie au Japon, singulière et universelle (ENS Ed., 2022), and coedited (with J. Brown and R. Dujarric) The Abe Legacy. How Japan has been shaped by Abe Shinzô, Lexington, 2021.

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Global Japan, University of Toronto.

Description

Japan is notorious for its gender inequality. Most foreign media coverage on Japanese women tend to be about how women are badly treated in Japan.  Gender inequality is visible in politics too. Comparatively speaking, the share of women in Japan’s Diet is among the lowest in advanced democracies. However, in recent decades, the share of women in politics has been increasing particularly in urban areas. For instance, the city assemblies in Tokyo’s twenty-three special districts have seen a big increase in the share of women. Suginami city assembly composition has reached gender parity (50% of assembly members are women) and has a female mayor. Furthermore, female mayoral candidates are no longer uncommon in Tokyo.  When one looks at the demographic composition of Tokyo’s city assemblies, Japanese politics does not look too different from Western liberal democracies.  Why does politics in Tokyo look so different from the national level politics? The presentation is based on an analysis of micro-data of all candidates who ran in the last four cycles of local politics in Tokyo. Our findings show that women are more electable than men despite their relative lack of political capital. Successful female candidates are compensating for their lack of political capital with their high human capital attributes. We argue that the reason why high human capital women are successfully running for local office in Tokyo reflects persistent glass ceilings in both politics and labor market.

Margarita Estévez-Abe is McClure Professor of Teaching Excellence at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.  She taught at Harvard University before joining Syracuse and served as the first chair of Public Policy at Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, Italy. Her research explores the intersection of welfare states, gender and the models of capitalism.  She’s the author of the award-winning book on Welfare Capitalism in Postwar Japan (Cambridge University Press), the editor of Outsourcing of Domestic and Care Work (Special Issue, Social Politics) and Beyond Familialism (Special Issue, Journal of European Social Policy). She’s finishing a monograph on marriage migrants in East Asia entitled Globalizing the Family: Gender and Citizenship in Japan South Korea and Taiwan.

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Global Japan and the Centre for Global Social Policy, University of Toronto.