Feature

Seminar Series

Gender and Health in Japan: Evidence from Nationally Representative Data

Date
Thursday 5 October 2023 | 9:00-10:00 a.m. (JST)
Venue
Zoom Webinar  REGISTER HERE
Zoom access link will be provided after registration.
Language
English
Speakers
Yuka Minagawa Associate Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University, Tokyo
Moderator
Sawako Shirahase Director of TCJS
Seminar Series

Social Science after the Digital Revolution: Contrasting Developments in Artificial Intelligence in Australia and Japan

Date
Tuesday 24 October 2023 | 9:00-10:00 a.m(JST)
Venue
Zoom Webinar  REGISTER HERE
Zoom access link will be provided after registration.
Language
English
Speakers
Anthony Elliott Dean of External Engagement and Bradley Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of South Australia
Moderator
Sawako Shirahase Director of TCJS
Graduate Student Forum

The contradictions of Japan’s pre-war economy and the problem of peasant reproduction

Date
Friday, 26 September 2023 | 9:00 - 9:45 a.m. (JST)
Venue
Zoom Meeting  REGISTER HERE
Zoom access link will be provided after registration.
Language
English
Speakers
Joshua LINKOUS History and East Asian Language, Harvard University
Moderator
Sawak SHIRAHASE Director of TCJS
Seminar Series

Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Governance Reform in Japan

Date
Thursday, 14 September | 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. (JST)
Venue
Webinar  REGISTER HERE
Zoom access link will be provided after registration.
Language
English
Speakers
Kumiko NEMOTO Professor of Management in the School of Business Administration, Senshu University
Moderator
Kenneth Mori McElwain Professor, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo.
Graduate Student Forum

Under Pressure & Voicing Up: Japanese Youth Tackling Gender Issues

Date
Tuesday, 12 September 2023 | 9:00-9:45 a.m. (JST)
Venue
Zoom Meeting  REGISTER HERE
Zoom access link will be provided after registration.
Language
English
Speakers
Peyton Cherry University of Oxford/Waseda University
Moderator
Sawako Shirahase Director of TCJS
Early-Career Scholar Forum

Japan’s Foreign Policy and International Organizations in the Interwar Period: Attitudes toward International Adjudication, Treatment of Foreigners, and International Humanitarian Law

Date
Friday, 8 September 2023 | 12:15-13:00 (JST)
Venue
Zoom Meeting  REGISTER HERE
Zoom access link will be provided after registration.
Language
English
Speakers
Kenji Banjo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Moderator
Rieko Kage Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Seminar Series

Children of divorce and stepfamilies in Japan: Why they are left behind after all these years

Date
Thursday, 7 September 2023 | 9:00-10:00 a.m. (JST)
Venue
Webinar
Language
English
Speakers
Shinji Nozawa Department of Sociology, Meiji Gakuin University
Moderator
Sawako Shirahase Director of TCJS

News

5 October | 9:00-10:00am (JST)

TCJS Book Talk Series | Gender and Health in Japan: Evidence from Nationally Representative Data

Thursday, 5 October 2023 | 9:000-10:00am (JST)
04/09/2023

TCJS Seminar Series | Social Science after the Digital Revolution: Contrasting Developments in Artificial Intelligence in Australia and Japan

Tuesday, 24 October 2023 | 9:00-10:00 (JST)
22/08/2023

TCJS Graduate Student Forum | The contradictions of Japan’s pre-war economy and the problem of peasant reproduction

Friday, 26 September 2023 | 9:00 - 9:45 a.m. (JST)
09/08/2023

TCJS Seminar Series | Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Governance Reform in Japan

Thursday, 14 2023 9:00 - 10:00 a.m(JST)
09/08/2023

TCJS Graduate Student Forum | Under Pressure & Voicing Up: Japanese Youth Tackling Gender Issues

Tuesday , 12 September 2023 | 9:00 - 9:45 a.m. (JST)
04/08/2023

Early Career Scholar Forum | Japan’s Foreign Policy and International Organizations in the Interwar Period: Attitudes toward International Adjudication, Treatment of Foreigners, and International Humanitarian Law

Friday, 8 September 2023 12:15-13:00 (JST)
03/08/2023

TCJS Seminar Series | Children of divorce and stepfamilies in Japan: Why they are left behind after all these years

Thursday, 7 September 2023 | 9:00-10:00 a.m. (JST)
23/06/2023

TCJS Early-Career Scholar Forum | Japan and “Buddhist Heritage”: Constructing Transnational Communities of Memory?

Friday 14 July 2023 | 12:15 - 13:00 (JST)
23/06/2023

TCJS Graduate Student Forum | Childlessness in the U.S. and Japan

Tuesday 11 July 2023 | 9:00-9:45 (JST)
23/06/2023

TCJS Early-Career Scholar Forum | Assassination and Public Opinion Dynamics: Evidence from Japan

Friday 7 July 2023 | 12:15 - 13:00 (JST)

About

The UTokyo Center for Contemporary Japanese Studies (TCJS) is a new organization, founded in July 2020. Using “Contemporary Japan” as a touchstone concept, the Center promotes interdisciplinary and globally comparative research that unpacks the mechanisms underlying various contemporary social issues. In addition, TCJS offers a platform for broadly disseminating the findings of such research with the rest of the world – not only for the sake of furthering research and education at the University of Tokyo, but also in the name of realizing a more sustainable global society, and expanding vital collaborative research across borders.

In this way, TCJS welcomes approaches to studying Japan from a wide variety of disciplines (beyond the humanities/sciences binary); supports cutting-edge research; encourages active collaborations across all generations and countries; and nurtures next-generation scholars.

Our Mission

  • Challenging pre-existing norms and assessment standards through a focus on studying Japanese society
  • Promoting the humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary research
  • Incorporating and strengthening global perspectives in the study of contemporary Japan
Our Mission

Research Projects

Japanese Economy and Politics

The socioeconomic and geopolitical environment of the world is shifting rapidly. Trust in international institutions and traditional domestic elites is declining, but alternative foundations to promote peace and prosperity remain elusive. We examine how Japan’s economic, social, and political systems have adapted--and should adapt--to ongoing global and domestic challenges.

Demography and Inequality

Japan is at the frontier of demographic transformations that have beset many advanced-industrialized societies, including an aging population, declining fertility rates, and growing socioeconomic inequalities. These pose serious challenges to status quo systems, such as social insurance policies, immigration regulations, and family and gender relations. Through collaborative research and data sharing, we examine cross-national responses to these transformations and contribute to evidence-based policy making (EBPM).

Gender in Japan

Japan is a country with a high degree of gender inequality. Despite being a country which achieved so-called “miraculous” economic growth in the 1950s and 60s, the wage gap between men and women remains high relative to other countries, and the percentage of female leaders in positions of executive decision making is quite low. There has been no change to fundamental structures that set forth drastically different expectations and burdens for household roles based on gender. As such, TCJS seeks to convene discussions with researchers and stakeholders from various fields, as well as to promote research in regard to these issues.

Collaboration with Humanities

TCJS together with the Humanities Center of the University of Tokyo (HMC) works to internationally disseminate their research results by holding seminar series in the field of humanities of Japan.