Events category: Webinar

22 October 2020

Hong Kong - the wider implications

This year’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists and journalists in Hong Kong is an important attack on the global spread of democracy. Are Western nations responding forcefully enough? Will China be emboldened in other areas where it controls or claims territory, including Taiwan and the Senkaku islands? Hong Kong democracy activist Simon Cheng discussed the issues based on his personal experiences, including arrest by the Chinese authorities. Professor Barry Buzan addressed the implications for the shifting power balance in Asia, and how Western nations should respond. Professor Arthur Stockwin then considered the Japanese angle.

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14 October 2020

US Election the Implications for Asia Policy listing image

US Election: the Implications for Asia Policy

While there is a consensus in Washington on many key Asia policy issues, this year’s two U.S. presidential candidates see and approach the region, and the world, in starkly different ways. In this webinar, Sean King explored how various U.S. Asia policy positions might unfold as a result of either candidate’s victory, while Shihoko Goto then took a closer look at the potential Japan-specific ramifications of a second Trump term versus a Biden first term.

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26 October 2020

Ishikawa Sanshirō’s Geographical Imagination

Ishikawa Sanshirō was a journalist and anarchist in the early twentieth century, active at a time of tremendous intellectual and social ferment. Geographical Imagination investigates his engagement with causes such as farmers’ autonomy, gender equality, and anti-war and anti-pollution. Through Ishikawa’s personal journey – which includes several years of European exile – the book invites us to reconsider the scope and ambitions of anarchism in Japan at the time and reassesses geographical thought as a basis for dialogue between Eastern and Western radical thinkers.

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29 September 2020

Japan After Abe

The recent announcement of Shinzō Abe resignation because of illness has initiated a new period of political uncertainty. The next administration is expected to maintain many of Abe’s policies, but there are some concerns as to whether Japan will be able to maintain the relative political stability of the Abe years. In this webinar, Professor Machidori looked at why the Abe administration was able to achieve longevity, in the context of political reforms that have taken place at the national level since the 1990s. Glen S. Fukushima gave a US perspective on Japanese politics – the Abe administration’s record and prospects for US-Japan relations.

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30 September 2020

Beyond Coronavirus: The Future of Museums

While the coronavirus pandemic has had wide-reaching financial impacts, the museum sector has been particularly badly hit. It is estimated that one in three of these museums will have to downsize to survive, while 13% may have to close down permanently – this would be the closure of over 10,000 museums worldwide. In further bad news, a recent survey in Britain indicated that almost a third of population would not feel safe returning to museums for a long time, even if they are open. In this seminar, chaired by James Harding, renowned museum directors from the UK and Japan discussed the challenges faced by museums and exhibitions around the world during the current coronavirus crisis.

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7 October 2020

Translating Kishio Suga: Things. Situations. Unfoldings.

From 1972 to 1981, artist Kishio Suga published a series of fragmentary statements in the exhibition listings section of Japanese art journal Bijutsu Techō. Not quite poems, and certainly not explanations of the exhibited work, the texts are propositions for thinking about how things come together in what Suga calls “situations,” or immersive fields of radical equality and interdependence between objects and perceivers. Maerkle and Williamson used readings of new translations of Suga’s statements as a jumping-off point for discussing themes including active silences, deep-time, quantum entanglement, and related works by other artists across diverse mediums. In doing so, they explored the potential for translation in all its forms.

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22 September 2020

Covid-19 and the Artists' Union: Is this a turning point in Japan?

Because of the impact of the pandemic, galleries, theatres, and music venues had to close their doors and are only recently starting to reopen. In the UK, government funds (loans and stimulus packages) were made available, though there has been criticism that the aid was not provided early enough. In response, the Artists’ Union England has started a petition for the government to provide help and has also made small grants available to artists. In Japan, artists have had very little in the way of an emergency relief response from the government, highlighting the need to establish a union in Japan. The panellists in this talk discussed the current status of Artists’ Associations and Artists’ Unions in the UK and progress towards forming a similar organisation in Japan.

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16 September 2020

LITTLE MISS SUMO: Smashing Glass Ceilings

In sumo, women are said to ‘contaminate the sacred space’, and so are banned from entering professional sumo rings. In this webinar the director of award-winning short film Little Miss Sumo, Matt Kay, took us on a tour inside the world of female sumo wrestling. As well as discussing the inspiration for the documentary, the history of the sport, and the filmmaking process, he branched out to the wider complexities of respecting tradition while remaining ethical.

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9 September 2020

Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde

A number of photographers across Japan produced a versatile body of Surrealist work during the 1930s. In this pioneering study of their practice, ‘Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde’, Dr Jelena Stojković draws on primary sources and extensive archival research in order to map out art historical and critical contexts relevant to the apprehension of this rich photographic output, most of which is previously unseen outside of its country of origin. In this book launch, the author was joined in discussion of the book’s themes by Dr Luke Gartlan and Dr Tessel Bauduin. Discounted copies of the book were available to attendees.

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31 July 2020

Reimagining War

August will mark 75 years since the surrender of Japan at the end of the Asia-Pacific War, yet the vast scope of the conflict and the distance in time from the present day can make it conceptually hard to grasp. For the youth of today who have had no experience of war, this conflict is fading from memory and comprehension. In this webinar two prominent young photographers, Kazuma Obara and Miyuki Okuyama, discussed the intersection of the war, as history, with the future, along with some of their recent works of art.

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