Events by year: 2019

27 November 2019

Japan China flag

How Japan sees China

What does China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) mean for Japan? China’s infrastructure investments in Asia, Africa, and Europe pose challenges to Japan’s political and economic influence, and yet it seems as though Tokyo has no choice but to accept the BRI system. In this talk, Dr Taku Tamaki explored the possibility of borrowing the ideas of Japanese philosopher Tetsurō Watsuji as a way to start conceptualising what BRI means for Japan. Watsuji’s idea of aidagara suggests that human existence comprises a complex web of inter-relationships involving subject-subject, as well as environment-subject, inter-relationships; thus we can view BRI as representing Japan’s aidagara with the international environment.

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26 November 2019

Artist Talk: Hiroe Saeki in conversation with Ito Ogawa

Hiroe Saeki’s work inhabits a liminal zone on the edges of the perceivable: monochromatic explorations of the subject of beauty in nature, delicate drawings with a weightless quality, sparse compositions evoking traditional aesthetics. As in a photograph, the totality of the artwork and the detail are valued equally. In this exhibition, she presents a new body of work with graphite and water. The powdered graphite travels through capillaries of water: settling where and when the water evaporates, to be absorbed by the land of paper. The resulting surfaces recall water-carved planetary landscapes. Together with Ito Ogawa, the artist discussed her influences, her work and the exhibition Cosmogenesis.

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15 November 2019

National Memories and Norms in International Politics in East Asia

Since World War 2, East Asia has experienced dramatic and complex political and economic transformations. Problems associated with emotions, memories, and narratives of the past – particularly those relating to the War and to Japanese colonisation of other countries in the region – are underlying factors that shape the ups and downs of political and economic friction between East Asian countries. The ongoing territorial disputes between China and Japan or South Korea and Japan, for instance, are fundamentally rooted in different perceptions of East Asia’s past. In this seminar, Professor Asano discussed current issues and challenges from a historical perspective.

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11 November 2019

The Technology Revolution in Education

Recent technological innovations have enabled the proliferation of new educational tools and created new ways to deliver educational content globally. These technologies are having a profound impact on society by extending access to education and improving the quality of learning. Moreover, they are expected to extend the frontiers of traditional learning methods, prompting innovation in education systems around the world. Professor Jakob Ravn explained the importance of technology in education, including the impact of technology on learning, and how digital innovation is changing the educational ecosystem. Professor Takehiko Kariya discussed the limitations of the new approaches, and the necessary preconditions that need to be considered to apply them in the Japanese environment.

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8 November 2019

Can museums promote regional revitalization?

Museums can play an important part in transforming local areas, helping to rejuvenate towns and cities by creating new jobs, boosting local tourism efforts, engaging in outreach programmers and changing the image and atmosphere of an area. Yet how do museums contribute to revitalization efforts? Can all museums have this effect? To answer these questions, David Anderson, Director of Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales) and Professor Yoshi Miki, curator of the Kizuna: Japan | Wales | Design exhibition, used the Kizuna: Japan | Wales | Design exhibition as a case-study.

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7 November 2019

Private View: Cosmogenesis by Hiroe Saeki

The Private View is a chance to have a first look at the exhibition Cosmogenesis by the Berlin-based Japanese artist Hiroe Saeki. In this exhibition, she presents a new body of work with graphite and water. The powdered graphite travels through capillaries of water: settling where and when the water evaporates, to be absorbed by the land of paper. The resulting surfaces recall water-carved planetary landscapes.
Saeki’s practice evokes associations with biological or mineral forms, such as geological sediments. Exquisite, miniscule lines take us to the nano level of the cellular structure of organisms. Combined with the serendipitous nature of her new graphite process, they take on a sense of the cosmic.

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29 October 2019

The Challenge of Migration in the UK and Japan

Migration has become one of the most prominent global issues of the 21st century. In the UK, the possibility of a no-deal Brexit in October this year might severely impact low-skilled migration, while in Japan some see migration as an important potential solution to the imminent demographic challenge the country is facing. In this seminar chaired by Professor Brad Blitz, two speakers explained the current migration situation in the UK and Japan. Dr Heather Rolfe focused on low skilled migration in the UK, and Dr Nana Oishi then presented the growing ‘brain drain’ phenomenon in Japan.

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28 October 2019

Skilled Migration: Solving Japan’s demographic crisis?

In the past decade, skilled migration policies in Japan have undergone some major transformations through the points-based system and the regional migration scheme. In April 2019, the new migration scheme for ‘Specific Skilled Workers (SSWs)’ opened a new migration era, admitting 345,150 migrants, who used to be labelled as ‘unskilled’, in the next five years. How did these policy changes take place and what factors were behind them? Can skilled migration be the answer to Japan’s demographic crisis? What else would be needed? While addressing these questions, Dr Oishi also presented her most recent quantitative and qualitative research on the growing ‘brain drain’ phenomenon in Japan and highlighted the need for ‘brain circulation’ policies.

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17 October 2019

Digital Technologies and Global Innovation

Innovation bringing global change can emerge from anywhere in the world. Recent innovations in digital technologies applied to new business models, such as FinTech and digital payments, have started to generate significant benefits for our economies and societies. These technologies are expected to expand the frontiers of traditional financing systems. In this seminar, Soumitra Dutta explained how digital technologies are expected to impact global innovation. Makoto Goda explained the impact of digital transformation in the context of local economies, as well as presenting some examples of local currency applications in Japan. Finally, Ben Brabyn talked about the innovation ecosystem in London, and how to apply a similar model to other cities.

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16 October 2019

FinTech: Investing in the Future?

FinTech is changing traditional finance systems and creating a new model which has the potential to change individual behaviour and society at large, both locally and globally. In the fast-changing world of finance, new technologies and financial mechanisms are seen as the way forward. In this seminar, Mr Goda, a prominent FinTech entrepreneur, explained his business model which has implemented a new electronic money and payment system in Africa, in collaboration with the public and private sectors. He then explained how to apply the business model in local scenarios through some examples of local currency applications in Japan.

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4 October 2019

Archaeology of the Future

In this seminar, two prominent young architects from the UK and Japan discussed the intersection between the future and the past in the present, physical actuality of architecture. Matt Ball and Tsuyoshi Tane examined from two different perspectives the way in which architecture offers the possibility to capture the convergence of the past, and memory, with the future. Mr Tane aspires to create an architecture that nobody has ever seen, experienced, or even imagined, an architecture that inherits the memory of a place from the past and carries it into the future. Mr Tane introduced his working philosophy, “Archaeology of the Future”.

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3 October 2019

Artist Talk: Naoya Inose in conversation with Dr Lena Fritsch

The artist Naoya Inose discussed his work and exhibition The Post-Anthropocene with Dr Lena Fritsch. What kind of influence will humanity bring to this new geological age? Is the age of humanity in fact the history of time itself? The main work in this exhibition, Ave Maria, depicts a Ferris wheel quietly enshrined in a huge cave. This Ferris wheel left by humans is a metaphor of humanity itself and it slowly rotates. If life and death are the motif of the Ferris wheel, the Ferris wheel in the work Ave Maria has stopped, and time restrictions no longer exist.

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