Japanese as a Global Brand: Writing Japanese the European Way (Lecture by Prof. Viktoria ESCHBACH-SZABO)

Tuesday, 18 February 2025, 15:00-16:30 JST

The Conservative-led British government's perception of China changed markedly between 2010 and 2024. In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron described the rise of China as an opportunity. A decade on, the government described China as the biggest long-term threat to the UK's economic security and expressed increasing concerns about Chinese assertiveness overseas. During the same period, the UK and Japan built up an ever-closer security relationship. Did British government perceptions of China determine its policy towards Japan during this period, or were other factors just as influential? What approaches should we expect now from the new Labour government?

Friday, 21 February 2025 9:00 - 10:15 JST/ Thursday February 20, 19:00 - 20:15 EST

Will President Trump demand higher defense spending by Japan? How will Japan respond? President Trump has pledged to negotiate a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine War in the first 100 days of his administration. Will it happen? How will he do that? What will the truce influence the situations in East Asia? Will Japan’s policy to advance defense technologies and promote defense industry succeed? Will Ishiba’s minority government be able to handle it?

Tuesday, 4 March 2024, 15:00-16:30 JST

This lecture explores the influence of the Japanese language on the global branding of Japan beyond its borders. It examines how the Japanese language is strategically employed to evoke distinct imagery, cultural significance, and authenticity. The session offers insights into the current landscape and future research directions of Japanese language as an important world language. Employing linguistic case studies from Germany and Hungary, the lecture highlights how Japanese writing elements are rephrased or combined with a product’s identity and with design cues evoking Japaneseness. Creatively adapted in new contexts overseas, the Japanese language has become a strong branding tool in Europe.

Thursday, 13 February 2025, 10:00-11:30 JST

In her new book Everyday Ambassadors, Annelise Riles argues that we are on the cusp of an exciting new world order, where leadership is not just in the hands of few but of all. She argues that what the world needs now is many more diplomats--connectors, translators, interpretors, across political and cultural differences, between science and religion, between the arts and the technology world. In this talk, Prof. Riles will discuss her book, which synthesizes decades of legal and ethnographic research into seven "moves" that empower anyone to be a great diplomat right from where you are.

Wednesday, 29 January 2025, 15:00-16:30 JST

Around 60,000 years ago, at the time when humans successfully migrated out of Africa, something transformational happened. Homo sapiens must have experienced significant DNA changes that profoundly altered our capacity to compete for natural resources. Critical for this change in our behaviors was a new capacity for abstract thinking. Today with AI, we are on the brink of taking the final step away from Darwin’s principle of Survival of the fittest by rapidly evolving to escape our DNA dependence altogether and thereby our mortality as well.

Tuesday, 21 January 2025, 14:00-15:30 JST

As survivors raise their voices, the realities of sexual violence are gradually coming to light. Despite this increased attention, why does sexual violence continue to occur? This lecture examines the experiences of sexual violence survivors based on data collected from 38,383 responses to a 2022 NHK survey on the prevalence of sexual violence. It highlights the existence of rape myths in Japanese society, which perpetuate a pattern in which victims are blamed and suffer even further. Underlying these issues are societal norms of masculinity that sustain gender inequality. To eliminate sexual violence, it is essential to critically reexamine these societal norms.

Wednesday, 15 January 2025, 16:00-17:00 JST

At the University of Tokyo, a webinar was held on December 11, 2024, to explain the EU AI Act and the first draft of the CoP. In this webinar, we will provide an overview of the second draft released at the end of December and highlight important points that Japanese companies should particularly pay attention to.

Wednesday, 18 December 2024, 14:00-17:30 JST

Wednesday, 11 December 2024, 12:00-13:00 JST

This webinar will outline the overview of the EU-AI Act, the activities of four working groups involved in the formulation of the Code of Practice, and important points that Japanese companies and organizations should particularly pay attention to. 
We look forward to the participation of companies, research institutions, and development communities involved in the development, provision, and distribution of AI-related technologies as an opportunity to deepen understanding of the “Brussels Effect” brought about by EU regulatory trends and its impact on Japan.