EVENT

Tuesday, 22 April, 14:30–16:00 JST

From "Being about Something to Being for Somebody" is the memorable title of Stephen Weil's contribution to the 1999 Daedalus volume on American Museums. Though decades old and not without challenges, the phrase continues to resonate within the museum field. In many ways it encapsulates the ways in which institutions have changed from privileging curator-defined information and institution-defined goals to promoting the visitor's experience and the broader community.
In her talk, Leslie Bedford, a longtime museum practitioner and professor of museum studies, will explore the meaning of Weil's phrase and how it has been implemented by museums, including those she has visited in Japan. Her talk will include a discussion of the online conversations she is facilitating with Japanese museum professionals and academics. And finally, she will raise the question of what "visitor centered" can mean today and in the future.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 15:00-16:30 JST

Carbon and nature markets are struggling with low trust, high costs, and limited scale—falling far short of what’s needed. In this lecture, Professor Weder di Mauro presents a new market design co-developed with Estelle Cantillon and Eric F. Lambin. Jurisdictions offer large-scale projects; investors buy shares that yield carbon and biodiversity “dividends” without conferring land ownership. Market prices reveal demand and support liquidity. Compared to credit-based systems, this approach cuts costs, boosts credibility, and supports long-term commitments. It tackles the core problems holding back today’s markets—and offers a credible path to scale with real environmental impact.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 10:30-12:00 JST

Japan outlaws gender discrimination in virtually the same terms as every equivalent country and yet it ranks 118th out of 146 countries, 111 notches below Germany, 103 below the US. Why? Is it that Japanese culture demands women remain meekly at home? If so, why do women graduate from universities at a higher rate than men? Why do they participate in the work force at a high rate? Why do they bring – and win - employment discrimination suits? This lecture will explore these questions and offer tentative – extremely tentative – observations on the reasons.

Thursday, 8 May, 10:30–12:00 JST

World literature has been a reality since at least the nineteenth century. Texts travel across continents and cultures, translated from every language, taught in universities worldwide, and forming an emerging global canon. Never before have we been so free to read whatever we wish, from anywhere. Or so it seems. But is this true freedom, or merely a comforting illusion? What are the boundaries of this seemingly limitless literary exchange? This talk aims to explore those limits and propose a new approach to literature—a different way of reading texts, one that is either entirely new or, perhaps, simply old and forgotten. Welcome to the world library!

Friday, 13 May 2022, 15:00-16:30 (Doors open: 14:40）

This talk describes three phases of globalisation that have occupied the last five centuries and their role in making the world we know today. The first two phases were associated with the rise of Western empires, which integrated large parts of the world through a process of compulsory globalisation. The third phase, which began after 1945, brought empires to an end and produced the current world order - and disorder.

10 May 2022, 3:00-4:30 pm (Doors open: 2:40 pm)

Recent years have featured the US-China trade war, the coronavirus pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, each of which we can consider “radically uncertain” events that were not in any real sense predictable. This lecture seeks to identify how these events fit into conventional frameworks for explaining the world, how these events might have changed that framework, what elements of the framework remain unknown, and how we should respond to this age of uncertainty.

Friday, 22 April 2022 (available from 4:00pm JST)

How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine being reported around the world? How do people perceive these reports? And how are governments responding? In this series, we interview experts on regions outside of the United States and Europe on issues surrounding the current crisis.

Wednesday, 20 April 2022 (available from 1:00pm JST)

How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine being reported around the world? How do people perceive these reports? And how are governments responding? In this series, we interview experts on regions outside of the United States and Europe on issues surrounding the current crisis.

Wednesday, 13 April 2022 (available from 1:00pm JST)

How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine being reported around the world? How do people perceive these reports? And how are governments responding? In this series, we interview experts on regions outside of the United States and Europe on issues surrounding the current crisis.

Monday, 11 April 2022 (available from 10:00am JST)

How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine being reported around the world? How do people perceive these reports? And how are governments responding? In this series, we interview experts on regions outside of the United States and Europe on issues surrounding the current crisis.

Wednesday, 7 April 2022 (available from 1:00pm JST)

How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine being reported around the world? How do people perceive these reports? And how are governments responding? In this series, we interview experts on regions outside of the United States and Europe on issues surrounding the current crisis.

Wednesday, 6 April 2022 (available from 1:00pm JST)

How is the Russian invasion of Ukraine being reported around the world? How do people perceive these reports? And how are governments responding? In this series, we interview experts on regions outside of the United States and Europe on issues surrounding the current crisis.

Tuesday, 5 April 2022 (17:00-18:00 JST)

A wide variety of new structures are created using the phenomenon of “self-assembly,” in which molecules spontaneously assemble and order themselves. This presentation introduces the tiny world of manufacturing, where new structures are magically created simply by mixing metal ions and organic molecules.

Wednesday, 23 March 2022 (available from 5:00pm JST)

What does advocating for equity look like in art and design? Join us as we chat with De Nichols, a Senior UX Researcher at YouTube and social practice artist who is helping communities engage with societal issues in equity in the United States. 

Wednesday, 16 March 2022 (available from 5:00pm JST)

Women in the workforce in the United States and globally continue to face gender discrimination in a variety of forms, such as wage discrepancies and harassment. Join us as we talk to psychology professor Ho Kwan Cheung about strategies for building more women- and family-friendly workplaces. 

Wednesday, 9 March 2022, (15:00-18:00)

Taking into account the diverse issues surrounding academia today, such as the nature of transdisciplinary knowledge, the interaction between academia and society, diversity, globalization, and digitalization, each organization in this symposium will boldly propose its vision for the future of human society and a new humanities and social sciences. By taking a three-dimensional approach to the intersection of these ideas, we will survey how the humanities and social sciences can contribute to both the development of academia and ourselves.