Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 14:00-15:00 JST

The concept of transition, derived from the Latin transire, meaning “to change state,” has been employed across a wide range of fields since the nineteenth century. In contemporary discourse, it is most often associated with climate change and the notion of an “energy transition.” This lecture introduces the concept of power transition – understood as energy flow over time – to account for the rapid acceleration of eco-social change since the mid-twentieth century. It examines the unprecedented challenge of voluntarily moving away from highly powerful fossil fuels. Moving beyond purely techno-solutionist approaches, the seminar emphasizes the central role of social and human innovation. Adapting to renewable and fluctuating energy sources will require a profound rethinking of lifestyles, drawing inspiration from the long-term resilience of living organisms.

Thursday, April 2, 2026, 14:00-15:00 JST

What do self-driving cars, power grids, and homeostasis in biology have in common? Seemingly not much. If one looks “under the hood”, however, one discovers that they all rely on a common principle that renders their operation robust and reliable – feedback. The principle of feedback is intuitive: see where you are, compare this to where you want to be, and move in the direction that reduces the difference between the two. Though the principle itself is simple to explain, understanding its implications, uses and limitations is anything but and forms part of a branch of engineering known as automatic control. The talk will outline the main ideas of feedback, automation and control driven by examples of their use in biology, energy systems and beyond.

Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 14:00-15:15 JST

For over five decades, reconnaissance groups around the world have visited earthquake-affected areas. The premise is to learn key lessons to help communities worldwide understand their earthquake risk and take actions to improve their resilience.
In this talk, Professor Emily SO will describe the importance of evidence-based research and set out the key challenges of surveying post-disaster. She will provide a critique on what academic value data from the field brings to reducing the consequences of earthquakes and other natural perils.

Monday, 12 May 2025, 17:30-18:30 JST

This webinar will explain the consultation's key points and provide insights to help participants understand how to engage effectively. It’s a unique opportunity to influence the guidelines that will directly impact the implementation of the EU AI Act.

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!

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.

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.

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, 16 April, 10:00–11:30 JST

The “Black Death” refers to the peak of the second plague pandemic, which spread across Europe from 1347. It remains the greatest demographic catastrophe in history. Today, interdisciplinary research—combining funerary archaeology, anthropology, microbiology, and environmental sciences—has transformed our approaches to it. Advances from DNA analysis to climate studies have contributed to a new understanding. Yet, the challenge remains: how to write a global history of a long-term event on a global scale? Though its precise geography is unclear, the plague’s routes trace the lines of force of connected worlds, mapping out a space that is discontinuous and global, like an archipelago.

Wednesday, 9 April, 2025 JST 15:00-16:30 JST

Despite the enthusiasm they generate, it is difficult to satisfactorily identify what humanoid robots could do that a human or a non-humanoid robot could not do better and more cheaply, and this observation constitutes a major challenge for the philosopher. Using the example of Sophia, the first humanoid robot to be granted citizenship in 2017, I will suggest that these strange machines occupy a sensitive place in our societies by taking on the role of messianic machines (machines that announce the coming of other machines), metaphysical machines (machines that force us to ask fundamental metaphysical questions such as knowing who is human or who is alive) and conjuring machines (machines that help to fight against the fear of dangerous machines).

Friday, 4 April, 13:00–14:30 JST

In this richly-illustrated lecture, I discuss two collaborative partnerships in which I have been involved with historically marginalized, Indigenous communities in both the Himalayan region and in Native North America who are working to preserve and revitalize their languages. Through the presentation, I explore these three words: Collect, Protect, Connect.

Wednesday, 19 March 2025, 12:00-13:00 JST

At the University of Tokyo, a webinar was held on December 11, 2024 and January 15, 2025, to explain the EU AI Act and the first draft of the CoP. In this webinar, we will provide an overview of the third draft released at the end of February and highlight important points that Japanese companies should particularly pay attention to.

Monday, 17 March 2025, 3:00 - 4:30 pm (Doors open: 2:00 pm)

Today, digital networks provide us with an abundance of information. We invest more than ever in education and science. Despite these achievements our mental, socio-economic and political conditions have not improved. They seem to be even deteriorating. Why? What is going wrong? What can we do better? What can the first information revolution 600 years ago teach us? Two leading Japanese scholars in the field of media and AI governance will discuss these questions with Yuval Harari, the world-famous thinker and best-selling author, who explores the risks and opportunities of the information age in his new book Nexus.

Thursday, 13 March, 2025, 16:00-18:00

The Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), established in June 2020, is an international initiative for the responsible development and use of AI based on the concept of “human-centered.” The GPAI has several working groups, one of which discusses the “Future of Work.” As part of this group’s project, an international interview survey is being conducted around the world to find out how our work will change as AI is introduced into the workplace. One of the unique methods of this survey is that the students who will be responsible for the future are interviewing companies and organizations.
At this event, following the survey report last year, we will introduce an overview of the survey conducted this year. Inviting students and faculty members who joined in this year’s project to share their observations on the “future of work” through the survey, we also discuss the possibilities and challenges of its methodological aspects. We would like to discuss future developments of the survey with companies, organizations, and students who are interested in this work.

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.