EVENT

Monday, 11 November 2024, 10:00-11:00 JST

As generative AI becomes more widely used, it is crucial for AI models to accurately reflect cultural and linguistic risks in different regions. Identifying harmful content specific to each culture must be continuously updated. This requires collaboration between AI researchers, social scientists, policymakers, and practitioners to form a global community for ongoing discussions. This event will discuss frameworks to sustain such communities, welcoming those interested in AI safety and governance.

Tuesday, 12 November 2024 10:30-12:00 JST

Prof. Manju Puri has hypothesized and found evidence that banks use venture investments in fintech startups as a strategic approach to navigate fintech competition. She first documented that banks’ venture investments have increasingly focused on fintech firms. She found that banks facing greater fintech competition are more likely to make venture investments in fintech startups. Banks target fintech firms that exhibit higher levels of asset complementarities with their own business. Finally, instrumental variable analyses showed that venture investments increase the likelihoods of operational collaborations and knowledge transfer between the investing bank and the fintech investee.

Tuesday, 26 November 2024, 13:00-14:30 JST

We have been repeatedly told that Japan is a "collectivist" or "group-oriented" society, in contradistinction to the United States and other Western countries, which are said to be "individualist." The argument strikes me as wrong, at best. After briefly rebutting the received view, I trace the genealogy of the mistaken idea and explain its cogency.

Friday, 6 December 2024, 15:00-16:30

This lecture will cover ethnographic research on Filipino trans women or transpinay before, during, and after migration in Japan from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Drawing from an intersectional invisibility (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008) framework, it will relate the Filipino trans women’s migration experiences to the cases of current issues transgender migrants are facing. This talk will also explore how social media and films create spaces to show and negotiate the (in)visibility of genders.

Wednesday, 11 December 2024 10:30-12:00 JST

Many low income countries face severe environmental problems. They also face an urgent need for tax revenue to finance social needs and economic development. Can environmental taxes provide a way to meet both objectives? Drawing on a recent book, this lecture will take stock of the most pressing of the many environmental challenges faced by low income countries—including in air quality, waste management, soil quality, deforestation, congestion, adaptation to climate change—and consider to what extent improved tax policy can simultaneously help address them and raise a significant amount of tax revenue.

Available from Friday, 13 December 2024 17:00 JST

H.E. Mr. Teimuraz LEZHAVA, Ambassador of Georgia to Japan, who has deep knowledge and insight into Japanese culture and business practices, and Professor SHIMAZU Naoko, a global historian who has studied Japan from an external perspective, will explore one of Tokyo College’s key research themes, “Japan viewed from the inside and outside.”
We invite you to join us for this insightful and engaging discussion.

Every Friday from December 1, 2023 (Available from 17:00 JST)

“The Salon” is a new dialogue series featuring distinguished scholars in the humanities at the University of Tokyo that aims to transcend disciplinary boundaries. It is hosted by Professor Naoko Shimazu of Tokyo College and Professor John Lie of UC Berkeley, who is currently staying at Tokyo College.

Wednesday, 17 January 2024, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Doors Open: 2:30 pm)

In 2018, the public toilet renovation project, “THE TOKYO TOILET (TTT)” commenced in Shibuya, Tokyo. Representing Japan and featuring 16 internationally renowned creators, including architects at the forefront, this project brought creativity and design to the often-overlooked realm of urban architecture – the public toilet. It successfully introduced new value to this object. In 2021, Mr. Yanai also initiated a new art film project to address the challenges of TTT and his debut production, “PERFECT DAYS”, earned the Best Actor award at the 2023 Cannes International Film Festival. Now the movie is currently being actively promoted for the Academy Awards. In this talk, Koji will explain why he embarked on the toilet project, what insights he gained, and why he produced a film at the end of those insights.

Wednesday, 10 January 2024 14:00-15:30 JST

In May 2023, the Prime Ministers of Japan and the UK sealed "an enhanced UK - Japan global strategic partnership," pledging to strengthen "the free and open international order based on the rule of law." Is this a realistic objective for two distant, mid-sized, island nations in an increasingly contested, volatile world? How much can their partnership really contribute to international rulemaking or tackling global issues? Can it indeed safeguard either party’s national security or prosperity? How should we measure the results?

Every Wednesday from November 1, 2023 (Available from 17:00 JST)

What constitutes groundbreaking research in a university setting? Tokyo College postdoctoral fellows will be conducting interviews with UTokyo professors in the UT7 research group to find out how they are engaging in new forms of research driven by curiosity and ultimately contributing to the evolution of our understanding of life.

Tuesday, 5 December 2023, 15:30-17:00 JST

In 2015, British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke of a ‘Golden Era’ in UK-China relations. In 2022, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak officially declared this over and his government has portrayed China as posing an epoch-defining challenge to the international order. How have British views towards China – both inside and outside government and in the press – evolved and diverged during this turbulent period? How best should Britain engage with, or disengage from, China to sustain British interests and values?

Tuesday, 5 December, 13:00-14:30 JST

Japanese companies are both criticised and praised for holding large cash balances. Globally companies have increased cash hoarding, but Japan remains an outlier. This lecture looks at Japanese companies’ saving and its economic effects, including on labour’s share of national income.

Monday, 27 November 2023, 15:00-16:30

CCTV cameras are installed almost everywhere in Tokyo and other Japanese cities, and private security systems, introduced in the 1980s, are now standard in most homes. Surveillance is also embedded in everyday life, work, and play and has become “a way of seeing” and influences “ways of being seen.” In this presentation Prof. Robertson explores how and why AI-enabled entertainment and surveillance technologies have become fused, and speculates on the consequences of their triangulation.

Monday, 20 November 2023, 2:00-4:00pm

In this webinar, we will introduce the toolkit and delve into critical topics confronting law enforcement agencies. These include ethical considerations, transparency, privacy protection, anti-bias measures, and security assessments related to the implementation of AI systems. Given the growing international interest in AI governance, we anticipate that the discussion will extend to Japanese law enforcement agencies. We aim to explore the future directions for AI utilization within Japanese law enforcement while raising awareness of these pivotal issues among various agencies, organizations, and businesses leveraging AI technology.

Thursday, 26 October 2023, 19:00-21:00 JST (London: 11:00-13:00; Sao Paulo: 7:00-9:00am; New York: 6:00-8:00am)

The new award-winning translation of The Bankruptcy by Júlia Lopes de Almeida makes this novel available to Anglophone readers for the very first time. To celebrate its publication, this symposium will gather the translators and editor of the novel together with scholars in translation and literary studies to discuss the state of world literature today and the role played by translation in Brazil, Japan and beyond.

Tuesday, 24 October 2023, 10:30-12:00 JST

The so-called 'K' culture originating from South Korea has gained popularity not only in Japan but also globally. This talk will focus on understanding this current situation in the context of political, economic, and societal changes in South Korea since the late 1990s. By doing so, it will provide an opportunity to shed light on the relationship between culture and democracy in contemporary South Korea, and offer some modest insights for contemplating the often turbulent Japan-Korea relations.

Friday, 20 October 2023, 16:00-17:30 JST

Over the past 15 years, a massive transformation of the international tax framework has occurred. Traditional instruments have been modified and completed by new rules aiming to better fight tax evasion and tax avoidance. These changes have also fostered tax cooperation between authorities. What will happen to this reform in a context of geopolitical fragmentation and crisis of global governance?

Tuesday, 3 October 2023, 16:30-18:00 JST

Artificial intelligence already has the potential to revolutionize healthcare in the near-future. This talk introduces Prof. Hosio’s work on digital health, highlighting the convergence of different digital technologies, some ongoing case studies on mental health, and crowdsourced, massively scalable online experiments exploring the cross-cultural differences and human factors.