Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, November 28, 2023 – 09:00 (Japan)

Sushi’s appearance in US grocery stores, usually coated in sauces and fried toppings, demonstrates how the once simple dish evolves as it globalizes. But sushi was a much different recipe 1,200 years ago when it was first mentioned in Japanese records. The likely derivation of “sushi” is “something sour” indicating that it was a fermented food, one that took months if not years to prepare. Sushi’s history can be measured by the various attempts to shorten its fermentation period to the point that nearly all sushi today is no longer fermented. Yet, in our global culinary world where everyone now craves umami, “ancient” fermented sushi holds new possibilities of flavor to enrich our understanding of the culinary past and offer new taste profiles for the future beyond what we might think possible for Japanese food.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, November 14, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

What was Japan before there was a Japan? How did it become Japan? Who shaped a diverse culture without words for religion, philosophy, or even a common language to fabricate the concepts required to educate its people to build a modern nation? Where did Japanese leaders learn these and other concepts? What was the role of traditional Asian culture? All of these questions and more will be discussed by Mr. Lance Gatling who will be joining the Getting to Know Japan series to discuss the transformative era of Meiji.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, November 9, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

The Pacific Theater also known as the Asia-Pacific War was geographically the largest theater that was fought in during World War II. This theater of the war saw Allied nations joining together to fight against Japan in some of the largest naval battles in history. Vice Admiral Yoji Koda will explain from Japan's perspective, the causes of Japan's successes and failures during this period and examine several of Japan's key battles.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, October 31, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

This presentation will explore Japan's rich culture of yokai: creatures from Japanese folklore that pop up in all sorts of places, from history to literature to anime and games to real life! Understanding the yokai will help you understand all sorts of things about Japanese daily life and culture.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, October 26, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

Tokyo is one of the planet's most vibrant and livable cities, a megacity that somehow remains intimate and adaptive. However, few outsiders understand Tokyo's inner workings compared to Western metropolises like New York or Paris. For cities around the globe mired in crisis and seeking new models for the future, Tokyo's success at balancing massive growth and local communal life poses a challenge: can we design other cities to emulate its best qualities? Jorge Almazán will address this question by presenting some of the conclusions of his recent book "Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, October 12, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

What is "Kawaii" and what is its relevance to Japanese Pop culture? Dr. Kaori Yoshida will join us to discuss this concept and how it has shaped Japanese media and entertainment.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, October 3, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

Mrs. Louie Anne Batac-Nguyen is joining the Getting to Know Japan series to [re]introduce sake: the uniqueness of its ingredients, sake culture as a reflection of traditional and modern values, sake etiquette, and exciting trends.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, September 28, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

Live in Japan long enough and you’ll see plenty of news articles about North Korea’s missile testing. Perhaps you even heard the emergency alert system earlier this year. How worried should we be about this unruly neighbor country? What does the political relationship, or lack thereof, look like between Japan and North Korea, and what implications does the North Korean threat have on Japan?
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

Cultural Anthropologist Dr. Kathryn Goldfarb will lead an introductory webinar on kinship and family in Japan, focusing on how family affiliation influences individual well-being and connects to broader issues of Japanese national and cultural identity.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, September 14, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

The Camp David Summit in mid-August was a historic moment in East Asian security. Just 4 years ago, Japan-South Korean relations were at its nadir as Seoul threatened to withdraw from GSOMIA, a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo as a culmination of longstanding historical disputes between the two neighbors. Given this trajectory, the Summit is undoubtedly significant but the question is why now? This presentation will explore this question while also touching upon its implications for East Asia security and Japan’s defense policy.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, September 5, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan) 

Colonel Jason Perry is joining the Getting to Know Japan webinar series to speak on the History of Karate in Okinawa. His presentation will discuss Post-Meiji Okinawa and the emergence of modern and traditional Karate-do (空手道) in the early-and mid-20th century.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, August 31, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

Dr. Kei Koga is joining the Getting to Know Japan series to speak on Japan's relationship with Southeast Asia. His presentation will highlight critical junctures of Japan-Southeast Asian relations after World War II and discuss the future of Japan-Southeast Asia relations in the context of intensifying US-China strategic competition.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, August 22, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

This presentation will offer an introduction to the vibrant, dynamic popular culture of Edo-period Japan (1600-1868) through the lens of two its most important cultural products: the kabuki theater and the woodblock print.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, July 25, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

YCAPS Director for Policy Research Dr. Stephen Nagy will deliver an introductory session on China-Japan relations. To provide background for current policies, Dr. Nagy will explain some of the defining moments in the relationship’s long history and discuss this within the context of former PM Shinzo Abe's death before we transition to Q&A.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, July 20, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

Dr. Abou-Khalil will explain the historical evolution of the Japan-Middle East relationship, with a particular focus on the complications involved in maintaining amicable relations amidst periods of conflict between the United States and the Middle East. She will shed light on pivotal events and conflicts that best highlight Japan’s dual challenge of preserving its alliance with the United States while safeguarding its energy interests in the Middle East.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, July 11, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

In this talk, Dr. Wallace introduces the post-war evolution of Japan’s security policy and the significance of post-2020 policy adaptations. The presentation covers historical debates about continuity and change and the role of the Koizumi and Abe administrations in driving forward Japan’s security agenda in the new millennium. It also provide reflections on why we are seeing even more transformative security policy steps being taken post-2020 even after the end of the Abe administration.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, July 06, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

Dr. Tomohiko Taniguchi will emphasize the significant role played by the late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in enhancing Japan's power across various domains such as the economy, diplomacy, and national security. He will delve into the reasons behind Abe's numerous meetings with Vladimir Putin and explore the factors that led Japan, under Abe's leadership, to forge closer ties with Israel. These are some of the questions that Dr. Taniguchi will address.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, June 27, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

During the 1980s, Japan played two critical roles in assisting the United States to execute its Maritime Strategy in the Pacific: blockading key chokepoint straits and defending the sea lines of communication. Those blockade operations made it difficult for Soviet naval forces to transit between Vladivostok and the Western Pacific. Defense of the sea lines of communication was intended to help US aircraft carrier battle groups transit the Western Pacific safely to striking positions. There was one problem, however, the US planners were concerned that Japan might decide to remain neutral in the event of a war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, June 22, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

In this talk, Professor Travis Seifman will provide an overview of the history of Okinawa / the Ryukyu Islands, from the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom through its annexation by Japan, World War II, and the Allied Occupation, to today. He will focus in particular on the complex ways that the islands have, at various times in history, been a part of Japan, apart from Japan, or, often, both at the same time.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, June 13, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

Dr. Leonard Horton, Professor of Music at Temple University, Japan Campus, will present a webinar on the traditional music of Japan. The presentation will focus on the Japanese popular music known as "enka" – its origins, its characteristics, and the transformations it has undergone during its nearly 150-year history.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, June 8, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

There is a broad consensus in government and among the public that climate change is real and that Japan must cooperate with global efforts to mitigate climate change, although there are debates about how and how fast to do this. This talk focuses Japan’s ambitious goals for reducing Green House Gases (GHGs) and renewable energy in 2030, its promise to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050, the changes this will mean, and the large challenges that Japan must overcome in order to reach its ambitious goals.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, May 25, 2023 – 20:00 (Japan)

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, seafarers who are labeled pirates in historical sources took control of many of the sea-lanes linking Japan to the rest of the world. Central to these mariners’ success were strategies of commerce, violence, and self-representation. Their histories demonstrate the significance of non-state peoples andAsian participants in making possible the global connectivity we think of as the Age of Exploration. Pirate power exerted control not only on Japan’s peripheries, but also the region known today as the Seto Inland Sea, medieval Japan’s most important trade artery.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, May 16, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

In this discussion, Captain Keizo Kitagawa will give an introductory presentation on Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his US Navy expedition to Japan. This seminar will also address the impact of Perry's "Black Ships" on 19th century Japan, the conclusion of Japans' era of isolation and the subsequent Meiji Restoration and transition into a modern state.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, May 11, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

Japan is a quiet maritime power. It is an archipelagic nation that controls a large shipping fleet and maintains one of the world’s most powerful naval forces. Tokyo was recently ranked as the world’s 5th most important global maritime city, despite having a port that is dwarfed by those elsewhere in Asia. Yet, dichotomies exist in that much of Japan’s culture is relatively inward-looking and focused on terra firma elements such as mountains and agricultural elements. John Bradford will provide an overview of Japan’s weight as a maritime state focusing on a historical narrative from 1945 to the present.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, April 27, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

What do anti-communist sound trucks, anti-imperial anarchists, anti-war teenagers, and anti-racist countermovements have in common? In this talk, Professor Smith will discuss the post-WWII history and contemporary status of several activist movements in Japan, based in part on his fieldwork since 2005 into the Japanese far right. As activist movements engage each other, lay society, the Japanese government, US-Japan relations, and Japan’s relationship with Asian neighbors, they offer insight into the dynamism of political life in contemporary Japan.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 – 10:00 (Japan)

In this talk, Dr. Levi McLaughlin will provide an overview of the numerous religious and religion-affiliated organizations that intersect with politics in Japan. He will discuss the Unification Church (and how it relates to Shinzo Abe's assassination), Shinto-affiliated nationalists (including Nippon Kaigi and its signatories), Buddhist activists (including Soka Gakkai and its affiliated party Komeito), and other actors in this sphere. Dr. McLaughlin is Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University.

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Thursday, April 13, 2023 – 19:00 (Japan)

April will be election time in many towns, cities and prefectures in Japan. There will be sound trucks repeating the candidates’s names, thinly attended rallies at train stations entrances and boards going up in front of the local elementary school with posters of politicians displaying varying degrees of determination and friendliness. Michael Cucek will be joining us to help us make sense of all the ruckus – and explore some of the larger issues dividing Japan’s political classes: decreasing populations, relative decline in economic strength, an increased defense budget, marriage equality, and more.
 

Getting to Know Japan Webinar Series (via Zoom)

Tuesday, April 4, 2023 – 10:30 (Japan)

Dr. Mike Bosack is joining the Getting to Know Japan Series to speak on the structure of Japan's government and the basics of its constitution. His presentation will help give you a lay of the land, and touch on how the current system came to fruition in the postwar period. Join us as we kick off another year of this weekly webinar series that introduces you to Japan's history, culture, and politics!