Contributing Lecturers
Under these circumstances, it is crucial to take a comprehensive view of the problems Japan has faced since the end of its high-growth period and the country’s responses. This lecture series (16 x 2h) will examine how Japanese society has attempted (or been compelled) to revamp various social and cultural systems, such as security, employment, labor culture, and religion, following the collapse of the “bubble economy.” It will also explore how these changes have affected people’s lives and consciousness from multidisciplinary perspectives.
Lectures
Publications
Stevie Poppe (KU Leuven) – The Foreign Gaze as Battleground: Media, Memory, and Disinformation in Contemporary Japan
Email: stevie.poppe@kuleuven.be
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Paola Cavaliere (University of Milan) – An overview of Religion and Politics in Japan Before and After July 8, 2022
Email: paola.cavaliere@unimi.it
Cavaliere, Paola (2026, forthcoming). “Religion, gender and social progress: notes from Japan”. In Qudsia Mirza e Susanne Scholz (eds). Law, Religion, and Social Progress in the Age of COVID-19. Routledge.
Cavaliere, Paola e Otani Junko (eds). Handbook of Disaster Studies in Japan; London: Routledge, ISBN 9789048562275.
Cavaliere, Paola. (2015). Promising practices: Women volunteers in Japanese religious civil society, Leiden: EJ Brill Publishers, Social Sciences in Asia no.39, ISBN 9789004282162.
Yutaka Yoshida (Cardiff University) – The Far-right in Far East: Narratives, Self-Concepts, and ‘Hot’ Nationalism
Email: YoshidaY@cardiff.ac.uk
Yoshida, Y. and Tozawa, E. 2025. Navigating Public History: In Contestation with Japan’s Historical Revisionism. International Public History, 8(2), 95–101. https://doi.org/10.1515/iph-2025-0028
Yoshida, Y. and Demelius, Y. 2025. Seduction of far-right actions: A pathway to an authentic self?. Crime, Media, Culture 21(2), pp. 187-210. (10.1177/17416590241245380) https://doi.org/10.1177/17416590241245380
Kristín Ingvarsdottir (University of Iceland) – Japan as a Whaling Country: Past and Present and a Comparative Icelandic Perspective
Email: kristini@hi.is
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Yuki Asahina (University of Manchester) – How Precarious is Precarious Japan?: Economic Inequality and Insecurity since the 2000s
Email: yuki.asahina@manchester.ac.uk
Meritocracy’s Children: How Inequality Leaves Young Adults Angry or Resigned in Seoul and Tokyo. University of California Press. (Forthcoming in March 2027)
The Digital Rise of the Far Right in Japan. (Co-editor with Dr. Naoto Higuchi) Manchester University Press. Forthcoming in October 2026.
Meritocracy’s Children: How Inequality Leaves Young Adults Angry or Resigned in Seoul and Tokyo. University of California Press. (Forthcoming in March 2027)
The Digital Rise of the Far Right in Japan. (Co-editor with Dr. Naoto Higuchi) Manchester University Press. Forthcoming in October 2026.
Emi Tozawa (University of Manchester) – The Negotiation Between Nationalism and Tradition in Post-War Japan from a Public History Perspective
Email: emi.tozawa@manchester.ac.uk
Emi Tozawa, ‘Can It Be a Gamechanger? Interrogating the Prospects of Decolonization Through Public History in Japan’, International Public History, 7:1: (2024), 45-52.
Emi Tozawa, ‘Shitakara no Paburikku Hisutorī : Igirisu ni okeru Rekishigaku to Hitobito no Cho sen [Public History from Below: The Case of Britain]’, Shisō, 1209 (2025), 133-47.
Emi Tozawa, ‘Visiting and Watching Silence: Popular Uses of Historical Fiction about the Christian Persecution in Seventeenth-century Japan’, in Public History in Japan: Theory and Practice, eds. by Masafumi Yokemoto, Miho Hayashi, Michihiro Okamoto, and Andrew Gordon (Singapore: Springer, 2025), pp.37-51.
Erja Kettunen-Matilainen (University of Turku) – Inclusion and societal sustainability: Employment support for people with disabilities in Japan
Email: erja.kettunen-matilainen@utu.fi
Shiho Futagami & Erja Kettunen-Matilainen, Employment and Human Resource Development of Disabled People in Japan and Finland: A Comparative Study from the Perspective of Diversity, Inclusion, and Decent Work. In: Andreosso-O’Callaghan, B., Rey, S., Taylor, R. (eds) Sustainable Development in Asia . Contributions to Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94679-1_3
Eiko Saeki (Hosei University) – Patriarchy, Paternalism, and Politics of Reproductive Autonomy: Abortion Rights in Japan from a Global Perspective
Email: saeki@hosei.ac.jp
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Christopher Bondy (International Christian University) – ‘Where Are You From?’: The Reproduction of Buraku Boundaries
Email: bondy@icu.ac.jp
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Ayaka Löschke (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) – Japan’s Civil Society Confronting Fukushima’s Enduring Effects
She is the principal investigator of the DFG-funded research project Hate Speech and the Japanese Publication Industry, starting in 2026
Email: ayaka.loeschke@fau.de
‘Administrative measures against far-right protesters: An example of Japan’s method of conflict resolution’ (2021), which received the ISS/Oxford Prize for Modern Japanese Studies
Arnaud Grivaud (Université Cité Paris) – From Political Assassination to Political Cause: The Murder of Abe Shinzō and the Rise of Anti-Cult Movements in Japan
Email: arnaud.grivaud@u-paris.fr
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Kamila Szczepanska (University of Turku) – Japan’s Foreign Policy Towards Indo-Pacific
Email: kamila.szczepanska@utu.fi
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Yōji Sato (Eurasia Foundation) – Exploration of the eternal absolute truth – Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
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Soo-Im Lee (Ryukoku University) – Foreign Workers and Immigration policy: An Comparative Perspective between Japan and the US
Email: sooimlee0202@gmail.com
Lee, Soo im. Ubawareta Zainichi Korian no Nihon Kokuseki: Nihon no Imin Seisaku o Kangaeru (The Stolen Japanese Nationality of Zainichi Koreans: Considering Japan’s Immigration Policy). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2021.
Lee, Soo im, and Lisa Rogers. Bunka to Shōtotsu: Tabunka Kyōsei no Tame ni (Culture and Conflict: Changing the World for the Better). Tokyo: Shobunsha, 2014
Agnese Dionisio (Sophia University) – Unsettled Histories, Unjust Presents: Sexual Violence and Gender Inequality in Japan
Email: dionisio.agnese@gmail.com
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