Program for Joint Workshop among Freie Universitat Berlin, Beijing
Foreign Studies University, and the University of Tokyo 2022

Date 20th of May, 2022
9:00-12:00 (CET)
15:00-18:00 (CST)
16:00-19:00 (JST)Registration: https://forms.gle/nsuMBxoZQkXj5V6M7

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Chaired by Profs. Verena Brechinger-Talcott (FUB)and Shigeto Sonoda (UTokyo and BFSU)

Session 1 Cultural Activities and War in Modern Japan
9:00-10:00 (CET) / 15:00-16:00 (CST)/ 16:00-17:00 (JST)(1) HUANG Jiebai (D1, UTokyo) “The Lens of Empire: Fuchikami Hakuyō and theManchuria Photography Culture in the 1930s”(2) SONG Xiangyu (D2, BFSU) “Behind the Text of Japan Sinks: Connections between
Disaster and War”
Discussant： HUANG Suomi (D2, BFSU)

Session 2 Theoretical Exploration of Political Transformation inContemporary Japan
10:00-11:00 (CET) / 16:00-17:00 (CST) / 17:00-18:00 (JST)(3) TANAKA Shoko (D2, FUB) “Japanese Young Voters and Their Issue Orientations”(4) LEI Jialu (D2, BFSU) “The Change of Second Modern Japanese Politics: Based on
Case Studies of New Politics”
Discussant： HUANG Suomi (D2, BFSU)

Session 3 Questioning Japanese Nationalism and Populism
11:00-12:00 (CET) / 17:00-18:00 (CST) / 18:00-19:00 (JST)(5) George Z. GONZALEZ (D3, UTOKYO) “Beyond Nationalism: Toward a MoreConcrete Conception of Contemporary Events in Japan and the World”(6) Andreas EDER-RAMSAUER（D1, FUB）“Looking West: Japanese Political Parties
and Europe's 'Populist Moment'”
Discussant: HUANG Suomi (D2, BFSU)
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(1) The Lens of Empire: Fuchikami Hakuyō and the Manchuria Photography
Culture in the 1930s
HUANG Jiebai (D1, UTokyo)

Abstract
In the late 1910s, as the emerging Japanese empire penetrated its political and economic
influence into major cities of Manchuria such as Dairen, a number of Japanese in theseurban centers picked up their camera as an essential leisure activity and an amateur
photography culture began to emerge in major cities of Manchuria. In the coming decades,
attracted by the exotic fantasy and the utopia imaginary of Manchuria, tremendous
Japanese photography artists from the mainland visited or settled in Manchuria, and built
a career that was closely related to the imperialist regime. They produced a uniquephotography culture that complicated the field of Japanese photography art in themainland and creatively constructed a culture of empire.
Through examining the development of photography culture in Manchuria, especiallycentered on the leading artist Fuchikami Hakuyō, this presentation discusses an important
facet of the cultural history of Japanese imperialist formation. Through analyzing a seriesof encounters – between photography as a new artistic medium and the imperialist
ideology, between Japanese settlers and the “virgin land” of Manchuria, as well as
between individual and the empire - it seeks to examine how amateur photographers in
Manchuria actively appropriated photography as an essential medium to make sense of
the exotic yet crucial space of Manchuria. Additionally, it argues that thesephotographer’s artistic ambition created tension with the imperialist ideology and they
actively engaged and reconciled with the state ideology in complex ways.

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(2) Behind the Text of Japan Sinks: Connections between Disaster and War
SONG Xiangyu (D2, BFSU)
Abstract
Sakyo Komatsu (January 28, 1931-July 26, 2011) is a Japanese Science-fiction novelist，
and was a science fiction writer representing the Japanese postwar science fiction world.
This paper explores the internal connection between the “disaster” inside the text of
Sakyo Komatsu's novel Japan Sinks and the Japan history of World War II, which theauthor himself had experienced personally. Combining historical backgrounds, I analyze
the author's creative SF methods and intentions, and reveals the memories of the war
hidden behind the text of the disaster of Japan Sinks.
In Japan Sinks, Sakyo Komatsu made detailed disaster interweave with scientificgeological theory to create a near-future disaster that parallels with Japanese society in
1973. As a metaphor of disaster, the text has become a long-standing cultural topic toJapanese society due to its strong sense of reality and civilized imagination, and has been
widely read by readers of all households. But the author's thoughts about the war which
is hidden behind the “disaster text” can be ignored or even forgotten for many years.
The text of “Sinking of Japan” connotates wartime memories, which was clearly
alluded by the consistency between the locations of natural disasters such as earthquakes,
volcanic tsunamis, and the occupied territories in the US operations plan for Japan.
Furthermore, I believe that in the text, the details of earthquake disaster are highly similar
to the Tokyo air raid, which means the text of war was consciously "hidden" behind thetext of disaster.

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(3) Japanese Young Voters and Their Issue Orientations

TANAKA Shoko (D2, FUB)
Abstract
Social cleavage theory and ideological orientations have long been dominant in
explaining voting behavior in postwar Japan. However, gradual social, political, andeconomic development, including sectoral shifts, political decentralization, and added
diversity in society and economy, have made these two theories less relevant to date.
Instead, growing interest in new policy agendas and widely acknowledged independent
partisanship among young people seem to enable the issue voting model to better depict
the voting behavior of young Japanese voters. That comes in the time of aging populationand the lowering of voting age from 18 to 20, underlining the need for investigation into
alternative models of voting behavior other than the traditional two theories. Granted, myPhD research project aims to describe and explain the voting behavior of Japanese young
people through the issue voting model. I combine both quantitative and qualitative datato gain insights into young Japanese voters’ voting behavior and illustrate ways ofpolitical socialization among them. By doing so, I hope to contribute to not only election
studies and the study of political institutions in Japan, but also to youth studies andcitizenship studies.

5(4) The Change of Second Modern Japanese Politics:
Based on Case Studies of New Politics
LEI Jialu (D2, BFSU)
Abstract
Based on A. Giddens’ model of “Utopian realism”, this study constructs the second
modern political change measurement index and attempts to apply it through theempirical research on the development of new politics in Japan since the 1990s.
Indeed, enormous political changes happened in Japan. But there is still nothingprominent beyond democracy established after first modern. so faced with Fukuyama's
question of “the end of history”, it is a significant for us to consider above-mentioned
topic.
Based on the theory of “compressed modernization” and relevant empirical research,
this study takes the 1990s as the starting of Japan's second modern. In addition, I set up
three indicators of political change in the second modern era based on A. Giddens: 1.
Politics of separation 2. Politics of equality 3. Politics of the individual. According to thenew politics—the main changes of the second modern politics in western countries, I
further analyzed the new social movement, one of the main subjects of the new politics
in Japan after the 1990s and found the following changes through case studies: 1. The
independence of the new social movement in local decision-making and the assurance ofpolitical diversity in the new social movement 2. The establishment of political issues
related to the welfare of marginalized groups, 3. The development of ecology politics andgender politics confirm the universality and reference of this measurement model.

6(5) Beyond Nationalism: Toward a More Concrete Conception of Contemporary
Events in Japan and the World
George Z. GONZALEZ (D3, UTokyo)

Abstract
As scholars continue to grapple with the current socio-political situation in Japan (and theworld at large), two patterns of approach seem apparent. One is to remark on the “riseof nationalism,” describing, for example, the ascent to power of a right-wing
administration and so-called “inward” turn of the populace. A second is to express hopethat people will change this situation by embracing a liberal, open, and internationallyminded way of thinking and government. While the former seems to bring up changes
in government and popular thought as descriptors of a diagnosis already assumed to beappropriate and accurate, the latter appears to recognize the dangers of nationalism only
when it takes an explicitly right-wing or conservative form.
By analyzing the organizational identity and marketing techniques of aninternationally active Japanese NGO, I aim to push beyond both a framework of risingnationalism and hopeful reliance on liberalism as a solution.

7(6) Looking West: Japanese Political Parties and Europe's “Populist Moment”

Andreas EDER-RAMSAUER（D1, FUB）

Abstract
While post-2008 recession Europe, and “the West” more general, has been diagnosed asliving through a “populist moment,” understood as the dominance of a specific form ofanti-politics originating in a crisis of representative democracy, Japan has largely beenidentified as “populism-resistant.” While this has largely been explained by the absenceof contentious political issues, e.g. migration, or a relatively stable economy, trust-levels
in democratic institutions and participation levels fare no better than in European
countries afflicted by “populist turmoil.” Furthermore, the collapse of the Democratic
Party of Japan-led government in 2012 has resulted in a continuous and at times
tumultuous reshaping of the political party landscape. Interestingly, novel competitors
have continuously discussed party politics in Europe when describing their novelty inapproaching political representation and organizing.
This paper addresses Japan’s positionality vis-à-vis the “populist moment” byanalyzing how these political parties and actors have absorbed and re-interpreted theEuropean “populist moment.” Based on a discourse-theoretical grounding, we will
analyze how these interventions have reshaped or reproduced hegemonic understandingsof political representation and democratic practice in Japan. The study contributes to anunderstanding of transnational links and the spread of ideas on political organizing anddemocratic representation.

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