Asia Institute - Research Publications
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ItemIntroduction: Transnational Civil Society in Asia(Routledge, 2021)This chapter discusses the theoretical aspects of transnational civil society in Asia examined in the volume along with providing a succinct overview of the content chapters. The chapter first provides a definitional discussion of transnational civil society in Asia, followed by the presentation of the four key themes covered in the chapters: (1) local transformations and connections; (2) diaspora politics; (3) cross-regional initiatives and networks; and (4) global actors and influences. The chapter also poses the question of whether we are witnessing a kind of grassroots regionalization developing in the region.
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ItemCivil Society in Japan(Oxford University Press, 2021)This chapter discusses civil society in contemporary Japan, shedding light on two major actors—NPOs and social movements. Since the launch of the first NPO (nonprofit organization) in 1998, the number has increased dramatically. The analysis focuses on co-production, a policy collaboration technique between NPOs and the Japanese government under the framework of New Public Governance. Social movements are also examined, focusing on anti-nuclear activism—one of the most consistent activisms in Japan, which has been reignited since the nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011. In particular, this chapter presents a brief reflective account of the No Nukes Asia Forum, a pan-Asian transnational activism that originated in Japan.
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ItemJapanese NPOs and the State Re-examined: Reflections Eighteen Years On(Amsterdam University Press, 2020)This volume focuses on the new and diversifying interactions between civil society and the state in contemporary East Asia by including cases of entanglement and contention in the three fully consolidated democracies in the area: Japan, ...
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Item‘Community power’: Renewable energy policy and production in post-Fukushima Japan(Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2020)Japan has assumed a central position within global discourses on energy since the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that caused radiation leakage from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This disaster singlehandedly destabilised energy policymaking and production practices in Japan. Before this disaster, many people in Japan, including myself, never gave much thought about energy, and only individuals with some reason to be worried about energy issues engaged in discussion about energy. However, people from a broader cross section of society joined the conversation after the disaster. They started learning about how the electricity system works – how electricity is generated and how it is consumed. Before the 11 March disaster, if and when the general public discussed electricity, it was mostly within the context of global climate change; in other words, how to reduce carbon emissions. Unlike coal and natural gas plants, nuclear energy does not involve carbon emissions during the generation of electricity. Such energy generation reflected an ideal pursuit of development and growth, which dominated our lifestyle over the post-Second World War period. However, the post-disaster landscape reshaped our values and ways of living at the grassroots level. People began to engage in more insightful political debates.
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ItemIntroduction: Envisioning new frontiers in Japanese Studies(Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2020)The introductory chapter clarifies this book’s aims and scope. By ‘new frontiers in Japanese Studies’ we are referring to a shift in geographical emphasis from the United States and the United Kingdom to countries in the Asia-Pacific region through the integration of multiple perspectives on Japanese society from hereto scholarly underrepresented areas. We also envision ‘new frontiers’ as a repositioning of Japanese Studies from ‘outsiders looking in’ to ‘insiders looking out’. Lastly, we perceive a ‘new frontier’ in Japanese Studies as a decisive movement away from the idea that people working in Japanese Studies are primarily presenting case studies while eschewing theoretical contributions to knowledge. Ultimately, this chapter proposes that scholarship should go beyond methodological nationalism – an assumption that the nation-state is the natural and necessary form of society in modernity. To re-conceptualise Japanese Studies, we will open up new horizons by demonstrating how we can make the empirical investigation of border crossings and other transnational phenomena possible. The methodology we employ in this book is in line with Yoshio Sugimoto’s notion of ‘cosmopolitan methodology’ (presented in Rethinking Japanese Studies, Routledge 2018). In so doing, we make Japanese Studies ever more multicultural, multilingual, interdisciplinary and transnational in nature