The next meeting of the Japanese History Group (JHG) at the Institute of Social Science (ISS), University of Tokyo, will be held on Thursday, September 22, at 6:00 PM in Conference Room 1 (Dai-ichi kaigishitsu) of the Institute of Social Science Building.

Presenter: Laura HEIN (Professor, Northwestern
University)

Title: Cosmopolitan Local Political Culture in Postwar Japan

Discussant: UNO Shigeki (Professor, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo)

Abstract:

This project explores the ways that leftwing economists helped shape new forms of political culture (defined as both policy making and public opinion) in postwar Japan, both through their professional efforts and in their interactions with larger communities of Japanese.

In addition to their work at the national level, they did so in part by establishing or reshaping local institutions. Drawing on recent scholarship on remembrance, social-science studies, and urban/local history, I focus on Kamakura as a significant place where the new postwar "social imaginary" that modern Japan was fundamentally a peaceful, homogeneous, and middle-class society, was established.
While my project is fundamentally about production of new intellectual spaces (often theorized as civil society), such imaginative constructs also develop in real geographic spaces, which impose their own specific opportunities and challenges to people seeking change.
This lecture will focus on Masaki Chifuyu, one such economist who served as mayor of Kamakura for eight years.

6:00 P.M., Thursday, 22 September 2011
University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)
1st floor, Institute of Social Science Bldg.
Conference Room 1 (Dai-ichi kaigishitsu) For directions, please see:
http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/campusmap/cam01_12_03_e.html

The JHG is a a forum for scholars to present their research on topics related to Japanese history and culture in a bilingual English/Japanese environment. In the interest of promoting dialogue, the forum will provide a discussant chosen for his/her familiarity with the theme or approach of the presenter's research.
The JHG is open to the public.
For more information, please contact Michael Burtscher at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia
(mburtscher@ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp) or Naofumi Nakamura (naofumin@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp).