Dear Colleagues:

You are cordially welcome to the following lectures (open to the public)

subject: Two Special lectures in Osaka: "Japan's cultural diplomacy" and "Japan‒U.S. War Crisis over Hawaii in 1897"
from: Yone Sugita (sugita[at]lang.osaka-u.ac.jp)

Osaka University Special Lecture Program http://sugita.us/Otmazgin.html
Time: 19 July 2013 (Fri) 13：00 - 14：30
Place: Academic Seminar Room, 3F, Building E, Minoh Campus, Osaka University http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/index.html (access map) http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/minoh.html (campus map)
(#3 building in the campus map)
Distinguished Guest: Dr. Nissim Otmazgin（Senior Lecturer at the Department of East Asian Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem）
http://www.japan-studies.org/215554/nissim-biodata

Lecture title: Geopolitics and Soft Power: Japan's Cultural Diplomacy in Asia

Synopsis: This talk will examine Japan’s cultural policy and cultural diplomacy policy in Asia over a period of 100 years. Specifically, the focus of the investigation is on three main periods: before and during the Pacific War, in the post-war period, and since the mid-1980s. Looking at the fluctuations in Japan’s cultural diplomacy over these three periods allows us to understand how Japan has used cultural policy and cultural diplomacy to further its geopolitical goals and more basically how it has viewed the role of “culture” in the context of its relations with Asian neighbors. In a broader sense, the Japanese experience shows that a country's cultural policy, even when inward looking is closely link to geopolitical considerations and international ambitions, regardless of the political system under which it operates.

Dr. Nissim Otmazgin is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of East Asian Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Chair of the Israeli Association for Japanese Studies (IAJS). His PhD dissertation (Kyoto University, 2007), which deals with the export of Japan’s popular culture to Asia, won the Iue Asia Pacific Research Prize in October 2007 for outstanding dissertation on society and culture in Asia. He is the author of Regionalizing Culture: the Political Economy of Japanese Popular Culture in Asia (forthcoming, University of Hawai'i Press) and published articles in a number of leading international journals including International Relations of the Asia Pacific, Asia-Pacific Review, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Media, Culture & Society, and Contemporary Japan. Currently, he is a visiting research scholar at the Faculty of Policy Studies, DōshishaUniversity.
http://sugita.us/Otmazgin.html

Paper is available for those who will attend Dr. Otmazgin's lecture.
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Osaka University Special Lecture Program http://sugita.us/Ito.htm
Time: 19 July 2013 (Fri) 14：40 - 16：10
Place: Academic Seminar Room, 3F, Building E, Minoh Campus, Osaka University http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/index.html (access map) http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/minoh.html (campus map)
(#3 building in the campus map)
Guest Speaker: Mr. Koji ITO (Ph.D. candidate, Osaka University）
http://www.japan-studies.org/215554/nissim-biodata

Lecture title: Politics in the Dark: An Interpretation of the Japan‒U.S. War Crisis over Hawaii in 1897
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the causes of the Japan‒U.S. war crisis over Hawaii after March 1897 from the perspective of the interaction between Japan’s pursuit of national prestige and America’s overseas expansion into the Pacific. Although previous studies have tended to ascribe the causes of the war crisis to Japan’s belligerent Hawaiian policy, they have failed to refer to Japanese diplomatic documents sufficiently for their studies. This paper argues that the situation of uncertainty, in which both Japan and the United States could not perceive what had motivated the other’s Hawaiian policy with accuracy, finally led to the war crisis between the two countries over Hawaii after March 1897.
Contrary to what has often been argued, Japan’s Hawaiian policy was not based on carelessness but on prudence, and the major factor contributing to the war crisis between Japan and the United States over Hawaii was the existence of perception gaps between their respective policymakers. While the Japanese government failed to understand the U.S. government’s concerns over its Hawaiian policy, the United States wrongly interpreted that Japan’s Hawaiian policy was characterized by revisionist motivations of challenging its supremacy in Hawaii. In addition, although fear of Russian expansion motivated Japan to build a massive navy following the Sino‒Japanese War of 1894‒95, the increasing naval power of Japan played an important role in arousing the U.S. government’s suspicion on Japan’s Hawaiian policy.

Paper is available for those who will attend Mr. Ito’s lecture.

We will have a supper meeting. If you wish to attend the supper meeting, please let us know.

Contact person: Yone Sugita
sugita[at]lang.osaka-u.ac.jp