On April 30, just after the beginning of Golden Week, the Shaken PhD Kenkyuukai will gather to hear from Florentine Koppenborg.* She is a PhD Candidate in Japanese Studies and Political Science at the Free University of Berlin and is spending six months at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Florentine is analyzing the twists and turns of Japanese nuclear energy policy, by examining the interests and strategies of key actors and shifts in the distribution of authority among them. She starts with policy pre-Fukushima, and takes the story through the (temporary) decision to forgo nuclear power altogether, to the current policy of trying to rebuild nuclear capacity--albeit with little hope of a full-scale restoration, and few specific details in the New Strategic Energy Plan. A key question is how far Fukushima represents a "critical juncture" in the institutional structure of nuclear policy making in Japan. Florentine's theoretical approach is based on historical institutionalism, drawing on the advocacy-coalition and bureaucratic-politics models of understanding policy change.

If convenient let me know if you are coming. The following meeting is scheduled for May 28, then June 25.

John Campbell

*Meetings of the Institute of Social Science PhD Kenkyuukai start at 12 pm on Thursdays and go to 1:30 and sometimes beyond. The Shaken provides coffee and tea and you are welcome to bring lunch. The location is room 533 on the 5th floor in the Akamon General Research (Sougou Kenkyuu) Building. The building is off to the right after you come through Akamon, or you can cut through the grounds of Ito Hall off Hongou Doori.
It is Bldg 38 on this map:

http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/about/documents/Hongo_CampusMap_E.pdf