Dear colleagues,

you are cordially invited to two upcoming DIJ Social Science Study Groups hosted by the German
Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in September.
1) On September 15th (Thu), 18.30, Julius Weitzdoerfer (Cambridge) will give a presentation on
Disaster, Law and Justice in Japan: In the Tsunami of Debt and Lost Homes. For details and full
announcement see
https://www.dijtokyo.org/event/disaster-law-and-justice-in-japan-in-the-tsunami-of-debt-and-lost-homes/ 　

2) On September 21st (Wed), 18.30, we welcome Jan Niggemeier (FU Berlin), who will give a
presentation on
Going Global, but How?Diversity in Transnationalisation Processes of Japanese Labour Activism
Social activism is not a nation state-bound phenomenon, but globally embedded. The Japanese labour
movement represents a particularly interesting case to study the relationship between global
frameworks of activism and their transformative impact on domestic activism, as it displays a much
broader diversity than institutionalist approaches can explain. While parts of the Japanese labour
movement strongly resemble their international counterparts, others remain remarkably distinct. To
explain this diversity, I elucidate the interaction between isomorphic influences of global
frameworks of labour activism and the strategic selection and adoption by different actors in the
Japanese labour movement.

On the one hand, Japanese mainstream corporatist trade union federations officially affiliate with
international labour organisations but, at the same time, are wary of any changes this might bring
to their domestic corporatist arrangement. Alternative, grassroots-level forms of labour activism
with much less formally established transnational collaboration channels on the other hand, tend to
resort to ad-hoc exchanges and through this adapt to global frameworks more flexibly.

Sociological institutionalist theory suggests that the global integration of social movements leads
to worldwide isomorphic agendas, organisational patterns, action repertoires, applied symbols and
collective identities. However, within this transformative process, unlike parts of the literature
suggest, domestic actors cannot be described merely as passive receivers of transnationalisation.
Instead, my research suggests that, they are critical agents who strategically select and control
transnational diffusion with regard to local adoption and implementation.

Jan Niggemeier is a PhD student in political science at the Graduate School of East Asian Studies at
Freie Universität Berlin. He holds a MSc in Asian Studies from Lunds Universitet and a MA in
Japanese Studies and Language from Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg and Keio University.

Presentation and discussion will be in English. All are welcome to attend, but prior registration (
mailto:heinrich@dijtokyo.org ) is appreciated. Both events start at 18.30 at the DIJ.

For directions visit http://www.dijtokyo.org/access
German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo (DIJ)
Jōchi Kioizaka Bldg. 2F, 7-1 Kioichō, Chiyoda-ku, Tōkyō 102-0094, Phone: 03-3222-5077