German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo (DIJ) Podcast

This lecture puts the Great East Japan Earthquake into perspective by analysing it in the context of other major disasters. Using micro- and neighborhood-level data from four disasters in three nations over the 20th and 21st centuries, this talk will investigate standard theories of recovery and resilience. Bivariate, time series cross sectional, and matching analyses show that more than factors such as individual or personal wealth, aid from the government, or damage from the disaster, the depth of social capital best predicts recovery. Social capital works through three main mechanisms: elevating voice and suppressing exit, overcoming collective action barriers, and providing informal insurance. Should social networks prove the critical engines before, during, and after disaster, this suggests a new approach to disaster mitigation for NGOs, individuals, and governments.

Daniel P. Aldrich is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University on leave for the academic year 2012  ̶  2013 as a Fulbright research professor at Tokyo University. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from Harvard University, an M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published two books (Site fights and Building Resilience) and more than 80 peer reviewed articles, book chapters, reviews, and OpEds in locations such as the New York Times, CNN, and the Asahi Shinbun.

This lecture puts the Great East Japan Earthquake into perspective by analysing it in the context of other major disasters. Using micro- and neighborhood-level data from four disasters in three nations over the 20th and 21st centuries, this talk will investigate standard theories of recovery and resilience. Bivariate, time series cross sectional, and matching analyses show that more than factors such as individual or personal wealth, aid from the government, or damage from the disaster, the depth of social capital best predicts recovery.

This lecture highlights recent developments in international and comparative happiness, with particular focus on work, marriage and family in Japan. Our empirical study uses large-scale international data set to examine the determinants of happiness in a comparative perspective. We hypothesize that welfare states redistribute happiness among policy-targeted demographic groups in these countries. We apply multi-level modeling and focus on public social expenditures (as percentage of GDP) as proxy measures of state intervention at the macro-level, and happiness as the specific measure of welfare outcome at the micro-level. We find that aggregate happiness is not greater in the welfare states, but happiness closely reflects the redistribution of resources in these countries. Happiness is “transferred” from low-risk to high-risk individuals. For example, women with small children are significantly happier, but single persons are significantly less happy in the welfare states. This suggests that pro-family ideology of the welfare states protects families from social risk and improves their well-being at the cost of single persons. Further, we find that the happiness gap between high versus low-income earners is considerably smaller in the welfare states, suggesting that happiness is transferred from the privileged to the less privileged.

This lecture highlights recent developments in international and comparative happiness, with particular focus on work, marriage and family in Japan. Our empirical study uses large-scale international data set to examine the determinants of happiness in a comparative perspective. We hypothesize that welfare states redistribute happiness among policy-targeted demographic groups in these countries. We apply multi-level modeling and focus on public social expenditures (as percentage of GDP) as proxy measures of state intervention at the macro-level, and happiness as the specific measure of welfare outcome at the micro-level. We find that aggregate happiness is not greater in the welfare states, but happiness closely reflects the redistribution of resources in these countries. Happiness is “transferred” from low-risk to high-risk individuals.

A growing number of older persons in Japan today lack reliable future caretakers of their family grave. By performing numerous memorial rites and maintaining their family grave, the bereaved typically transform the family dead into benevolent ancestors. Then, what will happen to those whose ashes are not interred in a family grave? In this lecture, I will examine one alternative to the family grave system—the scattering of ashes conducted by a citizen’s group, the Grave-Free Promotion Society (Sōsō No Jiyū O Susumeru Kai). Contrary to the common assumption that childless people usually elect ash scattering, a number of the Society’s members have adult children. What are the views of people who have adopted the scattering of ashes as a way of disposing of their own remains? Given that a grave remains a symbolic locus of familial continuity, the scattering of ashes seems to challenge the cherished ideas of filial piety and respect toward ancestors. By “returning to nature” through ash scattering and joining a benevolent force larger than their small family, older urbanites seek self-sufficiency in their postmortem world and attempt to lighten the survivors’ ritual burden to maintain family graves. Ash scattering ceremonies reveal people’s attempts to remake their ties with their family, and serve as windows onto new patterns of generational relations in low fertility Japan.

A growing number of older persons in Japan today lack reliable future caretakers of their family grave. By performing numerous memorial rites and maintaining their family grave, the bereaved typically transform the family dead into benevolent ancestors. Then, what will happen to those whose ashes are not interred in a family grave? In this lecture, I will examine one alternative to the family grave system—the scattering of ashes conducted by a citizen's group, the Grave-Free Promotion Society (Sōsō No Jiyū O Susumeru Kai). Contrary to the common assumption that childless people usually elect ash scattering, a number of the Society's members have adult children. What are the views of people who have adopted the scattering of ashes as a way of disposing of their own remains? Given that a grave remains a symbolic locus of familial continuity, the scattering of ashes seems to challenge the cherished ideas of filial piety and respect toward ancestors.

We have been witnessing new trends of business activities. One of them is involving those who are lacking resources. The best example is poverty-reducing business (base of the pyramid = BOP) in developing countries. In the past, businesses involving the poor were too risky and costly to make any profit. Then, why did firms come to engage in such activities? I argue that firms came to successfully develop viable business models to reduce risks and transaction costs. This transformation involved a sequence of diverse changes, starting with those in socio-economic values, such as sustainable development, triple bottom line, and human security in the 80s and the 90s, and then advancing to the development of new institutions, which functioned to reduce risks and transactions costs. BOP business models are the natural outcome, making use of such transformation. But this transformation is made possible by using such methods as:

- a multi-stakeholder approach with complementary and cross-boundary collaboration among firms, NGOs and international organizations;

- a good governance approach based on equality, transparency and accountability; and

- an action-oriented and appropriate approach based on the rationality of stakeholders.

I shall give some examples of how BOP businesses operate in India. Then, for the recovery and reconstruction of disaster-stricken Tohoku area, I have developed a few projects in which I apply similar concepts and tools as a coordinator of multi-stakeholders based on local rationality. In a country where business activities for those who are lacking resources are not important, I shall try to see how institutional substitutes are made and who actors are.

We have been witnessing new trends of business activities. One of them is involving those who are lacking resources. The best example is poverty-reducing business (base of the pyramid = BOP) in developing countries. In the past, businesses involving the poor were too risky and costly to make any profit. Then, why did firms come to engage in such activities? I argue that firms came to successfully develop viable business models to reduce risks and transaction costs. This transformation involved a sequence of diverse changes, starting with those in socio-economic values, such as sustainable development, triple bottom line, and human security in the 80s and the 90s, and then advancing to the development of new institutions, which functioned to reduce risks and transactions costs. BOP business models are the natural outcome, making use of such transformation. But this transformation is made possible by using such methods as: a multi-stakeholder approach with complementary and cross-boundary collaboration among firms, NGOs and international organizations;

a good governance approach based on equality, transparency and accountability; and an action-oriented and appropriate approach based on the rationality of stakeholders. I shall give some examples of how BOP businesses operate in India. Then, for the recovery and reconstruction of disaster-stricken Tohoku area, I have developed a few projects in which I apply similar concepts and tools as a coordinator of multi-stakeholders based on local rationality. In a country where business activities for those who are lacking resources are not important, I shall try to see how institutional substitutes are made and who actors are.

How are women around the world coping with, learning about and sharing information they need or encounter to become ideal mothers? Would you believe 50 percent of them say they would rather give up their engagement ring than their mobile or PC connection? Based on an eight year research project entitled “Real Mothers” in Japan, in addition to this current study involving over 40 focus groups across 14 countries and an extensive survey of over 9,000 mothers in eight countries, this project delves into the nature of the “Mommy Economy” and the ambitions and desires of today’s mothers.

This lecture will help your understanding of:

- The role that today’s mothers see themselves playing;

- Their abilities, desires and readiness to share information conducive to their social worth;

- How mothers of Japan, China, USA and other countries compare in coping with the balancing act of life, understanding them as triathletes in the way they are taking on the convergence of their roles of ‘family-me’, ‘self-me’, and ‘work-me’.

How are women around the world coping with, learning about and sharing information they need or encounter to become ideal mothers? Would you believe 50 percent of them say they would rather give up their engagement ring than their mobile or PC connection? Based on an eight year research project entitled "Real Mothers" in Japan, in addition to this current study involving over 40 focus groups across 14 countries and an extensive survey of over 9,000 mothers in eight countries, this project delves into the nature of the "Mommy Economy" and the ambitions and desires of today's mothers.This lecture will help your understanding of:

The role that today's mothers see themselves playing; Their abilities, desires and readiness to share information conducive to their social worth; How mothers of Japan, China, USA and other countries compare in coping with the balancing act of life, understanding them as triathletes in the way they are taking on the convergence of their roles of 'family-me', 'self-me', and 'work-me'.