Syllabus Search Result

The purpose of this study group is to study the structure of Chinese and changes due to external factors, and to find out how to connect them to Chinese education.

This seminar is aimed at those who are interested in the politics, economy, society, culture and history of Europe, in particular the German speaking areas, and wish to learn more about them, as well as those who wish to draw implications from the cases of Europe in order to seek solutions to various issues facing Japan today.

This research project corresponds to research on any of the following (1) and (2).

(1) China study
(2) Study on civil society, intermediate organizations such as NGOs, and religions.

This is because my research is targeting on religious NGOs in China. If you think you have interests related to these areas, you are welcome to contact us.

**********

Alasdair MacIntyre said the modern world lacks a moral foundation. To be precise, I suspect that the system of politics and markets, not the whole modern world, lacks a moral foundation. Modern liberalists believe that reason freed humans from the "prejudice" of customs and beliefs. Therefore, the system that liberalism envisions must be value-neutral, not bound by customs or beliefs. On the other hand, they also believe that the system should not intervene in the choices of individuals in the lifeworld. Therefore, in principle, liberal nations such as the United States and Japan maintain the separation of church and state in the system and protect the freedom of religion and thought in the lifeworld. As a result, in the liberal system, monetary value becomes the de facto standard, not the morals of customs and beliefs. Economic growth, materially affluent life, and maintaining security and national defense so as not to threaten them are top priorities.
Therefore, there is no moral foundation. In fact, even if someone say that "liberalism ends up in utilitarianism," I believe, "realists" like T. Hobbs would not object it. On the other hand, idealistic liberalists like I. Kant, J. Rolls and J. Habermas were trying to say, "Morality can be derived from the reason." Habermas is seriously thinking how to derive morals explicitly verbalized by reason from the customs and beliefs that are freely spoken in the lifeworld, how to reflect them in the system, and what kind of communication is possible for that purpose ,and he insists that "those who have religious beliefs should translate and send out rational expressions unrelated to their beliefs."
On the other hand, authoritarian systems based on nationalism or/and socialism have emerged while denying liberalism as egoism. Authoritarianism does not drive customs and beliefs out of the system, but determines the only correct belief with its own authority. The origins of their "justice" are idols like ethnic community or revolutionary classes.
Then, we are in a dire situation. In liberalism, we are subordinate to the idol of money, and in authoritarianism, we are subordinate to the national idol. So, back to McIntyre, the question is, "Where is morality?"
Personally, I don't think we are hopeless. From a Habermas perspective, there is a living morality in the lifeworld. However, I also think, "Is there really a communication process that changes it into an explicit language?" "Is there a need to reflect it in the system?" If the lifeworld has the strength to compete with the monetary idols and state-owned idols of the system, we can resist with fortifying our lifeworld, and I think that resistance means our freedom and independence. R. Bellah said we have unverbalized moral consciousness in the lifeworld.
So, I am doing this kind of research, focusing on how far religious practices can continue to create new moral consciousness in the lifeworld. I believe it is possible even in a country like China.

After the end of the Cold War, it became possible to proceed the real regional studies and the regional studies has been done actively in the academic society, because now we can visit many areas where we could not visit easily during the Cold War period and the ideology and bias have been already declined. However, the position of regional studies has never secured its academic position in the academic society. One of the reasons is that many regional researchers claim that their areas are special and unique; and the regional studies tend to remain unilateral information dissemination. Certainly, the more you study a certain area, the clearer the distinctiveness of the area become, so it is natural that such a tendency has been strengthen. However, it will end with self-satisfaction of the local researchers, and we cannot expect the development of regional studies.

Therefore, this seminar will try to apply regional studies to more general academic context seeking dialogue and fusion of regional studies and academic disciplines. To give an example, in the case of that you choose regional conflict as the research theme, it would be needed study whole problems such as history, political problems, economics, religion, ethnic problem, social problems, geopolitical problems and so on, in the area, because the reasons of conflicts are really complicated. In addition, trying to generalize by comparing with other cases or regions, applying some disciplines, making general theories and so on would be also important. I would like to stress not to complete regional research by regional research alone, but make it available in a wider academic context, enable dialogue with experts from other regions and researchers of other disciplines, and make academic contributions.

For this aim, we will study general theories or discussions by reading books, and hear and discuss about each students’ research. All students must participate to the reading, make presentation and write term paper or graduate thesis on individual research.

Hirose's regional field is the former USSR, so I can make give the good comments on the regional studies on the former USSR or Yugoslavia, however all students who want to study everywhere are welcome.

Based on the understandings on the origin and the characters of the Japanese employment system, this seminar focuses on issues and problems on the labor policies which are in the middle of great changes of the social environment and those of individuals, and tries to propose answers to the issues.
The examples of changes of the social environments are as follows: population shrinking and aging, technology innovation, impacts caused by the COVID-19.
The examples of changes in the individual sides are as follows:ideas and choices on working styles as well as carriers, and views of lives.

In recent years, the development of information and communication technologies such as Internet, mobile phone , IoT and 5G has promoted information access and made our life more convenient. What makes today's information and communication social infrastructure so developed is the formulation and implementation of digital policies over the years.
In this seminar, we will discuss a wide range of trends related to digital society, digital policy, and the usage of digital media and new technologies, including 5G use cases, the metaverse, ChatGPT, and more. We will also enhance our understanding of the policy formation process and various issues in the media industry in countries such as Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea. Our research methods will involve case study analysis, questionnaire survey analysis, and social media data analysis. We welcome the participation of students who are capable of or interested in learning the aforementioned analysis methods.

In recent years, the development of information and communication technologies such as Internet, mobile phone , IoT and 5G has promoted information access and made our life more convenient. What makes today's information and communication social infrastructure so developed is the formulation and implementation of digital policies over the years.
This seminar will extensively discuss the latest topics of digital society and digital policy, such as the use examples of the 5G, Metaverse, NFT,Web3.0. We will also think about policy-making processes and media industry issues in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and other countries.

This seminar is targeted at those who are learning and have learnt German and are interested in the society, culture and history of the German-speaking areas.

Nowadays the problems related to the functions of family and their solutions are widely discussed in Japan. As a background of such a situation, we may point out that the traditional gender division of labour, 'men work, while women stay at home', still exists. When and how was it established? Such family form is called the 'modern family'. What kind of influence has the 'modern family' had on not only the institutions and policies but also behavioural norms and lives of the people? This seminar is targeted at those who want to explore the answers of these questions by relating the declining birthrate and aging population in methods for historical or sociological research.

GIGA students (or English speaking students) are welcome to join to the seminar. The main working language of this seminar is Japanese. However, students are also encouraged to make presentations, join discussion, write reports in English as well (semi-bilingual environment). Be aware that basic understanding of Japanese language will be recommended to fully participate in this seminar.

The seminar "International Security and Global Governance" (A-type/4 credits) aims at enhancing the understanding of contemporary international politics and security in the world through examining theories, policy frameworks and practices. Students are required to proactively pursue your own research agenda, participate in the crisis simulation exercise, contribute in group-works, and write a term research paper.

The international system has undergone significant changes. 15 years ago (around 2003), when the United States was recognized as “unipolar moment”, main subjects of international security are interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as international coordination on counter-terrorism. The globalization and deepening economic interdependence created notions for regional integration in Europe and Asia.

However, with the global shift of distribution of power, the United States no longer maintains unipolar structure. The rise of China challenges the existing region and global order. Middle East is in mess. The momentum of European integration has largely been waned as the result, but not limited to, of the Brexit. Geopolitical and historical tensions still linger in Northeast Asia.

We are now entering in the era where we need to change the prism/framework of looking into the world and regional affairs. Examples include: 1) from US-centric power and order to multi-actor equilibrium, 2) from traditional deterrence to multi-layered anti-access and denial, 3) from ‘legacy’ military capability to high-tech, cyber, and space technologies, 4) from liberal international order to non-liberal state capitalism, 5) redefinition of ‘global commons’ (maritime order, cyber and space). This seminar will grapple squarely with emerging agendas that we face in 2010s and 2020s.

Below are examples of themes for the ‘group-work’ for this semester:
The rise of China and the change of international system
North Korea’s nuclear and missile developments
Current trends of international terrorism
The agenda for peace-building

This seminar will be held together with the seminar of Professor Tajima Eiichi. Students who take this seminar are encouraged to make presentations on their research, give comments to other students' presentations.

This research project corresponds to research on any of the following (1) and (2).

(1) China study
(2) Study on civil society, intermediate organizations such as NGOs, and religions.

This is because my research is targeting on religious NGOs in China. If you think you have interests related to these areas, you are welcome to contact us.

**********

Alasdair MacIntyre said the modern world lacks a moral foundation. To be precise, I suspect that the system of politics and markets, not the whole modern world, lacks a moral foundation. Modern liberalists believe that reason freed humans from the "prejudice" of customs and beliefs. Therefore, the system that liberalism envisions must be value-neutral, not bound by customs or beliefs. On the other hand, they also believe that the system should not intervene in the choices of individuals in the lifeworld. Therefore, in principle, liberal nations such as the United States and Japan maintain the separation of church and state in the system and protect the freedom of religion and thought in the lifeworld. As a result, in the liberal system, monetary value becomes the de facto standard, not the morals of customs and beliefs. Economic growth, materially affluent life, and maintaining security and national defense so as not to threaten them are top priorities.
Therefore, there is no moral foundation. In fact, even if someone say that "liberalism ends up in utilitarianism," I believe, "realists" like T. Hobbs would not object it. On the other hand, idealistic liberalists like I. Kant, J. Rolls and J. Habermas were trying to say, "Morality can be derived from the reason." Habermas is seriously thinking how to derive morals explicitly verbalized by reason from the customs and beliefs that are freely spoken in the lifeworld, how to reflect them in the system, and what kind of communication is possible for that purpose ,and he insists that "those who have religious beliefs should translate and send out rational expressions unrelated to their beliefs."
On the other hand, authoritarian systems based on nationalism or/and socialism have emerged while denying liberalism as egoism. Authoritarianism does not drive customs and beliefs out of the system, but determines the only correct belief with its own authority. The origins of their "justice" are idols like ethnic community or revolutionary classes.
Then, we are in a dire situation. In liberalism, we are subordinate to the idol of money, and in authoritarianism, we are subordinate to the national idol. So, back to McIntyre, the question is, "Where is morality?"
Personally, I don't think we are hopeless. From a Habermas perspective, there is a living morality in the lifeworld. However, I also think, "Is there really a communication process that changes it into an explicit language?" "Is there a need to reflect it in the system?" If the lifeworld has the strength to compete with the monetary idols and state-owned idols of the system, we can resist with fortifying our lifeworld, and I think that resistance means our freedom and independence. R. Bellah said we have unverbalized moral consciousness in the lifeworld.
So, I am doing this kind of research, focusing on how far religious practices can continue to create new moral consciousness in the lifeworld. I believe it is possible even in a country like China.

We discuss how information and communications technologies change our life.

We discuss how the rise of information society changes our life.

This class will approach the Chinese language from a sociolinguistic angle. Sociolinguistics is a field that attempts to elucidate language in terms of its relationship with society, and its research targets range from familiar linguistic phenomena to language variation, multilingual use, language inheritance, language policy, language services, and more.

My own research topics that I have worked on/am working on include language policy for ethnic minorities, language evaluation attitudes, language use attitudes, attitudes toward the use of nominal terms for women, language services in Nagano Prefecture, and strategies for "refusal" in Chinese. In addition, the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence has become one of the most important topics in foreign language education. Therefore, this study group will also treat research on Chinese language education as one important issue.

The workshop will operate in the following sequence
(1) Students will read and critically analyze the literature related to the theme that they (or their team) will address in their project.
(2) Divide into projects, formulate themes, and derive hypotheses.
(3) Design and conduct effective research to substantiate hypotheses.
(4) Summarize the results of the investigation and report the findings.

This seminar is targeted at those who are learning and have learnt German and are interested in the society, culture and history of the German-speaking areas.

Nowadays the problems related to the functions of family and their solutions are widely discussed in Japan. As a background of such a situation, we may point out that the traditional gender division of labour, 'men work, while women stay at home', still exists. When and how was it established? Such family form is called the 'modern family'. What kind of influence has the 'modern family' had on not only the institutions and policies but also behavioural norms and lives of the people? This seminar is targeted at those who want to explore the answers of these questions by relating the declining birthrate and aging population in methods for historical or sociological research.

GIGA students (or English speaking students) are welcome to join to the seminar. The main working language of this seminar is Japanese. However, students are also encouraged to make presentations, join discussion, write reports in English as well (semi-bilingual environment). Be aware that basic understanding of Japanese language will be recommended to fully participate in this seminar.

The seminar "International Security and Global Governance" (A-type/4 credits) aims at enhancing the understanding of contemporary international politics and security in the world through examining theories, policy frameworks and practices. Students are required to proactively pursue your own research agenda, participate in the crisis simulation exercise, contribute in group-works, and write a term research paper.

The international system has undergone significant changes. 15 years ago (around 2003), when the United States was recognized as “unipolar moment”, main subjects of international security are interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as international coordination on counter-terrorism. The globalization and deepening economic interdependence created notions for regional integration in Europe and Asia.

However, with the global shift of distribution of power, the United States no longer maintains unipolar structure. The rise of China challenges the existing region and global order. Middle East is in mess. The momentum of European integration has largely been waned as the result, but not limited to, of the Brexit. Geopolitical and historical tensions still linger in Northeast Asia.

We are now entering in the era where we need to change the prism/framework of looking into the world and regional affairs. Examples include: 1) from US-centric power and order to multi-actor equilibrium, 2) from traditional deterrence to multi-layered anti-access and denial, 3) from ‘legacy’ military capability to high-tech, cyber, and space technologies, 4) from liberal international order to non-liberal state capitalism, 5) redefinition of ‘global commons’ (maritime order, cyber and space). This seminar will grapple squarely with emerging agendas that we face in 2010s and 2020s.

Below are examples of themes for the ‘group-work’ for this semester:
The rise of China and the change of international system
North Korea’s nuclear and missile developments
Current trends of international terrorism
The agenda for peace-building

This seminar is based on the study of China from historical and sociological perspectives. We will analyze Chinese issues in modern and contemporary history during the past 100 years, and examine current social problems through the dynamic analysis of grassroots politics and local culture, as well as the daily lives of ordinary people.

Every week we will discuss the literature which students should read in advance. Students are encouraged to present their research plan and give comments to other students’ presentations. Through presentations and discussions, students can learn not only about research perspectives on China studies but also how to conduct independent research. Furthermore, the students will gain the knowledge and skills on how to write an academic paper.

For your information, a sub-seminar will be held in conjunction with Prof. Tajima. The object of the sub-seminar is to read theoretical material on sociology and history.

This research project corresponds to research on any of the following (1) and (2).

(1) China study
(2) Study on civil society, intermediate organizations such as NGOs, and religions.

This is because my research is targeting on religious NGOs in China. If you think you have interests related to these areas, you are welcome to contact us.

**********

Alasdair MacIntyre said the modern world lacks a moral foundation. To be precise, I suspect that the system of politics and markets, not the whole modern world, lacks a moral foundation. Modern liberalists believe that reason freed humans from the "prejudice" of customs and beliefs. Therefore, the system that liberalism envisions must be value-neutral, not bound by customs or beliefs. On the other hand, they also believe that the system should not intervene in the choices of individuals in the lifeworld. Therefore, in principle, liberal nations such as the United States and Japan maintain the separation of church and state in the system and protect the freedom of religion and thought in the lifeworld. As a result, in the liberal system, monetary value becomes the de facto standard, not the morals of customs and beliefs. Economic growth, materially affluent life, and maintaining security and national defense so as not to threaten them are top priorities.
Therefore, there is no moral foundation. In fact, even if someone say that "liberalism ends up in utilitarianism," I believe, "realists" like T. Hobbs would not object it. On the other hand, idealistic liberalists like I. Kant, J. Rolls and J. Habermas were trying to say, "Morality can be derived from the reason." Habermas is seriously thinking how to derive morals explicitly verbalized by reason from the customs and beliefs that are freely spoken in the lifeworld, how to reflect them in the system, and what kind of communication is possible for that purpose ,and he insists that "those who have religious beliefs should translate and send out rational expressions unrelated to their beliefs."
On the other hand, authoritarian systems based on nationalism or/and socialism have emerged while denying liberalism as egoism. Authoritarianism does not drive customs and beliefs out of the system, but determines the only correct belief with its own authority. The origins of their "justice" are idols like ethnic community or revolutionary classes.
Then, we are in a dire situation. In liberalism, we are subordinate to the idol of money, and in authoritarianism, we are subordinate to the national idol. So, back to McIntyre, the question is, "Where is morality?"
Personally, I don't think we are hopeless. From a Habermas perspective, there is a living morality in the lifeworld. However, I also think, "Is there really a communication process that changes it into an explicit language?" "Is there a need to reflect it in the system?" If the lifeworld has the strength to compete with the monetary idols and state-owned idols of the system, we can resist with fortifying our lifeworld, and I think that resistance means our freedom and independence. R. Bellah said we have unverbalized moral consciousness in the lifeworld.
So, I am doing this kind of research, focusing on how far religious practices can continue to create new moral consciousness in the lifeworld. I believe it is possible even in a country like China.

GIGA students (or English speaking students) are welcome to join to the seminar. The main working language of this seminar is Japanese. However, students are also encouraged to make presentations, join discussion, write reports in English as well (semi-bilingual environment). Be aware that basic understanding of Japanese language will be recommended to fully participate in this seminar.

The seminar "International Security and Global Governance" (A-type/4 credits) aims at enhancing the understanding of contemporary international politics and security in the world through examining theories, policy frameworks and practices. Students are required to proactively pursue your own research agenda, participate in the crisis simulation exercise, contribute in group-works, and write a term research paper.

The international system has undergone significant changes. 15 years ago (around 2003), when the United States was recognized as “unipolar moment”, main subjects of international security are interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as international coordination on counter-terrorism. The globalization and deepening economic interdependence created notions for regional integration in Europe and Asia.

However, with the global shift of distribution of power, the United States no longer maintains unipolar structure. The rise of China challenges the existing region and global order. Middle East is in mess. The momentum of European integration has largely been waned as the result, but not limited to, of the Brexit. Geopolitical and historical tensions still linger in Northeast Asia.

We are now entering in the era where we need to change the prism/framework of looking into the world and regional affairs. Examples include: 1) from US-centric power and order to multi-actor equilibrium, 2) from traditional deterrence to multi-layered anti-access and denial, 3) from ‘legacy’ military capability to high-tech, cyber, and space technologies, 4) from liberal international order to non-liberal state capitalism, 5) redefinition of ‘global commons’ (maritime order, cyber and space). This seminar will grapple squarely with emerging agendas that we face in 2010s and 2020s.

Below are examples of themes for the ‘group-work’ for this semester:
The rise of China and the change of international system
North Korea’s nuclear and missile developments
Current trends of international terrorism
The agenda for peace-building

After the end of the Cold War, it became possible to proceed the real regional studies and the regional studies has been done actively in the academic society, because now we can visit many areas where we could not visit easily during the Cold War period and the ideology and bias have been already declined. However, the position of regional studies has never secured its academic position in the academic society. One of the reasons is that many regional researchers claim that their areas are special and unique; and the regional studies tend to remain unilateral information dissemination. Certainly, the more you study a certain area, the clearer the distinctiveness of the area become, so it is natural that such a tendency has been strengthen. However, it will end with self-satisfaction of the local researchers, and we cannot expect the development of regional studies.

Therefore, this seminar will try to apply regional studies to more general academic context seeking dialogue and fusion of regional studies and academic disciplines. To give an example, in the case of that you choose regional conflict as the research theme, it would be needed study whole problems such as history, political problems, economics, religion, ethnic problem, social problems, geopolitical problems and so on, in the area, because the reasons of conflicts are really complicated. In addition, trying to generalize by comparing with other cases or regions, applying some disciplines, making general theories and so on would be also important. I would like to stress not to complete regional research by regional research alone, but make it available in a wider academic context, enable dialogue with experts from other regions and researchers of other disciplines, and make academic contributions.

For this aim, we will study general theories or discussions by reading books, and hear and discuss about each students’ research. All students must participate to the reading, make presentation and write term paper or graduate thesis on individual research.

Hirose's regional field is the former USSR, so I can make give the good comments on the regional studies on the former USSR or Yugoslavia, however all students who want to study everywhere are welcome.

We discuss international relations and students research their own topics.

We discuss how the rise of information society changes our life.

We discuss international relations and students research their own topics.