SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Titles link to accepted versions for download
F1000Research 2021, 10:1164
Harassment on the Internet, particularly on social media such as Twitter, has reached a level where it can, without exaggeration, be characterised as a real-world societal problem in Japan. However, studies on this phenomenon in the Japanese language environment, especially adopting a victim-centric perspective, are rare. In this paper, we incorporated the concept of online harassment and reviewed existing studies about online harassment from Japan and abroad. We then conducted a detailed case analysis of the “flaming” of a female journalist and those who targeted her on Twitter. Based on our analysis, we observed that there were three layers of users who targeted the journalist: influencers, users who responded to the instigation by influencers, and trolls. Each harassed the journalist, but in a different manner. Given Japan’s particular difficulty of imposing domestic regulations on social media companies that are mostly from abroad, we propose and describe possible measures that individuals and their employers should consider taking.
2 November, 2020, Tokyo Review
More research into Girls Channel would be needed to understand if and how its users represent Japan’s “silent majority” – not least of all understanding whether users are truly made by “girls” in their 20s-30s as the company claims. But it strongly suggests that many Japanese women are driven politically by more than economic and gender issues. It might be easy to dismiss Girls Channel as frivolous or not representative of the mainstream, but this would shut ourselves off from a valuable source for understanding grassroots opinion and opinion-shapers.
15 March 2019, NORTIA Network Conference EU-Japan, Tokyo Japan
Does foreign investment pose a threat? If so, what are those threats? Based on an analytical framework developed from existing literature of economics, international political economy and international relations, this paper analyses EU’s perception on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and its newly established investment screening scheme. The paper shows industrial growth is translated as political power and scientific knowledge, thereby national prestige that determines the country’s national prestige as well as its international positions. Control of this ‘resource’ by a foreign company is regarded as controlling of a host nation’s political power & international prestige, therefore a threat in a symbolic sense. The case analysis of EU showed EU lacks sufficient research on technology leak or inflow from a foreign country, as well as implications of the third country’s government owning and controlling the investing company.
海外直接投資は脅威になり得るのか—欧州の欧州の対内投資規制制度を例に—
CAN FOREIGN INVESTMENT POSE THREATS? EU'S PERCEPTION AND INVESTMENT SCREENING SCHEME
防衛学研究 Defense Studies Vol.60, pp.21-41, 2019
本稿では、技術と安全保障をめぐる諸問題の一例として技術流出に焦点をあてた投資規制制度を検討した。海外直接投資は、冷戦終結後経済のグローバル化が進み、多国籍企業が台頭していくという現実を後追いする形で進み、経営・経済面での正の効果が強調されてきた。企業は資源、市場、効率、戦略資産の追及のため海外投資を行うが、途上国の企業にとっては戦略的資産を得ることが海外投資の重要な動機となる。投資受入国にとっては海外直接投資の影響は正負混ざったものになり得る。受入国と投資企業は互いに影響を及ぼし、時には政治的取引も厭わないような存在であり、権力関係として一概にまとめることは難しい、複雑な関係性をもつ。国際政治経済のアクターとしての多国籍企業は、経済ナショナリスト的な観点に基づくと投資受入国側の地元産業から機会を奪う脅威とみなされ、従属論においても投資受入国から資産を収奪する存在だと捉えられる。したがって中国の近年の経済外交は、元々戦略的な性格を持つ上に、手法が強制的、収奪的でかつ政府の外交目標に直結しているため、多国籍企業論、経済学、国際関係論のいずれから見ても「問題の多い」形態の海外直接投資であるとみなされる。技術に対する外国企業の投資は特別な側面があり、特定の国の先進技術という資源の管理権が外国企業に渡ることは、外国企業が投資受入国の名声に影響を及ぼすことを意味し、とりわけ象徴的な意味での脅威と捉えられる。
こうした理解に基づき、ＥＵの投資規制制度の形成プロセスを検討した結果、ＥＵはあたかも外国企業がＥＵに対し一方的な権力関係を持っているような見方をしている一方、ＥＵにとって外国からの投資が問題になるのは「欧州の技術・インフラ・機器・機微な情報に対して悪影響をもたらす」ためという、極めて象徴的な意味での安全保障上の脅威として認識していた。これは技術や工業生産を行う能力が政治的権力や国家の名声に繋がるという考えに依拠する。実際の投資審査制度は、ＥＵが各加盟国に対して行使しうる権限は必ずしも大きくなく、ＥＵの役割は、域内の政治的・経済的権力関係に配慮し、より弱い立場に置かれたＥＵ加盟国に対する情報共有や代替案の提示という程度に留まっている。これは、いみじくも審査枠組みで言及されているとおり「国家安全保障は加盟国各自の責任」であり、技術流出がもたらしうる安全保障上の脅威は、地域共同体ではなく国家という単位でより強く切実に共有される認識であることを示唆している。
Japan has practised economic diplomacy with tools such as development assistance to achieve its economic security and to promote the developmental state model abroad. The process of making foreign policy contextualised and reinforced the norms, for both Japan’s domestic and international audiences. Japan today tries to promote science and technology as a main catalyst for creating industries and supporting its domestic, export-oriented economy. This is based on Japan’s own interpretation of its historical path and economic success and is also used to justify its engagement in the Arctic, a region where Japan does not have any sovereign territories.
How does a state that is not a ‘natural’ Arctic or Antarctic state perceive the polar regions, interpret their roles in its foreign policy and translate this into actual polar policy? This paper seeks to answer these questions by comparing the Arctic and Antarctic policies of Japan. Japan, as a defeated power and a late-comer to the international system established after World War II, takes a liberal position in the governance of Antarctica. Having and maintaining a capability to conduct scientific research in the Antarctic via international decision-making institutions has been considered an important status marker associated with great power identity. Japan attempts to replicate the general success of its Antarctic policy towards the Arctic, backed by tools of science and technological diplomacy, the purpose of which is to revive its domestic economy. Japan's scientific whaling in the Antarctic is primarily a domestic, identity-based political conflict between a nostalgia for Japan's imperial past and its more modern, liberal identity of today.
Palgrave Macmillan: London, 2016
This book examines the growing interest by Asian states, which are normally considered as ‘outsiders’ in the Arctic governance system. Whilst existing research asserts that Asian states are mostly interested in the economic aspect of the changing Arctic, including its mineral and fossil sources and the opening up of new sea routes, the book argues that the relation between Asian states and the Arctic is much more complex and dynamic, grounded in their unique perspective on national security and the role of economic development in securing their national interests.
THE ARCTIC POLICY OF CHINA AND JAPAN: MULTI-LAYERED ECONOMIC AND STRATEGIC MOTIVATIONS
This paper attempts to present and compare the various components of the Arctic policies of China and Japan. The analysis shows the Chinese and Japanese governments are in the gradual process of consolidating their Arctic policies, but both China and Japan see the Arctic less as a strategically crucial point from the traditional security perspective, but more from the viewpoint of economic security and development. In addition, their perspectives manifest themselves slightly differently from one another. China is willing to invest more in the Arctic. Japan is willing to build on the achievements it has made so far, maintaining its low-profile position as a non-Arctic or non-coastal state, while at the same time emphasising Japan’s past contribution to Arctic research.
TRAJECTORIES OF JAPANESE AND SOUTH KOREAN ENVIRONMENTAL AID: A COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
Environmental aid has become a major component of development aid. We analyzed the contingent characters of environmental aid of Japan and South Korea using the definition of Williams, which regards aid policy as donor driven and autobiographical of the donor agencies and societies from which they sprang.
in Lassi Heininen (Ed.), Arctic Yearbook 2012, Northern Research Forum: Akureyri, Iceland, pp.93-103, 2012 (with Stewart Watters).
Japan has a long history in polar research and this is acknowledged and encouraged by the Japanese government. However, the Japanese government has not created a unified, cross-ministerial task force operating within a unified strategy. This stems from the particular characteristics of Japanese government administration, where ministerial horizontal cooperation is rare, and where business and industry interests often play a critical role. The overarching ambition of Japan's Arctic policy is to plant seeds in order to secure interests in the future.
in Lassi Heininen (Ed.), Arctic Yearbook 2012, Northern Research Forum: Akureyri, Iceland, pp.103-113, 2012 (with Stewart Watters).
The paper analyses the extent to which Singapore has an Arctic policy and what factors may be driving that policy. We find that Singapore has considerable economic and political interest in the development of international maritime policy, including the Arctic, and is concerned by the potential local impacts of the climate change already visible in the Arctic. As a developmental state, there are close links between Singapore's state institutions and major commercial enterprises. Singapore's competence in the management of complex port infrastructure and the fostering of global leaders in the offshore marine and engineering industry are of particular note in analyzing factors driving the Singapore government's interest in the Arctic's potential.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THAILAND: LESSONS FROM IMPLEMENTING LOCAL AGENDA 21 IN THREE CITIES
This article examines the effect of development assistance programs on Local Agenda 21 (LA21) programs in three municipalities of Thailand.