Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford

25/02/2026

On March 5, we are excited to co-convene a symposium on 'From Economic Security to Economic Statecraft: Insights from Japan, Europe, and the United States' with the Blavatnik School of Government.

Join us to hear from leading scholars and policy experts, including Aya Adachi (German Council on Foreign Relations), Michael Beeman (UC San Diego), Creon Butler (Chatham House), Victor Cha (Georgetown University), Raluca Csernatoni (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Douglas Fuller (Copenhagen Business School), Tobias Gehrke (European Council on Foreign Relations), Francesca Ghiretti (RAND Europe), Kristi Govella (University of Oxford), Akira Igata (University of Tokyo), Keisuke Iida (University of Tokyo), Robyn Klingler-Vidra (King’s College London), Claas Mertens (University of Oxford), Minako Morita-Jaeger (University of Sussex), Abraham Newman (Georgetown University), William Norris (Texas A&M University), Miguel Otero-Iglesias (IE University), Martijn Rasser (Special Competitive Studies Project), Yeling Tan (University of Oxford), Mariko Togashi (Institute of Geoeconomics), Anna Vlasiuk Nibe (University of Southern Denmark), Shino Watanabe (Sophia University), Hugh Whittaker (University of Oxford), and Jiakun Jack Zhang (University of Kansas).

To register and see further details, visit https://sites.google.com/view/economicstatecraft2026/

14/01/2026

Emeritus Professor Arthur Stockwin passed away on Wednesday afternoon (7 January) at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

He will be much missed but his legacy at both St Antony’s and the Nissan Institute will live on for a very long time

Arthur Stockwin passed away on Wednesday afternoon (7 January) at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

22/10/2025

The JF/BAJS PhD Workshop is back for 2026! This time, the workshop will be held across two days (Thursday 26 - Friday 27 February 2026) at the University of Sheffield, leaving plenty of time for our student attendees to network with their peers and academics. The theme will be ‘Navigating Your C...

20/10/2025

A reminder of today's deadline from the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee (JFEC), which supports Japan-related research across all disciplines in UK universities. Grants are open to academics and PhD students for projects that deepen understanding of Japan in any field.

02/07/2025

Professor Kristi Govella has published a new article entitled “Undersea Cables, Geoeconomics, and Security in the Indo-Pacific: Risks and Resilience.”

Undersea cables constitute the critical infrastructure of international data connectivity, transmitting over 95% of global Internet traffic, and they have attracted increasing attention from policymakers recently. How are threats to undersea cable networks evolving, and why is cable competition intensifying in the Indo-Pacific region? How is the policy discourse around undersea cables changing, and what implications does this have for the physical realities of these networks and their resilience? The article introduces a framework for understanding recent developments and presents an analysis of cross-regional trends. First, the article argues that risks to cable networks can be characterized along two dimensions—source and frequency—and that the fundamental risks to undersea cables have not changed dramatically. Instead, it is the understanding of these risks that has evolved due to securitization of the maritime and economic domains, driven partly by intensifying US-China rivalry. Second, although the extent to which the new discourse of cable securitization resonates varies across countries and companies, securitization is already reshaping the physical layout of regional cable architecture as investments are redirected to account for changing understandings of risk. Third, ensuring resilience requires a “whole life cycle” approach to cables that considers not only investment and construction but also licensing, regulation, maintenance, protection, and repair. By integrating undersea cables into broader discussions across marine policy, economics, and security, this article enables scholars and policymakers to more comprehensively assess risks and to formulate more effective solutions.

The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106809

01/07/2025

Emeritus Professor Takehiko Kariya has published a new article entitled “Higher Education and Economic Inequality in Japan: Why Boosting Financial Aid Won’t Work” on Nippon.com.

This article examines the efficacy of government measures to lower financial hurdles to secondary and tertiary education in Japan in the context of labour immobility and hierarchical recruiting systems.

The article is free to read at:
https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d01138/higher-education-and-economic-inequality-in-japan-why-boosting-financial-aid-won%E2%80%99t-work.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawLPhkxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETAxemZMalEyUjYySzlKaXE0AR4XN7GwPN8yIoWL5ovoShQtr3kzoNv1W0Cy2uqYs2JhBbQnwOtQqvY7Us2-3g_aem_aqpyiGP_2oBnNxz75Aqirg

Hoping to combat growing socioeconomic inequality, the Japanese government is working to lower financial hurdles to secondary and tertiary education. But what is the efficacy of such measures in the context of labor immobility and major companies’ rigidly hierarchical recruiting systems?

17/06/2025

Fixed term Departmental Lectureship in Japanese Studies. Details of this two year DL post can be found here

However for a comprehensive list of job opportunities around the world go to: https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop https://careerforum.net/ja/

16/06/2025

https://mailchi.mp/58b73c2e2655/keijiban-newsletter-week-8-tt-2025

We would like to share the news that Jane Baker, our much-loved Administrator at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, will be retiring in July 2025.

05/06/2025

Mobility, Migration, and Transnational Communities around the Globe -Focusing on the UK and Japan: Panel Discussion & Public Viewing of Wasurena-gusa Project Interviews

Thursday 19 June 2025, 2.40pm to 5.55pm

Basement Teaching Room 1, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Oxford University

This panel discussion and public viewing, organised by Kaori Nishizawa, lecturer in Japanese at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, focuses on the Japanese diaspora in the UK and examines who we are, we, what legacies did our predecessors and pioneers leave and how we continue and renew them. There will be a public viewing of the Wasurena-gusa Project interview recordings of the Japanese diaspora in the UK.

For more information on the project: https://wasurenagusa.org.uk

The event will be held in-person and online and will be moderated by Sarah Schalkoff, one of our students on the MPhil in Japanese Studies programme, and Toma-Jin Morikawa-Fouquet, DPhil Candidate in History.

For those interested, please register here: https://forms.office.com/e/x8y6mXbdX8

For any inquiries, please contact: [email protected]

This event is kindly supported by the The Japan Foundation, the Japan Association, and Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation.

30/05/2025

Book Launch Talk: Japan in the Early Modern World: Religion, Translation, and Transnational Relations
Wednesday 11 June, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University

Blackfriars Hall will be hosting a hybrid book launch to celebrate the release of Japan in the Early Modern World: Religion, Translation, and Transnational Relations, co-edited by Dr Pia Joliffe, Prof. Yoshimi Orii and Prof. Katja Triplett and hosted by Dr Alessandro Bianchi (former Head of the Bodleian Japanese Library). There will be a brief introduction to the book and a short panel discussion with the volume’s editors and authors over drinks and nibbles. All are welcome!

In-person registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/japan-in-the-early-modern-world-tickets-1316172089149?aff=oddtdtcreator

Online registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/nzWa9QWbQeyDOk7m7XfFJQ #/registration

For more information on the speakers: https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/event/japan-in-the-early-modern-world-religion-translation-and-transnational-relations/

29/05/2025

NISSAN SEMINAR
Anorexia nervosa in Japan today: different from 19th century England and 18th century Kyoto?
Tuesday 3 June, 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Pavilion Room, 4th Floor, Gateway Building, St Antony's College
Speaker: Prof. Aya Nishizono-Maher (Meiji Gakuin University)

Content warning: this seminar involves discussions of eating disorders.

Eating disorders are commonly regarded as a ‘modern’ and ‘slimmers’ disease’. This is a misperception. Case reports are reported from 19th century Europe. The first mention of the condition was made in a lecture by physician Dr. William Gull in Oxford in 1868. In Japan, the Kyoto physician Dr. Shutoku Kagawa wrote about non-eating illness in 1788. What do these classic cases tell us about the interaction between the biological and societal factors of this illness?

Dr. Nishizono-Maher specializes in eating disorders and post-natal mental health. She studied in the Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, worked at Keio University Hospital, Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, was visiting researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London and is currently Professor in the Faculty of Psychology, Meiji Gakuin University. She works at hospitals and public health centre. She is the author of several books on eating disorders.