EVENT

Wednesday, 26th November, 15:00-16:30 JST (14:00 Open)

Thursday, November 27, 2025, 16:00–18:00

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into society, ensuring transparency and trustworthy governance has become a key global issue. This event provides a practical introduction to preparing AI transparency reports, using the Transparency Report Handbook for AI Governance developed by the University of Tokyo’s Ema Laboratory. Participants will learn effective methods for organizing internal information, facilitating consensus, and conducting governance processes. The program also features the Hiroshima AI Process (HAIP) as an international case study of voluntary transparency reporting, and includes a session for participants to exchange insights on embedding AI governance and building global trust.

Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 15:00-16:00 JST

In 2024 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee listed the gold mines on Sado island as world heritage sites with significantly less controversy than in 2015, when the cluster of Meiji Era Industrial Revolution sites, mainly in Kyushu, were listed. At issue in both cases was the way these industrial heritage sites would describe the treatment of wartime foreign laborers, Koreans in particular, who were brought to Japan and forced to work against their will. The Sado case generated less controversy mainly because the Japanese side offered a fuller and more honest account. In this presentation I explore the reasons for this difference with particular attention to the role of local civil society actors.

Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 15:00-16:00 JST (14:30 Open)

In this interview, Tokyo College Ushioda Fellow Alastair Morgan will share with the audience some fascinating insights on three decades as a British diplomat. Retired in 2019, Alastair Morgan spent his diplomatic postings in Asia, namely Tokyo, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Pyongyang. What was his life like as a British diplomat? What were the challenges he faced in his various postings? How does a diplomat balance the needs of a local posting with the needs of Whitehall? This will be a unique opportunity to gain insight through Alastair Morgan’s reflections on his life as a British civil servant and diplomat in Asia from the 1980s onwards.

Tuesday, 5 December, 13:00-14:30 JST

Japanese companies are both criticised and praised for holding large cash balances. Globally companies have increased cash hoarding, but Japan remains an outlier. This lecture looks at Japanese companies’ saving and its economic effects, including on labour’s share of national income.

Monday, 27 November 2023, 15:00-16:30

CCTV cameras are installed almost everywhere in Tokyo and other Japanese cities, and private security systems, introduced in the 1980s, are now standard in most homes. Surveillance is also embedded in everyday life, work, and play and has become “a way of seeing” and influences “ways of being seen.” In this presentation Prof. Robertson explores how and why AI-enabled entertainment and surveillance technologies have become fused, and speculates on the consequences of their triangulation.

Monday, 20 November 2023, 2:00-4:00pm

In this webinar, we will introduce the toolkit and delve into critical topics confronting law enforcement agencies. These include ethical considerations, transparency, privacy protection, anti-bias measures, and security assessments related to the implementation of AI systems. Given the growing international interest in AI governance, we anticipate that the discussion will extend to Japanese law enforcement agencies. We aim to explore the future directions for AI utilization within Japanese law enforcement while raising awareness of these pivotal issues among various agencies, organizations, and businesses leveraging AI technology.

Thursday, 26 October 2023, 19:00-21:00 JST (London: 11:00-13:00; Sao Paulo: 7:00-9:00am; New York: 6:00-8:00am)

The new award-winning translation of The Bankruptcy by Júlia Lopes de Almeida makes this novel available to Anglophone readers for the very first time. To celebrate its publication, this symposium will gather the translators and editor of the novel together with scholars in translation and literary studies to discuss the state of world literature today and the role played by translation in Brazil, Japan and beyond.

Tuesday, 24 October 2023, 10:30-12:00 JST

The so-called 'K' culture originating from South Korea has gained popularity not only in Japan but also globally. This talk will focus on understanding this current situation in the context of political, economic, and societal changes in South Korea since the late 1990s. By doing so, it will provide an opportunity to shed light on the relationship between culture and democracy in contemporary South Korea, and offer some modest insights for contemplating the often turbulent Japan-Korea relations.

Friday, 20 October 2023, 16:00-17:30 JST

Over the past 15 years, a massive transformation of the international tax framework has occurred. Traditional instruments have been modified and completed by new rules aiming to better fight tax evasion and tax avoidance. These changes have also fostered tax cooperation between authorities. What will happen to this reform in a context of geopolitical fragmentation and crisis of global governance?

Tuesday, 3 October 2023, 16:30-18:00 JST

Artificial intelligence already has the potential to revolutionize healthcare in the near-future. This talk introduces Prof. Hosio’s work on digital health, highlighting the convergence of different digital technologies, some ongoing case studies on mental health, and crowdsourced, massively scalable online experiments exploring the cross-cultural differences and human factors.

Thursday, 21 September 2023, 15:00 - 16:30 JST

Mobility—the ability to move people, goods and information—is fundamental for all of humanity. Woven by Toyota's purpose is to deliver safe, intelligent, human-centered mobility to the world. We will discuss the variety of software-intensive systems that power this mobility, supported by an advanced, state-of-the-art vehicle software-platform.

Wednesday, 13 September 2023 15:30-17:00 JST

With the increasing public concerns on climate change and environmental sustainability, in the next decades “fossil fuel energy” will be transformed into “electron energy” with renewable electricity. This lecture will focus on three ways of addressing some of the challenges that arise with renewable energy such as its storage and irregular production. These include non-equilibrium energy and chemical conversion, materials manufacturing, and upcycling. The benefits of these processes will also be discussed relative to decarbonization and sustainability.

Tuesday, 22 August 2023, 16:00-17:30 JST

The Japanese economy faces various challenges, including stagnation, inflation, aging population, and unsustainable fiscal policy and environment. This talk will discuss how to assign effective macroeconomic policies to meet these issues.

Tuesday, 25 July 2023, 1:00-2:30pm (12:30pm Doors Open)

“Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow,” Prime Minister Kishida has warned. But how to prevent this? America’s allies, including Japan and the Philippines, are seeking to build a network of deterrence. How can this be combined with diplomacy? Could deterrence become provocation? This lecture will explain and explore these dilemmas.

Thursday, 20 July 2023, 4:00-5:30 pm

In this online launch of “Plural Entanglements: Philippine Studies,” anthropologist Dr. Dada DOCOT discusses the ethic of scholarly generosity, plurality, and diversity that frames this newly edited volume, and Dr. Grace BARRETTO-TESORO introduces their chapter that uses Indigenous perspectives to rebuild a chronology that advances a decolonial approach in the study of Asia.