Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 15:30-16:30 JST

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense, even in historically less affected regions. This talk examines the drivers, consequences, and management of changing wildfire dynamics. A more flammable landscape—shaped by climate change, land abandonment, and afforestation—is intensifying fire regimes globally. While most of the 780 million hectares that burn annually are low-intensity savanna fires, high-intensity, destructive wildfires are increasing. Fire is an ancient ecological process with both benefits and harms, shaping ecosystems yet threatening lives and property. As suppression alone is insufficient, I advocate proactive adaptation through prevention, restoration, land-use planning, coordination, and improved fire literacy.

Thursday, March 5, 2026, 13:00-14:30 JST (Doors Open at 12:30)

Following LDP's historic landslide victory in Japan’s lower house election, the Takaichi administration starts deliberating a temporary consumption tax cut, which LDP pledged during the campaign. This seminar examines what these promises imply for Japan’s consumption tax system and fiscal structure more broadly. Will this be just a short-term relief measure or the first step toward deeper reform, or a combination of both?

Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 14:00-15:00 JST

The concept of transition, derived from the Latin transire, meaning “to change state,” has been employed across a wide range of fields since the nineteenth century. In contemporary discourse, it is most often associated with climate change and the notion of an “energy transition.” This lecture introduces the concept of power transition – understood as energy flow over time – to account for the rapid acceleration of eco-social change since the mid-twentieth century. It examines the unprecedented challenge of voluntarily moving away from highly powerful fossil fuels. Moving beyond purely techno-solutionist approaches, the seminar emphasizes the central role of social and human innovation. Adapting to renewable and fluctuating energy sources will require a profound rethinking of lifestyles, drawing inspiration from the long-term resilience of living organisms.

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.

Tuesday, 18 July 2023, 16:00-17:00 JST

In this talk, Prof. IMAI Mutsumi discusses how language, culture, perception, and cognition interact with one another across different domains, speculating how cultural identity might emerge though this process.

Tuesday, 18 July 2023, 17:00-18:30 JST

In this workshop, we discuss approaches to national, ethnic and personal identities in psychology and behavioral sciences. This workshop aims to present an up-to-date picture of the theory and practice of psychology in the context of relations between language and identity.

Tuesday, 11 July 2023, 15:00-16:30 JST

That we face a massive environmental crisis is widely accepted, but most people will agree that little has been done to avert it. To the extent that a solution is mooted, it is almost always techno-scientific in nature. In this lecture I suggest limitations of techno-scientific knowledge: first, in offering a belated understanding of the crisis; and, second, in vitiating non-scientific discussions and solutions.

Monday, 3 July 2023, 3:00-4:30 pm

Songbirds use learned vocal signals to communicate information about their species, their identity, and even their emotional state. We study how the songbird brain decodes this information to allow songbirds to use song for recognition, mate selection, and forming long-lasting social bonds. By doing so, we gain broad insight into the neural basis of vocal communication across animal species, including in humans.