Culture and Society Course (taught in English)

Gender, Sexuality and Migration in Japan

Migration is one of the most significant aspects of globalization.

Japan has sent its people overseas throughout modern history and has accepted many migrants both in the past and present, even though the government officially claims that it does not have an immigration policy. Especially in the last few decades, Japan has witnessed a phenomenon known as the “feminization of international migration,” which will be one of the key topics of our class. We will explore Japan’s globalized social relations by focusing on gender and sexuality.

Globalization, Gender and the Transformation of Japan's Post-war Employment Regime

In the context of globalization, Japan's political, economic and social

structures have undergone profound changes in recent decades. In particular, economic globalization and neoliberalism have significantly destabilized Japan's traditional economic and social system, in ways that have brought about decades of economic stagnation, increased inequality, and a demographic crisis. This lecture will explore the

challenges globalization has posed for Japan's employment and welfare model and the impacts of these challenges for women in particular. 

Rie HOGETSU

Gender and Health in Contemporary Japan

This class aims to examine the relationship between gender and health status primarily in the West and Japan. We will discuss how social and cultural factors contribute to health inequalities between the sexes and examine the relationship between gender-related health behaviors and health status. Considering health through the lens of gender enables a deeper understanding of health issues in contemporary societies.

Friday, July 30th

Kazuyoshi CHIBA

Reproductive Biology and Technology

In this class, I will discuss the biological reason why sexual conflict occurs between females and males. Next, I will outline medical procedures of assisted reproductive technology such as in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection and discuss how such medical treatment affects humankind.

Yoko TOTANI

Gender Representation in Contemporary Japanese Culture

This course will examine gender representation in contemporary Japanese culture (representational culture and art, including subcultures). Students will watch visual materials (images, articles, videos, etc.) distributed in advance, analyze them, considering gender representation and sexuality issues in contemporary Japanese society, and then discuss them in the online class.

Gender Issues in Japan as seen through the Five Scapes of Global Cultural Flow

In this lecture, we will focus on gender issues in contemporary Japan

from a socio-cultural perspective while using the theory of "five scapes of global cultural flow," which was originally proposed by cultural anthropologist, Arjun Appadurai. Based on observations of flows of people, technology, ideas, finance, and media in regard to various topics, we will discuss globalization, glocalization, and relocalization of gender in contemporary Japan.

Monday, July 26^th

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Medicinal chemistry research and drug discovery

Medicinal chemistry is a significant research field for drug discovery, and its purpose is the development of novel bioactive molecules, including the design, chemical synthesis and biological evaluation. In this lecture, the speaker will show the fundamentals of medicinal chemistry and also our research on the development of the nuclear receptor ligands as an example of the medicinal chemistry research in academia.

Tuesday, July 27^th

Introduction to DNA sequence analyses

DNA sequences play an important role in determining how organisms　function and how they evolved. Biological databases of increasingly broad range of organisms are now publicly available used to predict function, origin and relationship of unknown DNA sequence.  This course will introduce you to the world of sequence analyses by searching the DNA sequence database, retrieving sequence data, aligning the sequences to determine how each sequence differs, and constructing phylogenetic trees to estimate the relationship of DNA sequences

Wednesday, July 28^th

How to make your brain smarter

Astrocytes are a ki^th nd of glial cell, and for a long time, we thought they are just supporting cells for neurons, such as maintenance of the extracellular environment and energy supply to neurons. But now we know they are doing more than that. Our lab has developed a system to observe both neuronal and astrocytic activities using calcium fluorescence imaging in living mice. When we electrically stimulate the brain with a weak direct current, calcium levels in astrocytes go up, which subsequently makes the transmission between neurons more efficient and enhances the mice's sensory functions. But detectable neuronal activities didn’t show any obvious changes during stimulations. Also, animals with more developed intelligence and cognitive functions, like cats or humans, have more astrocytes per neuron. That is why we think astrocytes are essential for brain functions

Thursday, July 29^th

Molecular robotics: programming matter at the nano- and micro-scale

Molecular robotics is an emerging research field that focuses on designing specific interactions at the molecular level. By mixing carefully created molecules, we can perform computation, actuation (movement) and structural assembly at the nano- and micro-scale. This lecture will give a brief overview of the field and of the methods used for designing those systems.

Friday, July 30^th

Data science in the atmosphere

Weather and climate serve as suitable examples of data science in our daily lives. Because we have to deal with a tremendous amount of data in atmospheric sciences, state-of-the-art information technology may lead us to deeper understandings of nature. In this lecture, the speaker will show some examples of how we could understand nature of the atmosphere from the view point of physical science, and some possible ways to apply computer science to our problems.

Monday, August 2nd

Probing atomic and subatomic structures with scattering experiments

Development of modern science including physics, chemistry and biology owes much to technological advancements to probe structures at the atomic scale. Experimental study of the molecular and crystal structure, or even subatomic (nuclear) structure relies on scattering experiments. In scattering experiments, one detects how light or particle beam changes energy or direction when passing through the material or colliding with the target particle. It is a non-trivial task to relate the measured data to the microscopic structure of the system. Here, the theoretical modeling and data analysis techniques become crucial. In this seminar, I explain some concepts necessary to describe the microscopic world, basics of particle scattering taking into account the wave-like nature of quantum mechanical particles and analysis methods used for the interpretation of data.

21 June

Self-introduction

Pair Work

25 June

My University

Pair Work

28 June

Group Meeting

Group Work

2 July

Project Proposal

Group Work

9 July

Mid-term presentation video

Group Work

12-16 July

Online session with the Lecturer

Group Work

21 July

Japanese Affairs

All members

23 July

Final presentation video

Group Work

24 July

Special Lecture

All members

31 July

Special Lecture

All members

5-6 August

Q&A Session

All members