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Cover of the working paper "Korean Cuisine Gone Global," showing a bowl of noodles.

To understand the transformation of Korean food from an “ethnic curiosity” into one of the world’s hottest cuisines, the Korea Program at Shorenstein APARC brought together culinary experts and  academics at the conference “Korean Cuisine Gone Global.” Held on April 11, 2024, the event featured celebrity chef Judy Joo, a renowned television star, an international restaurateur, and owner of the famed Seoul Bird, and Ryu Soo-young, an acclaimed actor turned culinary maestro. They shared their culinary journeys and joined a lineup of esteemed scholars to offer insights into the transformation of Korean cuisine, the role of race and place in its success story, and new directions in the study of food and Korean culture. The scholars' papers have been collected in this volume.

About the Contributors

Rebecca Jo Kinney is an interdisciplinary teacher and scholar of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, and an associate professor at the School of Cultural Studies at Bowling Green State University. Kinney’s award-winning first book, Beautiful Wasteland: The Rise of Detroit as America’s Postindustrial Frontier (University of Minnesota Press, 2016), argues that contemporary stories told about Detroit’s potential for rise enable the erasure of white supremacist systems. Her research has appeared in American Quarterly, Food, Culture & Society, Verge: Studies in Global Asia, Radical History Review, and Race&Class, among other journals. Her second book, Mapping AsiaTown Cleveland: Race and Redevelopment in the Rust Belt, is forthcoming from Temple University Press in 2025. She is working on a third book, Making Home in Korea: The Transnational Lives of Adult Korean Adoptees, based on research undertaken while a Fulbright Scholar in South Korea. 

Robert Ji-Song Ku is an associate professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University (SUNY) and the managing editor of Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. His teaching and research interests include Asian American studies, food studies, and transnational and diasporic Korean popular culture. Prior to Binghamton, he taught at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and Hunter College (CUNY). He is the author of Dubious Gastronomy: Eating Asian in the USA (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014) and co-editor of Eating More Asian America: A Food Studies Reader (NYU Press, forthcoming 2025), the sequel to Eating Asian America (NYU Press, 2013). He is also co-editor of Pop Empires: Transnational and Diasporic Flows of India and Korea (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019) and Future Yet to Come: Sociotechnical Imaginaries in Modern Korea (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2021), as well as the Food in Asia and the Pacific series for the University of Hawai‘i Press. Born in Korea, he grew up in Hawai‘i and currently lives in Culver City, California. 

Jooyeon Rhee is an associate professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature and director of the Penn State Institute for Korean Studies. She specializes in modern Korean literature and culture. Her main research concerns Korean popular literature, with particular emphasis on transnational literary exchanges and interactions. Currently, she is writing her second book on cultural imaginations of crime and deviance manifested in late colonial Korean detective fiction. Her other research interests include diasporic art and literature and food studies. 

Dafna Zur (editor) is an associate professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford. Her first book, Figuring Korean Futures: Children’s Literature in Modern Korea (2017), interrogates the contradictory political visions made possible by children’s literature in colonial and postcolonial Korea. Her second project explores sound, science, and space in the children’s literature of North and South Korea. She has published articles on North Korean popular science and science fiction, translations in North Korean literature, the Korean War in children’s literature, childhood in cinema, children’s poetry and music, and popular culture. Zur’s translations of Korean fiction have appeared in wordwithoutborders.org, Modern Korean Fiction : An Anthology, and the Asia Literary Review

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Papers from Shorenstein APARC’s Korea Program Conference

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Dafna Zur
Rebecca Jo Kinney
Robert Ji-Song Ku
Jooyeon Rhee
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We are pleased to share that Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures Dafna Zur, a faculty affiliate with APARC and the Korea Program, is the recipient of the Order of Culture Merit, the highest recognition bestowed by the government of the Republic of Korea, for her promotion of the Korean language and its writing system, Hangeul.

The Order of Cultural Merit recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to Korean culture and arts, advancing national development. At Stanford, Zur teaches courses on Korean literature, cinema, and popular culture. She is the author of Figuring Korean Futures: Children’s Literature in Modern Korea (Stanford University Press, 2017), and has published articles on the Korean War in North and South Korean children’s literature, childhood in cinema, and Korean popular culture. Her new project examines moral education in science and literary youth magazines in postwar North and South Korea.

Congratulations to Professor Zur for this incredible honor! The Korea Program at APARC is enriched by Professor Zur’s important contributions to Korean Studies.

Watch the recording of the award ceremony held on Hangeul Day, October 9, 2024, in Seoul, South Korea.

 

In the Media

The Korea Herald >
KBS World Global Koreanists >

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Open Faculty Positions in Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Korean Studies, and Taiwan Studies

Stanford University seeks candidates for a new faculty position in Japanese politics and foreign policy, a faculty position in Korean Studies, and a new faculty position on Taiwan. All three appointments will be at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and affiliated with Shorenstein APARC.
cover link Open Faculty Positions in Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Korean Studies, and Taiwan Studies
portraits of Jiwon Bang and Jong Boom Lim
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13th Annual Korean Studies Writing Prize Awarded

Master's students Jiwon Bang (MA '24, East Asian Studies) and Jong Beom "JB" Lim (MS '25 Computer Science; BAS '24 International Relations and Mathematical Computational Science) are the recipients of the 13th annual Korea Program Prize for Writing in Korean Studies for their thesis papers.
cover link 13th Annual Korean Studies Writing Prize Awarded
Paul Y. Chang, FSI Senior Fellow
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Korea Expert Paul Y. Chang Joins FSI as Senior Fellow

A leading sociologist of Korea, Professor Chang’s scholarship has influenced a number of subfields such as democratization, social movements, political repression, and demographic transition.
cover link Korea Expert Paul Y. Chang Joins FSI as Senior Fellow
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The award, the highest recognition bestowed by the government of the Republic of Korea, honors Zur for her contributions to promoting the Korean writing system, Hangeul.

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APARC Predoctoral Fellow, 2024-2025
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Alisha Elizabeth Cherian joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as APARC Predoctoral Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. She is a PhD candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Stanford University. She received her BA from Vassar College in Anthropology and Drama with a correlate in Asian Studies, and her MA in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago.

Her dissertation, entitled "Beyond Integration: Indian Singaporean Public Urban Life", investigates how enforced racial integration shapes racial formations and race relations in Singapore. Her project explores everyday encounters and interactions that are structured, but not overdetermined, by the state's multiracial policies as well as colonial histories and regional legacies of Indian indentured and convict labour. With her research, she seeks to contribute to a more ethnographic understanding of how plural societies are approached both scholarly and practically.

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Visiting Student Researcher, 2024-2025
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Xinxin Lu joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting student researcher during the 2024-2025 academic year. She is currently a doctoral student in Sociology at Tsinghua University. Her dissertation focuses on "The Dying and the Chinese Family: The Economic, Moral, and Cultural Logic of End-of-Life Care in China."

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Taiwan Program Postdoctoral Fellow, 2024-2026
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Ruo-Fan Liu joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as the inaugural Taiwan Program Postdoctoral Fellow. She recently obtained her PhD in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research examines the uncertainties students encountered after Taiwan’s holistic admission reforms, and how parents and teachers activate cultural and social capital to regain admissions advantages. She is a Fulbright recipient, a former Congress party negotiator, and the author of Let the Timber Creek: An Alternative School’s Utopia for Coming Generations, selected as the top tenth best non-fictional book by China Times.

Ruo-Fan’s other line of research focuses on meritocracy and credentialism in East Asia. Her award-winning paper, “Digital Credentialism,” reveals how the symbolic power of credentials travels through online platforms to reify people’s beliefs about who is qualified, legitimated, and trustworthy.

At APARC, she will turn her dissertation, “When Ladders Move,” into a book manuscript. She will also expand her current research agenda on uncertainty and legitimacy into prescriptive recommendations for organizational hiring and talent flows. Learn more about Ruo-Fan’s work via her website and follow her on X. 

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Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) proudly announces the launch of the Taiwan Program, which will serve as an interdisciplinary research and education hub on contemporary Taiwan. The program will investigate Taiwan’s strides as a modernization exemplar and the challenges its economy and society face in seeking to drive dynamism and growth in an era marked by shifting global relations. On May 2, 2024, APARC will host the program’s inaugural conference, Innovate Taiwan: Shaping the Future of a Postindustrial Society. Registration for the conference is now open.

Mirroring the dilemmas of other postindustrial societies, Taiwan today finds itself pressed by multiple imperatives. These include the need to generate novel economic competitiveness models amid rapid technological advancement and declining multilateral cooperation, address changing demographic realities, foster cultural diversity and tolerance, fulfill the action pathway to achieve net-zero emissions, and create the institutional and policy conditions to enable these adaptations. The Taiwan Program will explore how Taiwan can effectively address these challenges and seize the opportunities they afford for it to remain at the forefront of vibrancy and progress in the 21st century. 

Housed within APARC, part of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), the Taiwan Program will pursue a mission encompassing research endeavors, education and learning initiatives, and exchange opportunities. By investing in these three core areas, the program will produce interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research to understand and address Taiwan’s challenges of economic, social, technological, environmental, and institutional adaptation in the coming decades; prepare the next generation of students to become experts on Taiwan; and facilitate meaningful interactions between Stanford faculty, researchers, and students with their Taiwanese counterparts and with policy experts, industry leaders, and civil society stakeholders in Taiwan. In all these areas, the program will leverage APARC’s expertise and networks and build upon the center’s strong track record of academic research and policy engagement with East Asia. This includes leveraging the proven model and rich experience of APARC’s esteemed programs on contemporary China, Japan, and Korea.

We aim to foster research-practice partnerships between the United States and Taiwan while contributing to Taiwan's long-term development.
Gi-Wook Shin
APARC Director

"The Taiwan Program underscores our commitment to deepening understanding of and engagement with Taiwan,” said Gi-Wook Shin, the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea and director of APARC. “We aim to foster research-practice partnerships between the United States and Taiwan while contributing to Taiwan's long-term development," added Shin, who is also a professor of sociology, a senior fellow at FSI, and director of the Korea Program at APARC.

The program will be led by a distinguished scholar of contemporary Taiwan to be recruited by the university in an international search. APARC will soon announce its inaugural postdoctoral fellow on contemporary Taiwan, who will help organize the program’s activities in the next academic year. The new program is made possible thanks to tremendous support from several Stanford donors who care deeply about Taiwan’s role on the global stage and U.S.-Taiwan relations. 

"We are profoundly grateful to our supporters for their partnership and commitment to advancing understanding of Taiwan and the U.S.-Taiwan relationship in this pivotal Asia-Pacific region," noted Shin. “This new investment will help us establish a world-leading program on Taiwan at Stanford.”

To inaugurate the new program, APARC will host the conference "Innovate Taiwan: Shaping the Future of a Postindustrial Society." Held on May 2 at the Bechtel Conference Center in Encina Hall, this full-day event will convene esteemed academic and industry leaders to engage in panel discussions covering topics such as migration, culture, and societal trends; health policy and biotechnology; economic growth and innovation; and the dynamics of domestic and international Taiwanese industries. Visit the conference webpage to learn more and register to attend in person.

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Robert Carlin, Siegfried Hecker, and Victor Cha
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A Perilous Crossroads: Deciphering North Korea's Escalating Belligerence

Amid North Korea’s increasing provocations, APARC’s Korea Program hosted three experts — Robert Carlin, Victor Cha, and Siegfried Hecker — to consider whether Pyongyang plans to go to war.
cover link A Perilous Crossroads: Deciphering North Korea's Escalating Belligerence
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Decoding Japan's Pulse: Insights from the Stanford Japan Barometer

The Asahi Shimbun is publishing a series highlighting the Stanford Japan Barometer, a periodic public opinion survey co-developed by Stanford sociologist Kiyoteru Tsutsui and Dartmouth College political scientist Charles Crabtree, which unveils nuanced preferences and evolving attitudes of the Japanese public on political, economic, and social issues.
cover link Decoding Japan's Pulse: Insights from the Stanford Japan Barometer
Panelists discuss the US-Japan alliance
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A Pivotal Partnership: The U.S.-Japan Alliance, Deterrence, and the Future of Taiwan

A panel discussion co-hosted by Shorenstein APARC and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA examined the key dynamics at play in the unfolding regional competition over power, influence, and the fate of Taiwan.
cover link A Pivotal Partnership: The U.S.-Japan Alliance, Deterrence, and the Future of Taiwan
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The program will explore policy-relevant approaches to address Taiwan’s contemporary economic and societal challenges and advance U.S.-Taiwan partnerships.

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Taiwan skyline at dawn with logo of the Taiwan Program and text about the conference "Innovate Taiwan: Shaping the Future of a Postindustrial Society"

*Please note, registration for this event has closed.*

A conference to inaugurate the Taiwan Program at Shorenstein APARC

As Taiwan seeks to stimulate vitality and progress in an era defined by shifting global dynamics, it grapples with a myriad of challenges akin to those that other postindustrial societies face. How can Taiwan innovate its economic competitiveness and refashion collaboration networks amid rapid technological transformations and diminishing globalization? What strategies can it employ to adapt to vast demographic changes? How can it cultivate cultural diversity?

Join us in person to discuss these questions and more at a full-day conference celebrating the launch of the new Taiwan Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

Hear from esteemed academic and industry leaders as they delve into topics including demography and migration, societal trends, health policy and biotechnology, economic growth and innovation, and the dynamics of domestic and international Taiwanese industries. 

Watch this space for updates on the agenda and confirmed speakers.

9:00 - 9:15 a.m.
Opening Session

Opening remarks

Gi-Wook Shin
Director of Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University

Congratulatory remarks

Richard Saller
President of Stanford University


9:15-10:45 a.m.
Panel 1: Migration, Culture, and Societal Trends        
    
Panelists 

Pei-Chia Lan
Distinguished Professor of Sociology, National Taiwan University

Ruo-Fan Liu
Ph.D. Candidate at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Incoming Postdoctoral Fellow at Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University

Jing Tsu
Jonathan D. Spence Chair Professor of Comparative Literature & East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University

Moderator
Kiyoteru Tsutsui
Deputy Director of Shorenstein APARC and Director of the Japan Program, Stanford University


10:45-11:00 a.m.
Coffee and Tea Break


11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Panel 2: Health Policy and Biotechnology

Panelists 

Ted Chang
CTO of Quanta Computer

Bobby Sheng
Group CEO and Chairman of Bora Pharmaceuticals

C. Jason Wang
Director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention
LCY Tan Lan Lee Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy, Stanford University

Moderator
Karen Eggleston
Director of the Asia Health Policy Program, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University


12:30-2:00 p.m. 
Lunch Break


2:00-3:00 p.m.  
Panel 3: Taiwan at Stanford and Beyond

Panelists 

Tiffany Chang
Undergraduate Student in Management Science and Engineering
Research Assistant at Shorenstein APARC , Stanford University

Carissa Cheng
Undergraduate Student in International Relations, Stanford University

Yi-Ting Chung
Ph.D. Student in History, Stanford University

Moderator
Marco Widodo
Undergraduate Student in Political Science, Stanford University


3:00-3:30 p.m. 
Coffee and Tea Break


3:30-5:00 p.m.    
Panel 4:  Economic Growth and Innovation

Panelists

Steve Chen
Co-Founder of YouTube and Taiwan Gold Card Holder #1

Jason Hsu
Edward Mason Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School
Former Legislator of the Legislative Yuan Taiwan

CY Huang
Founder and President of FCC Partners

Rose Tsou
Former Head of Verizon Media International and E-Commerce
Former Regional Head of Yahoo APAC
Former General Manager of MTV Taiwan

Moderator
Larry Diamond
Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University


5:00 - 5:30 p.m.    
Social Networking Session
 

Bechtel Conference Center
Encina Hall, First floor, Central, S150
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305

Conferences

Registration for this event has closed. 

"Korean Cuisine Gone Global" conference banner with portraits of headliners celebrity chefs Judy Joo and Ryu Soo-young and headshots of the other speakers. In the background, an image of bibimbap bowl.

Featuring celebrity chefs Judy Joo and Ryu Soo-young


The conference, "Korean Cuisine Gone Global," seeks to understand the recent transformation of Korean food from an “ethnic curiosity” into one of the hottest cuisines in the world. Scholars and celebrity chefs will share insights into how food traverses national and cultural boundaries and introduce new directions in the study of food. The three scholars will look at the role of the Korean diaspora in extending and complicating the question of national identity and highlight the role of race, place, and power in the success story of Korean cuisine. The celebrity chefs will share their personal journeys and address questions about what makes Korean food unique, how it has changed over the years, and how they innovate and stay creative. 

When registering, please be sure to read carefully the terms and conditions for attendance.

Members of the press should follow the media advisory below. For press/media inquiries, please contact aparc-communications@stanford.edu.

This event is made possible by generous support from the Korea Foundation and friends of APARC.

Join the Korea Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University for an in-person half-day conference, featuring two panels with academics and celebrity chefs.

12:30 - 1:00 p.m.
Registration check-in opens

1:00 - 1:15 p.m.
Welcome

Gi-Wook Shin
Director, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University 

1:15 - 2:45 p.m.
Session 1: New Directions in Food Studies

Robert Ku, Associate Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies, Binghamton University, SUNY
"Actually, My Mother Really Didn’t Like 'Jjajangmyeon': Diaspora and the Desire of Noodles in the Age of K-pop"

Jooyeon Rhee, Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania State University
"Minor Kitchen and the Stickiness of Zainichi Korean Food Route"

Rebecca Kinney, Associate Professor, School of Cultural and Critical Studies, Bowling Green State University
"Transnational Tastemakers in the Seoul Food Scene: Korean Adoptees and the Language of Food"

Moderated by Dafna Zur
Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University

2:45 - 3:15 p.m.
Break

3:15 - 4:45 p.m.
Session 2: Celebrity Chefs on the Globalization of Korean Food

Judy Joo, Chef and Entrepreneur

Ryu Soo-young, Actor and Chef (interpreter: Raymond Ha)

Moderated by Soh Kim
Director of Food Design Lab, Stanford University

Conferences
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Noa Ronkin
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Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) is pleased to unveil the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), an interdisciplinary initiative committed to producing evidence-based, actionable policy research to facilitate structural reform and propel Asia toward a future defined by growth, maturity, and innovation. Based at APARC and led by sociologist Gi-Wook Shin, the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, SNAPL seeks to tackle pressing social, cultural, economic, and political challenges facing Asian countries, including aging populations, escalating inequality, brain drain, environmental threats, and institutional deficiencies in areas like the rule of law and cultural intolerance.

"SNAPL represents a significant milestone in our commitment to building research networks that engage academics, policymakers, business leaders, and civil society organizations interested in regional and global perspectives on contemporary Asia," said Shin, who is also the director of APARC and the Korea Program within APARC. “Through an interdisciplinary, solution-oriented, and comparative lens, we aim to set a research and policy agenda to help Asian nations create their unique roadmaps to becoming and remaining innovation-driven economics at the center of 21st-century dynamism and growth. At the same time, we believe that research on Asia could uncover important implications and lessons for the United States and European countries as they grapple with their own social, cultural, economic, and political challenges.”

Combining theoretical and field studies, SNAPL researchers will initially examine issues such as the prospects for reform of educational institutions, immigration policy, and cultural attitudes in Asia; paths to combating recent democratic declines; and U.S.-Asia relations. In addition to Shin, the lab director and principal investigator, the SNAPL inaugural research team includes Research Scholar Xinru Ma, Postdoctoral Fellows Gidong Kim and Junki Nakahara, Research Associates Haley Gordon and Irene Kyoung, and a cohort of Stanford undergraduate and graduate students serving as research assistants. The lab plans to continue offering fellowship and training opportunities to scholars and students.

“SNAPL’s education mission is to nurture the next generation of researchers, including students and visiting scholars, and we firmly believe that the laboratory model, proven successful in the sciences — with its mentorship and hands-on engagement — holds immense potential for nurturing talent in the social sciences,” notes Shin. “I look forward to our team’s contributions to U.S.-Asia dialogue and Asia’s security and prosperity, and I am grateful to our supporters for providing foundational funding for the lab.”

On August 29-30, 2023, SNAPL will co-host its inaugural event, the Sustainable Democracy Roundtable, jointly with the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies and APARC's Korea Program. The two-day event will convene scholars and students from the United States and South Korea to present solutions that address global democratic backsliding, promote social progress, and advance long-term development.

For more information about SNAPL, visit the lab’s website at aparc.stanford.edu/snapl.

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Participants of the Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue
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Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue Brings Together Scholars and Policymakers to Promote Gender Equality and Sustainable Development

The Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue, part of a joint initiative by the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future, convened at the State Palace in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to stimulate cooperative action to expedite the implementation of gender equality and women’s empowerment, the fifth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals underlying the United Nations-adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Portrait of Gi-Wook Shin and the cover of his book, 'The Adventure of Democracy."
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Urgent Choices: Stanford Sociologist’s Book Examines Korea's Path to Democratic Advancement and Global Leadership

In his new book, Gi-Wook Shin explores the challenges and possibilities for Korea's democracy and national vision for its future development.
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Q&As

Flow of Talent Among Asia-Pacific Nations Would Revitalize the Economy and National Security

Depopulation is a concern shared by Japan and South Korea. Immigration of high-skilled labor could be a solution for mitigating it. In this regard, Japan SPOTLIGHT interviewed Prof. Gi-Wook Shin, who is working on a new research initiative seeking to examine the potential benefits of talent flows in the Asia-Pacific region.
cover link Flow of Talent Among Asia-Pacific Nations Would Revitalize the Economy and National Security
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Housed within the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, the lab will pioneer evidence-based policy research to help Asian nations forge pathways to a future characterized by social, cultural, economic, and political maturity and advance U.S.-Asia dialogue.

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Noriko Akiyama, The Asahi Shimbun
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This is an English translation of an article originally published by The Asahi Shimbun


Stanford University Professor of Sociology Kiyoteru Tsutsui is a recipient of the Suntory Prize for Arts and Sciences and the Ishibashi Tanzan Prize for his book Human Rights and the State (Iwanami Shinsho, 2022). Although he has published many works in English, this was his first publication in Japanese. After earning a master's degree at Kyoto University, he moved to the United States. Before Stanford, he served as a professor at the University of Michigan. “I wanted to make a difference in the United States first,” he says. “I had not thought about publishing in Japanese.”

However, since he joined Stanford in 2020 and has undertaken the role of director of the Japan Program at the University's Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), Tsutsui has become increasingly aware of the importance of Japanese studies and publishing in Japanese. He recognizes the decline of Japanese studies and the necessity of revitalizing the field and connecting Japan and the United States. Tsutsui is currently the only professor of Japanese studies at APARC. In the 1990s, there were three or four faculty experts in Japanese studies at the center.

With the popularity of Japanese anime, manga, video games, and other forms of Japanese culture, the number of Japanese-language students in the United States is not decreasing," notes Tsutsui. However, “the departure from Japan in the social sciences is severe.” The reason for this, according to Tsutsui, is that area studies are declining, and there is an increasing emphasis on theories and models. “But Chinese studies are growing, and the subjects of German, French, and other area studies maintain interest.” In 2019, a session titled "The Death of Japanese Studies" was held at the North American Association for Asian Studies, attracting much attention.

Tsutsui worries that the declining interest in Japanese studies could negatively impact public opinion and policymaking toward Japan in the United States. For example, during the Japan-U.S. trade friction of the 1980s, the Japan-U.S. relationship was hardly a focus of Japanese studies scholars in the United States.

Tsutsui works to advance U.S.-Japan dialogue, promote Japanese studies research, and clear up misunderstandings about Japanese affairs. Last year, he launched the Stanford Japan Barometer (SJB), a periodic public opinion survey on political, economic, and social issues concerning contemporary Japan — a project he started in hopes of fostering young researchers’ interest in Japan.

“We have already researched gender and policy and the Taiwan contingency and security,” he says. “In the future, we will continue to cover a wide range of topics in Japanese politics, economy, and society, including techno-media, artificial intelligence, Japan’s declining birthrate, and its Constitution.” Unlike a typical public opinion survey, SJB focuses on types of questions that move people’s opinions. Therefore, SJB asks questions on different issues with different assumptions, comparing people’s responses.

In the case of the questions on same-sex marriage, the respondents randomly received one of eight explanations, such as “In Japanese society, it is a tradition to see marriage as a heterosexual relationship” and “In Japanese society, there is a tradition of toleration towards same-sex relationships stemming back from the Sengoku Period.” The study examined the difference between respondents who received no explanation and those provided with arguments supportive of same-sex marriages. “Our results showed that respondents tend to become more supportive of same-sex marriage when presented with an argument that not allowing same-sex marriage is unfair from the point of view of human rights and gender equality,” Tsutsui explains.

“I hope that many young scholars will eventually participate in the project and that it will provide an opportunity for the next generation of outstanding researchers to enter Japanese studies and increase their opportunities to work abroad.”
 

Kiyoteru Tsutsui

Kiyoteru Tsutsui

Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor and Senior Fellow in Japanese Studies at Shorenstein APARC, Director of the Japan Program and Deputy Director at APARC, Senior Fellow at FSI, and Professor of Sociology
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Most Japanese Support Same-Sex Marriage, New Public Opinion Survey Finds

The initial set of results of the Stanford Japan Barometer, a new periodic public opinion survey co-developed by Stanford sociologist Kiyoteru Tsutsui and Dartmouth College political scientist Charles Crabtree, indicate that most Japanese are in favor of recognizing same-sex unions and reveal how framing can influence the public attitude toward LGBTQ communities.
cover link Most Japanese Support Same-Sex Marriage, New Public Opinion Survey Finds
Portrait of a Japanese woman standing next to a window reflecting daylight
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The Japanese Public Broadly Supports Legalizing Dual-Surname Option for Married Couples

Reflecting complex gender politics at play in Japan, the Stanford Japan Barometer, a new periodic public opinion survey co-developed by Stanford sociologist Kiyoteru Tsutsui and Dartmouth College political scientist Charles Crabtree, finds that the Japanese public largely supports a legal change to allow married couples to keep separate surnames.
cover link The Japanese Public Broadly Supports Legalizing Dual-Surname Option for Married Couples
A young professional woman standing in a city street, holding a notebook and talking to unseen audience.
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The Japanese Public Supports Women’s Leadership More Than Japan’s Global Gender Ranking Suggests

Contrary to current levels of women’s under-representation in leadership positions in Japan, the Stanford Japan Barometer, a new periodic public opinion survey co-developed by Stanford sociologist Kiyoteru Tsutsui and Dartmouth College political scientist Charles Crabtree, finds that the Japanese public favors women for national legislature and corporate board member positions.
cover link The Japanese Public Supports Women’s Leadership More Than Japan’s Global Gender Ranking Suggests
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Professor Kiyoteru Tsutsui, a recipient of the Suntory Prize for Arts and Letters and the Ishibashi Tanzan Prize, is a member of the third cohort of the U.S.-Japan Next Generation Network, an exchange program of policy experts from the United States and Japan launched in 2009 by the Mansfield Foundation in the United States in cooperation with the Japan Foundation. As a participant in the network, he explores the state of Japanese studies in the United States.

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