LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

1. Books

2. Journal Articles

3. Book Chapters in Edited Volumes & Other Publications

4. Policy-Focused Publications

5. Popular Publications (in Japanese)

1. Books

Monographs

Antinuclear Citizens: Sustainability Policy and Grassroots Activism in Post-Fukushima Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press Anthropology of Policy series, forthcoming (June 27, 2023)

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, tsunamis engulfed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant located on Japan’s Pacific Coast, leading to the worst nuclear disaster the world has seen since the Chernobyl crisis of 1986. Prior to this disaster, Japan had the third largest commercial nuclear program in the world—nearly 30% of Japan’s electricity was generated by reactors dotted across the archipelago.

The crisis of March 11 became a critical juncture for Japanese nuclear policymaking. As I argue, the primary agent for this change is what I call “antinuclear citizens”— a conscientious Japanese public who envision a sustainable life in a nuclear-free society. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic research conducted across Japan, I present a historical record of ordinary people’s actions as they sought to survive and navigate a new reality post-Fukushima. Ultimately, I argue that effective sustainability efforts require collaborations grounded in civil society and challenge hegemonic ideology, efforts that reimagine societies and landscapes to help build a productive symbiosis between industry and sustainability.

Lifelong Learning in Neoliberal Japan: Risk, Knowledge, and Community       Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, November 2015; Paperback available from July 2016

Lifelong learning has come into greater focus recently, as globalization has gathered pace and people face uncertainty in their everyday lives. I believe that promoting lifelong learning is an action that directly reduces risks for both the state and the individual. Employing Ulrich Beck’s theory of risk, I am interested in exploring the dynamics of lifelong learning at the grassroots level in Japan and Europe (in particular, Nordic countries for a comparative perspective), both of which are faced with a major institutional change – the rollback of welfare state provisions and the rise of neoliberal politics. I look at how “large processes” (in Charles Tilly’s sense) of social change shift the responsibility of risk management in economic, social, and political institutions from states to markets, from public to private as well as civil society bodies, and from collectives to individuals. My ethnographic research directly tackles this puzzle, showcasing lifelong learning through the lens of risk.

This book project was funded by two fellowships: For the academic year 2009-2010, I was on the postdoctoral fellowship in the German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded research project 1613 Risk and East Asia at the University of Duisburg-Essen Institute of East Asian Studies.  In the following year, 2010-2011, the fieldwork was supported by a grant from the Abe Fellowship Program administered by the Social Science Research Council of the Untied States. The book also intends to enhance anthropological understanding of neoliberalism by showcasing the re-organization of Japanese public space through new disciplined knowledge generated by the state’s policy of promoting lifelong learning.

The Failure of Civil Society?: The Third Sector and the State in Contemporary Japan Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. March 2009; Paperback available from December 2009

Winner of the 2010 Japan NPO Research Association Book Award 

This book is an ethnographic study of a Japanese voluntary organization, a Non-Profit Organization (NPO), the seed of the institutionalization of civil society under the 1998 NPO Law.

Can civil society be constructed successfully by a state? – This book seeks to answer this question through the case of Japan. Today, civil society is a transnational phenomenon. It broadly refers to non-state institutions and associations that are critical to sustaining modern democratic participation. Each society and culture molds its own version of civil society, reflecting its most important values, such as individual liberty, public solidarity, pluralism, and nonviolence, all of which sustain a dynamic civic culture. In contemporary Japan where the boundaries between state, civil society, and the market are often complex and/or blurred, the NPO has been proliferating as a key actor in shaping Japanese “civil society.”

Primarily, my research on civil society contributes to the anthropological scholarship on neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is commonly viewed as an economic doctrine that endorses individual freedoms and rights, and seeks to limit excessive intervention by the state through decentralized authority. The ideology has become dominant in advanced industrial countries, like the UK, the United States, and Japan, since the 1980s. Meanwhile, anthropologists offer alternative perspectives on neoliberalism; we present neoliberalism as a technology of governing people. A variety of neoliberal strategies of governing are re-engineering and re-fashioning political space and populations, including people’s relationships to each other, their sense of membership in a public. My ethnographic case study documented as The Failure of Civil Society? illuminates a political project made by the Japanese neoliberal state to mold a particular set of the state-individual relationships in a specific manner under the name of civil society.

Another contribution of this project was to fill a substantive gap in the scholarship on current civil society. Most of the work in the field contained normative theoretical formulations with Western intellectual origins or in a post-socialism context. The book fills such an ethnocentric hole, as it is an original ethnography, bringing Japan’s civil society experiences squarely into the global discourse on civil society. I explored the social and historical particularities of the Japanese meaning of “civil society” or shimin shakai – looking at how the concept is interpreted and practiced at the ordinary grassroots. The conflicts within the ongoing NPO construction present powerful narratives–real voices and real experiences against the state discourse, which have yet to be vibrantly documented as a form of ethnography; I destabilize the conventional assumption of civil society.

Ultimately, this book calls into question the relationship between the state and the third sector in contemporary Japanese social and political life, and broadly raises the issue of whether civil society can be intentionally created through the action of the state. More practically, I believe that the narratives documented in this book would provide Japanese policy makers with a significant strategy for affecting the NPO policy. Further, there are important policy implications of the book for any state seeking to mold its society in specific ways.

Edited Volumes

Authoritarianism and Civil Society in Asia, edited with Anthony J. Spires. Routledge, 2022

This book represents a pioneering interdisciplinary effort to analyse Asian civil society under authoritarianism, a regime type that is re-appearing or deepening after several decades of increased political liberalisation. Contributing to our understanding of the tensions, dynamics, and potentialities that animate state-society relations in authoritarian regimes, this will be essential reading for students and scholars of civil society, authoritarianism, and Asian politics more generally.

Transnational Civil Society in Asia: The Potential of Grassroots Regionalization, edited with Simon Avenell. Routledge, 2021

This edited volume addresses how transnational interactions among civil society actors in Asia and its sub-regions are helping to strengthen common democratic values and transform dominant processes of policymaking and corporate capitalism in the region.

The contributors conceive of transnational civil society networks as constructive vehicles for both informing and persuading governments and businesses to adopt, modify, or abandon certain policies or positions. This volume investigates the role of such networks through a range of interdisciplinary approaches, bringing together case studies on Asian transnationalism from South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia across four key themes: local transformations and connections, diaspora politics, cross-regional initiatives and networks, and global actors and influences. Chapters demonstrate how transnational civil society is connecting people in local communities across Asia, in parallel to ongoing tensions between nation-states and civil society. By highlighting the grassroots regionalization emerging from ever-intensifying information exchange between civil society actors across borders – as well as concrete transnational initiatives uniting actors across Asia – the volume advances the intellectual mandate of redefining ‘Asia’ as a dynamic and interconnected formation.

New Frontiers in Japanese Studies. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, edited with Philip Seaton. 2020

Routledge Handbook of Civil Society in Asia. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Editor. 2017

Journal Special Issue

Action Research in PhD Journey. Action Learning and Action Research Journal 28(1) (2022), commissioning editor

Translation

『アクションリサーチ入門』監訳、東京：新曜社 (2023年６月出版予定)  Japanese translation of Introduction to Action Research　(Sage, 2007), Tokyo: Shinyosha (forthcoming, June 2023)

 

2. Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Learning, Practicing, Connecting, and Passing Along. Action Learning and Action Research Journal 28(1): 16–38 (2022)

Security Paradigms and Social Movements: The Changing Nature of Japanese Peace Activism. Asian Journal of Social Science. 46(6): 725–747 (2018)

The Right to Evacuation: The Self-Determined Future of Post-Fukushima Japan. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 15(4): 648–658 (2014)

Lifelong Learning in Tokyo: A Satisfying Engagement with Action Research in Japan. Anthropology in Action: Journal of Applied Anthropology in Policy and Practice 20(2): 46–57 (2013)

Young Precariat at the Forefront: Anti-Nuclear Rallies in Post-Fukushima Japan. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 14(2): 317-326 (2013)

Demanding a Safer Tomorrow: Japan’s Anti-Nuclear Rallies in the Summer of 2012. Anthropology Today 29(1): 21-24 (2013)

Risk Management by a Neoliberal State: Construction of New Knowledge through Lifelong Learning in Japan. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 34(1): 132–144 (2012)

Facilitating Self-Regulated Learning: An Exploratory Case of Teaching a University Course on Japanese Society. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education 23(2): 166–174. 2011

Peace, a Contested Identity: Japan’s Constitutional Revision and Grassroots Peace Movements. Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research 36 (3): 373–399 (2011)

Protecting the Right to Live Peacefully: A Report from Takae, Okinawa, co-authored with Yasushi Ikeo. Global Change, Peace & Security 22 (3): 377–383 (2010)

Japan’s New Lifelong Learning Policy: Exploring Lessons from the European Knowledge Economy. International Journal of Lifelong Education 28(5): 601–614 (2009)

Invited by the State: Institutionalizing Volunteer Subjectivity in Contemporary Japan. Asian Anthropology 3: 71–96 (2004)

3. Book Chapters in Edited Volumes & Other Publications

Civil Society in Asia: Challenging and Navigating the Boundaries of Authoritarianism, co-authored with Anthony J. Spires. In Authoritarianism and Civil Society in Asia. Anthony J. Spires and Akihiro Ogawa, eds. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Pp. 1-15 (2022).

Unethical Politics: Japan’s Nuclear Technology Export to Turkey and Transnational Antinuclear Networks. In Transnational Civil Society in Asia: The Potential of Grassroots Regionalization. Simon Avenell and Akihiro Ogawa, eds. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Pp. 58–72 (2021)

Introduction: Transnational Civil Society in Asia, co-authored with Simon Avenell. In Transnational Civil Society in Asia: The Potential of Grassroots Regionalization. Simon Avenell and Akihiro Ogawa, eds. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Pp. 1–19 (2021)

Civil Society in Japan. In Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics. Robert Pekkanen and Saadia Pekkanen, eds. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 299–316 (2021)

Japanese NPOs and the State Re-examined: Reflections 18 years on. In Civil Society and the State in Democratic East Asia: Between Entanglement and Contention in Post-High Growth. David Chiavacci, Julia Obinger, and Simona Grano, eds. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Pp. 219–238 (2020)

[open access]

Shōgai gakushū − lebenslanges Lernen in Japan: Gemeinsames Lernen für die Gemeinschaft und das kulturelle Wachstum [Shōgai gakushū – lifelong learning in Japan: Learning together for the community and cultural growth] EB – Erwachsenenbildung 66(2): 59–62 (2020)

“Community Power”: Renewable Energy Policy and Production in Post Fukushima Japan. In New Frontiers in Japanese Studies. Akihiro Ogawa and Philip Seaton, eds. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Pp.221–232 (2020)

Introduction, co-authored with Philip Seaton. In New Frontiers in Japanese Studies. Akihiro Ogawa and Philip Seaton, eds. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Co-authored with Philip Seaton. Pp. 1–18 (2020)

フクシマ発で核を考える：国境を越えて連帯する「反核世界社会フォーラム」 後藤康夫, 後藤宣代編 『21世紀の新しい社会運動とフクシマ 』東京：八朔社 46-63頁 [Thinking about nuclear from Fukushima: anti-nuclear world social forums which connect people beyond national boarders. In New social movements in the 21st century and Fukushima, Yasuo Goto and Nobuyo Goto, eds. Tokyo: Hassakusha. Pp. 46–63] (2020)

As If Nothing Had Occurred: Anti-Tokyo Olympics Protests and Concern Over Radiation Exposure. Japan Focus: The Asia-Pacific Journal. Special Issue: Japan’s Olympic Summer Games — Past and Present, Part II. (2020)

Civil Society: Past, Present, and Future. In Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan (2nd edition). Jeff Kingston, ed. London; New York: Routledge. 2nd edition [revised version]. Pp. 47–58 (2019)

「アクションリサーチ」の実践現場から—持続可能な学びへの挑戦. 宮崎里司, 樋口くみ子編『サスティナビリティ・サイエンスとオーストラリア研究』 横浜：オセアニア出版 208–219頁[Practicing “action research”: challenges for sustainable learning. In Sustainability Science and Australian Studies, Satoshi Miyazaki and Kumiko Higuchi, eds. Yokohama: Oceania Press. Pp. 208–219] (2018)

Introduction. In Routledge Handbook of Civil Society in Asia. Akihiro Ogawa, ed. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Pp. 1–14 (2017)

Media Side-lines the Sit‑in Protest in Takae, Okinawa. In Press Freedom in Japan, Jeff Kingston, ed. London; New York: Routledge. Pp. 229–241 (2017)

Okinawa Road Map Leads to Another Dead End. Invited article by the Asian Studies Association of Australia. (2016)

Japan’s Awakening Protest Movement. Invited article by the Asian Studies Association of Australia. (2016)

New Journalism in Japan: Using Independent Digital Sources for Social Research. In Japanese Journalism and the Japanese Newspaper: A Supplemental Reader. Anthony Rausch, ed. Amherst, NY: Teneo Press. Pp. 55–74 (2014)

A Fulfilling Case of Action Research in Japan: My 10-Year Engagement in a Tokyo Lifelong Learning Group. In Methoden der Alter(n)sforschung: Disziplinäre Positionen und transdisziplinäre Perspektiven. Andrea von Hülsen-Esch, Miriam Seidler, and Christian Tagsold, eds. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag. Pp. 127–141 (2013)

Civil Society: Past, Present, and Future.In Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan. Jeff Kingston, ed. London; New York: Routledge. Pp. 51–62 (2013)

The book was a winner of the Choice Outstanding Academic Title award in 2014.

Peace, a Contested Identity: Japan’s Constitutional Revision and Grassroots Peace Movements. In Critical Readings on Contemporary Japanese Politics. Jeff Kingston, ed. Volume 3: Section 3: 1093–1116. Leiden, the Netherlands; Boston: Brill Academic Publishers. December. (2012). [Reprint: Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research 36 (3): 373–399. (2011)

The New Prominence of the Civil Sector in Japan. In Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society. Victoria Lyon Bestor and Theodore C. Bestor, eds.  Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. Pp. 186–197 (2011)

The Construction of Citizenship through Volunteering: The Case of Lifelong Learning. In Japan’s Politics and Economy: Perspectives on Change. Patricia A. Nelson and Marie Söderberg, eds. London; New York: Routledge. Pp. 86–98 (2009)

“Induced” Voluntarism: A New Role for Schools? In The Demographic Challenge: A Handbook about Japan, Florian Coulmas, Harald Conrad, Annette Schad-Seifert and Gabriele Vogt, eds. Leiden, the Netherlands; Boston: Brill Academic Publishers. Pp. 721–732 (2008)

Initiating Change: Doing Action Research in Japan. In Dispatches from the Field: Neophyte Ethnographers in a Changing World. Andrew Gardner and David M. Hoffman, eds.  Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Pp. 207–221 (2006)

When the NPO Law Sinks In: Japanese Civil Society, Shimin, and Neoliberalism. Harvard University Program on US-Japan Relations Occasional Paper Series 05–10. (2005)

市民社会論への新しいアプローチ (New Approach to Civil Society Studies). 月刊みんぱく Gekkan Minpaku 29(4): 6. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology. (2005)

4. Policy-Focused Publications

Japan’s opposition threatens government’s majority in the wake of COVID-19. Election Watch, Melbourne School of Government, University of Melbourne (2021).

An English translation of the Chernobyl Law in Japan in the form of an Ordinance for the Citizens’ Action for Fukushima Justice – Fostering the Chernobyl Law in Japan (2021)

海外からみた日本の社会教育・生涯学習～これからどんなデザイン・工夫が必要か ―「すみだ学習ガーデン」の事例を引きながら『社会教育』日本青年館発行 889号10–13頁 (2020 年7月)[Social Education and Lifelong Learning in Japan from an Overseas Perspective ~What kind of designs and innovations will be needed in the future – Drawing an example from Sumida Gakushu Garden]. Shakai Kyōiku 889: 10–13. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (July 2020)]

Japan Social Education Award (Silver) 2020 Received

その後のシノップ『ノーニュークスアジアフォーラム通信』 160 (2019年 10月号) [Sinop postscript, No Nukes Asia Forum tsūshin, No. 160 (October 2019)]

フィランソロピーの今『毎日新聞』夕刊, 2頁 (2018年8月 18日) [Philanthropy now, Mainichi Shimbun evening edition p. 2] (August 18, 2018)

Launch of the Routledge Handbook of Civil Society: An Interview with the Editor, Akihiro Ogawa. IPS Update Issue – an article published by Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. (November 2017)

Protest and Democracy in Asia. Pursuit – an interview article on my peace research written by Ben Rodin. Published by the University of Melbourne. (July 2017)

「アジアの世紀」の市民 『社会教育』日本青年館発行 841号22–23頁 (2016 年7月) [Citizens for “Asian Century”. Shakai Kyōiku 841: 22–23. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (July 2016)]

「文化ボランティア全国交流会」報告『社会教育』日本青年館発行 811号54–56頁 (2014 年1月) [Report on the culture volunteers’ national network meeting. Shakai Kyōiku 811: 54–56. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (January 2014)]

座談会：社会教育を元気にするイベント 『社会教育』日本青年館発行 808号7–31頁 (2013 年10月)[Events that galvanize community-oriented education. Shakai Kyōiku 808: 7–31. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (October 2013)]

提言: 文化ボランティアのこれから—アクションリサーチの可能性『社会教育』日本青年館発行 804号36–39頁(2013 年6月) [Proposal: Future of culture volunteers – exploring a possibility for action research. Shakai Kyōiku 804: 36–39. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (June 2013)]

スウェーデンの若年者失業問題『NIRA研究報告書・就職氷河期世代のきわどさ』104–113頁, 総合研究開発機構 (2008年) [NIRA Research Report, Youth Unemployment in Sweden. p 104–113. Tokyo: National Institute for Research Advancement, Japan (2008)]

伝統文化と文化ボランティア『社会教育』日本青年館発行734号55–61頁 (2007 年8月) [Traditional culture and culture volunteers. Shakai Kyōiku 734: 55–61. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (August 2007)]

グローバリゼーションと大人の学び『社会教育』日本青年館発行732号42–49頁 (2007 年6月) [Globalization and adult learning. Shakai Kyōiku 732: 42–49. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (June 2007)]

大人の学びのプログラム『社会教育』日本青年館発行 730号42–49頁(2007 年4月) [Learning program for adults. Shakai Kyōiku 730: 42–49. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (April 2007)]

生涯学習とシティズンシップ『社会教育』日本青年館発行 725号4–11頁(2006 年11月) [Lifelong learning and citizenship. Shakai Kyōiku 725: 4–11. Tokyo: Nippon-Seinenkan* (November 2006)]

*Nippon-Seinenkan is a national youth center working closely with Japan’s Ministry of Education.

5. Popular Publications: Writings for general audience (in Japanese)

ミュゼ　リサーチ日本社会 連載中/ Musée    Researching Japanese society since January 2009

38. イフタール Iftal 124:37, August-November, 2019

37. 市民社会と戦争の和解 Civil Society and War Reconciliation, 123: 33, April-July 2019

36. 広島で考えたこと What I thought in Hiroshima, 122:33, December-March 2018

35. アボリジニとの対話Dialogue with Aborigine, 121:33, July-November 2018

34. ロスアラモス Los Alamos, 120:33, April-June 2018

33. 北斎展Hokusai Exhibition 119:33, October-December 2017

32. アイヌ民族博物館 Ainu Museum, 118:33, July 2017

31. スワンヒルへの旅 Travel to Swan Hill, 117:33, April 2017

30. 高須賀米 Takasuka Rice, 116:33, January 2017

29. 移民博物館 Immigration Museum, 115:33, September 2016

28. イアン・ポッター博物館 Ian Potter Museum, 114: 33, May 2016

27. メルボルン博物館 Melbourne Museum, 113: 33, December 2015

26. メルボルン到着 Arrived in Melbourne, 112: 33, October 2015

25. ノーベル博物館、そして … Nobel Museum, and …, 111: 33, July 2015

24. 安倍リトリートAbe Retreat, 110:33, March 2015

23. スウェーデンの選挙Election in Sweden, 109: 33. November 2014

22. ネオリベ時代の生涯学習 Lifelong Learning in a Neoliberal Era, 108: 33. July 2014

21. ストックホルム日本研究会 Stockholm Seminar on Japan, 107: 33. March 2014

20. 日瑞関係１５０周年 150 years of the Diplomatic Relationship between Japan and Sweden, 106:33. January 2014

19. ストックホルムの暴動 Riots in Stockholm 105:33 September 2013

18. 日本の平和主義 Japanese Pacifism, 104:33. June 2013

17. 文化ボランティアネットワーク Culture Volunteers’ Network, 103:33. March 2013

16. ロンドン暴動から１年たって The London Riots One Year On, 102:33. December 2012

15. 駒場の夏 Summer in Komaba, 101:33. October 2012

14. ドセント Docent, 100:33. June 2012

13. 聖ルシア祭 Lucia, 99:33. January 2012

12. ソーシャルキャピタルと東アジア Social Capital and East Asia, 98:33 October 2011

11. 大学改革の波 Waves of University Reform, 97:33. July 2011

10. コペンハーゲンでの出会い Encounters in Copenhagen, 96:33. April 2011

9. 新しい公共 New Public Commons, 95:33. January 2011

8. 弘前再訪 Revisiting Hirosaki, 94:35. October  2010

7. 日・EU関係 Japan-EU Relations, 93:35. July 2010

6. ストックホルムの日本研究 Japanese Studies in Stockholm, 92:35. April 2010

5. ２０年目のベルリン Berlin Twenty Years Later, 91:33. January 2010

4. リスクと東アジア Risk and East Asia, 90:35. October 2009

3. スウェーデンの夏至祭 Swedish Midsummer, 89:35. July 2009

2. 市民社会の失敗？The Failure of Civil Society?, 88:33. April 2009

1. 僕が文化ボランティア全国フォーラムに参加するわけ My reasons for participating in the national forum of culture volunteers, 87:37. January 2009

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