This course provides you with basic knowledge of key issues of present-day Japanese society.

The focus is on post-Cold War Japan, with special emphasis on the period after the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear accident in 2011. Apart from discussing a number of critical issues, we also highlight the interrelationship of these issues and problems.  In order to understand, for example, the debate about Japan as an aging society with low fertility, it is necessary to understand the Japanese position with regard to immigration, gender and hi-tech robotics.

In the course we also address more conventional issues affecting society. The topics discussed include the success of the Liberal Democratic party that has led the country since 1945 and Japan's role and status in an increasingly uncertain East Asian region and on the global arena.