Overhauling China’s Organ Transplant System
At a WHO conference in 2005, China’s vice-minister of health Huang Jiefu became the first public official to admit the country’s reliance on organs from executed inmates, and promised a transition to a voluntary donation system. A pilot for such a system has established a donation network set to expand this year, fixing the disorderly arrangements that have long been criticized by international health and human rights organizations.
Reflections on Japan (Video Interview with Sir David Warren)
Recent territorial disputes point to tensions in the relationship between Japan and China. Competition extends beyond issues of history and territorial assertions to competition for resources and influence. Yet it is increasingly recognized that Japan and China are crucial to each other.
Civil Society Organizations in Vietnam: Precarious but Full of Potential
The rapid expansion of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Vietnam in the early 2000s was intertwined with the country’s opening and reform process. A decade on, CSOs number around 2,000 but few have been able to establish a sustainable funding base, strong financial and organizational systems and innovative research and programming.
Hikikomori: Entering Middle Age
When the term “hikikomori” (引き籠もり, acute social withdrawal) was introduced by the Japanese media in the early 1990s, it referred to high school students or young adults. Government, academics and society blamed a range of social or cultural pressures that built up to breaking point (such as failing an exam). A government estimate in 2010 put the number of hikikomori at 700,000, though the actual figure may be far higher. Hikikomori are predominantly males from middle- or high-income families able to support them financially. Many of the first to withdraw over twenty years ago are now middle-aged and present Japan with a new set of social problems.
State Formation and Contemporary Mongolia (Video with Dr. Robert Bedeski)
States are a paradox. On the one hand, with a monopoly on the use of force, they provide security, but on the other the formation of the state is often accompanied by violence.
The example of Mongolia is an interesting demonstration of this. Genghis Khan’s unforgiving destruction of enemies shows state formation to be brutal, but this was accompanies by the development of the rule of law and a written language, through which the nation developed.
Transforming Local Industrial Districts in Japan into Innovative Clusters
A characteristic of the Japanese “flexible production system” is vast networks of subcontractors. Recently, the overseas sourcing of parent companies’ manufacturing has led to reorganization of small business in Japan. Efforts to revitalize regional economies in response have focused on the creation of industrial clusters.
Why are Foreign Mining Companies Retreating from China?
In the 1990s, China opened up the country’s vast mineral resources to international investment. Over the past decade, it has reformulated its mining legislation to attract foreign companies into the Chinese mining sector with the hope of speeding up its modernization. Between 2001 and 2004 the number of foreign mining projects quickly increased from 150 to 279. But by 2010, this number had declined to 92. International firms continue to feel stymied by an inconsistent and convoluted mining policy and their inability to create relationships of trust with local mining stakeholders.
Elections, Illiberal Politics & Sectarianism in Pakistan: Pogroms against Hazara Shia
Pakistan will hold national elections in May 2013, marking the first time a civilian government completes a full five-year legal term. No small achievement for a nation that since 1947 has been marked by military coups and weak civilian rule. There are reasons to feel encouraged: constitutional reform promoting more balanced center-provincial institutional and political architectures, a media operating with fewer restrictions, and an increasingly independent judiciary all point toward the possibility of genuine consolidation of democracy. But the path ahead is challenging. The resurgence of sectarian violence and an electoral alliance between a key national party and sectarian militants points to a new dynamic.
Otaku Marketing: Idols and Fans in Japanese Television Advertising
Memo #205 By Jason G. Karlin – ukarlin [at] mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp More than in nearly any other country, celebrity is central to Japanese television advertising. Indeed, about 70% of all Japanese commercials feature a celebrity. With as much as ¥1.7 trillion ($21.3 billion) spent on television advertising in Japan every year, celebrities—specifically idols—are the means of […]
The British and Occupied East Timor: Support for Indonesia Behind a Façade of Neutrality
As late as 1996, a British National Audit Office Report corroborated the government version of Britain as an honest broker in East Timor’s struggle for self-determination under Indonesian occupation, which followed the end of Portuguese colonial rule in 1974 and Indonesia’s invasion of the territory in 1975. But recently released archival evidence refutes the claim that Britain was negotiating a diplomatic solution between Indonesia, Portugal, and East Timor.