IAFOR > The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS) > ACSS2017

ACSS2017

The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2017

The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2017

"East Meets West: Innovation and Discovery"

June 8–11, 2017 | Art Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan

From natural phenomena and the results of climate change to pollution and societal traumas, migrations and war, the enormous challenges that face humankind and our environment are frequently daunting and difficult to comprehend. However, with every new challenge or disruption comes the opportunity for innovation and discovery. Whether inventing new technologies, implementing innovative systems, enacting better policies, legislation, or governance, or ensuring greater cooperation and information sharing, responses are many and varied.

From incremental shift to radical change, from the local to the regional and from the national to the global, this international conference will focus on the challenges that demand a collective response. It will highlight the need to harness our abilities as scientists, policymakers, practitioners, engineers and educators to find multidisciplinary solutions in pursuit of the common goal of a sustainable world.

Abstracts (2017)
Download ACSS2017 Conference Programme

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Programme

  • Can Data Science Do Without the Field Survey? Developing Innovative Statistical and Cartographic Methodologies Involving Small and Big Data Analyses in Social Sciences
    Can Data Science Do Without the Field Survey? Developing Innovative Statistical and Cartographic Methodologies Involving Small and Big Data Analyses in Social Sciences
    Spotlight Presentation: Maxime Jaffré
  • East Meets West
    East Meets West
    Featured Panel Presentation: Haruko Satoh & Toshiya Hoshino
  • Establishing a Value Mindset
    Establishing a Value Mindset
    Featured Presentation: Philip Sugai
  • Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
    Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
    Featured Panel Presentation: James W. McNally & Hiroshi Ishida
  • Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
    Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
    Featured Presentation: James W. McNally
  • Applying a Rights-Based Approach in Investigating Repatriation of Fukushima’s Nuclear Refugees
    Applying a Rights-Based Approach in Investigating Repatriation of Fukushima’s Nuclear Refugees
    Spotlight Presentation: Jane Singer
  • Xinhua News Agency’s Coverage of the Kunming Railway Station Attack in the Context of Reshaping China’s National Identity
    Xinhua News Agency’s Coverage of the Kunming Railway Station Attack in the Context of Reshaping China’s National Identity
    Spotlight Presentation: Guo-qiang Liu

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Speakers

  • Toshiya Hoshino
    Toshiya Hoshino
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Hiroshi Ishida
    Hiroshi Ishida
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Maxime Jaffré
    Maxime Jaffré
    Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
  • Guo-qiang Liu
    Guo-qiang Liu
    Deakin University, Australia
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Haruko Satoh
    Haruko Satoh
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Philip Sugai
    Philip Sugai
    Doshisha Business School, Japan
  • Jane Singer
    Jane Singer
    Kyoto University, Japan
  • Michael Anthony C. Vasco
    Michael Anthony C. Vasco
    University of Santo Tomas, Philippines

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Organising Committee

The Conference Programme Committee is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Conference Programme Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Board. The Organising Committee is responsible for nominating and vetting Keynote and Featured Speakers; developing the conference programme, including special workshops, panels, targeted sessions, and so forth; event outreach and promotion; recommending and attracting future Conference Programme Committee members; working with IAFOR to select PhD students and early career academics for IAFOR-funded grants and scholarships; and overseeing the reviewing of abstracts submitted to the conference.

  • William Baber
    William Baber
    Kyoto University Graduate School of Management, Japan
  • Sarah Louisa Birchley
    Sarah Louisa Birchley
    Toyo Gakuen University, Japan
  • Grant Black
    Grant Black
    Chuo University, Japan
  • James Briganti
    James Briganti
    Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Hiroshi Ishida
    Hiroshi Ishida
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

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Review Committee

ACSS2017 Review Committee

  • Dr Aleksandra Ptak, Czestochowa University of Technology, Poland
  • Dr Bajrnag Lal Saini, University of Rajastahn, India
  • Dr Catalino Mendoza, Systems Plus College Foundation, The Philippines
  • Dr Elif Avci, Anadolu University, Turkey
  • Dr Georgia Daleure, Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE
  • Dr Heesoon Lee, Bowling Green State University, USA
  • Dr Helena Vasques De Carvalho, ISCTE-IUL, Portugal
  • Dr Ho Keat Leng, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • Dr Kunwadee Rojpaisarnkit, Rajabhat Rajanagarindra University, Thailand
  • Dr Margaret Sanapo, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
  • Dr Masanori Kaneko, Independent Researcher, Japan
  • Dr Patricia Audrey Ruslijanto, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia
  • Dr Susan Bacud, University of The Philippines Los Banos, The Philippines
  • Dr Theresa Mae Gallardo, University of Mindanao - Tagum College, The Philippines

ACSEE2017 Review Committee

  • Dr Ben Kolosz, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
  • Professor Chun-Han Shih, Tungnan University, Taiwan
  • Professor Felix Anyaegbunam Nwachinemelu, Federal University Ndufu-Alike-Ikwo, Nigeria
  • Dr Guat Guan Toh, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, Malaysia
  • Dr Luis Santiago, University of Puerto Rico, United States
  • Dr Ming Yin Chan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
  • Professor Ofelia Giron, University of The Philippines Baguio, The Philippines
  • Professor Ruey-Fang Yu, National United University, Taiwan

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ACSS2019 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

Apply to Join the Review Committee

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Can Data Science Do Without the Field Survey? Developing Innovative Statistical and Cartographic Methodologies Involving Small and Big Data Analyses in Social Sciences
Spotlight Presentation: Maxime Jaffré

Since the birth of Social Sciences, survey methodologies have encountered increasing developments in collecting data. From the “Essay on the Theory of Science” by Max Weber, to the Rules of the Sociological Method by Emile Durkheim, sociological and anthropological rules and know-hows successfully developed strong methodological principles that have proved their worth over time. Today, it seems to be quite difficult to revert these principles and change the methodological rules implemented by Social Sciences. Yet, the new digital technologies and the cultural practices generated by them are nowadays creating a serious imbalance for the survey methodologies developed by Social Sciences. While Social Sciences advocate "field" surveys conducted as close as possible to individuals, how can researchers collect data from digital cultural practices that are produced, in any case, from the private sphere? And how can socio-economic characteristics of individuals be defined when most of our practices are becoming digitalised? In other words, Social Sciences are today running the real risk of losing contact with the most contemporary cultural practices if they refuse to change methodological paradigm. In recent years, new technologies have encountered real progress in data extraction and analysis. New software such as EthnosData and Net-Survey now allow researchers to practice data mining on the Internet and collect quite considerable and unprecedented amounts of data for research in Social Sciences. These new tools represent a real added value for the analysis of digital practices or for carrying out surveys via the Internet. By combining methodologies implemented by Social Sciences and new technologies, this paper aims to present innovative statistical and cartographic methodologies involving Small and Big Data analyses applied to research in Social Sciences.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

East Meets West
Featured Panel Presentation: Haruko Satoh & Toshiya Hoshino

In the new century, there are many complex challenges facing all of humanity, from tangible concerns such as healthcare, poverty, climate change, food and energy security to conflict prevention, as well as problems of how to address these issues at the global as well as local level. In such a global endeavour, synergy of knowledge and wisdom between different traditions, communities and civilisations is as important as ever in coming up with better solutions. And Kobe could not be a more fitting place in Japan for a start of an important dialogue. Why is this?

Kobe, the host city of the conference, is celebrating 150 years since it opened its doors to the world in 1867, one year before the Meiji Restoration. Kobe has since become one of the leading Asian ports for trade alongside Shanghai, making its name in the early twentieth century as the international face of a modernizing Japan in a regional setting of Kansai that is both historical, innovative and outward-looking. It has one of the oldest Chinese and Indian communities in Japan because of this history, and has been home to many European and Russian (Jewish) émigrés. It has overcome the crippling destruction of its centre and port facilities in the 1995 Kobe-Awaji earthquake.

But there is more. If there is one place in Japan that represents the theme of this conference, “East meets West”, then it is Kobe and the Kansai area, 500 km east of Tokyo and Kanto, that is home to Kyoto, Osaka and Sakai. Kansai represents the inherent strength (sokojikara) of Japan as the vortex of the country’s cultural, political and commercial activities for nearly 13 centuries. In the old days, Kyoto and the older capital Nara were repositories of the religion, knowledge, technology and civilization that reached Japan by way of the Silk Road. In more recent times, Sakai, one of the oldest port cities near Osaka and the birthplace of Senno Rikyu, the grand tea master, traded with the Spanish and Portuguese. Sakai was the main manufacturer of guns in sixteenth-century Japan. Osaka has been the biggest commerce centre since Edo period Japan, pioneering in futures trade and giving birth to many large trading houses that would provide the social capital for rapid industrialization in the Meiji era. Even though the capital has moved to Tokyo, Kansai continues to flourish in this rich cultural heritage and tradition of innovative thinking, as a place where the East mingles with the West over time and space in ways that Tokyo cannot match.

The symbolism of Kobe and Kansai is important to Japanese identity as it faces its own post-industrial challenges since the economic slump. The key to Japan’s renovation and continued relevance to the world is to rediscover and reappraise our own history of modernization with a view to opening up to and engaging with the world in a more dynamic way.

Read presenter biographies.

Establishing a Value Mindset
Featured Presentation: Philip Sugai

The concept of value has been at the heart of the definition of marketing for more than a decade. Yet, while assessment models do exist for specific stakeholder or value actors (i.e. Woodruff, 1997; Kim & Park, 2002) or a combination of these such as the Triple Bottom Line (c.f. Elkinton, 1997), none of the existing aggregate models are complete in terms of assessing the value impact of all value actors identified within the current definition of marketing by the AMA, which includes customers, clients, partners and society. Additionally, most of the existing measurement tools use different criteria to measure value, making a combination of these in their current form extremely difficult if not impossible for any marketing practitioner. This has led to the current dilemma in the field of marketing, in that researchers and practitioners understand theoretically what marketing "is", but have not yet formulated a robust model or tool that enables them to effectively measure and capture the true value impact of any product or service today. The purpose of this presentation is to outline the definition of marketing value and outline a path forward towards the creation of an aggregate model for value measurement and management that can be easily applied by any business or government entity.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
Featured Panel Presentation: James W. McNally & Hiroshi Ishida

Featured Panel Chairs: Dr James W. McNally & Professor Hiroshi Ishida

How any society deals with aging can be a contentious issue, one on which questions of culture, convenience and even expedience are brought to bear. Economic prosperity and peace in developed countries has lead to unprecedented levels of healthcare provision for a population that, as a result, is living far longer. Coupled with falling birthrates, Western Europe and Japan are witnessing demographic changes that bring unparalleled challenges but also unexpected opportunities for aging populations, as innovations and discoveries help people lead active and healthy lives.

This panel will provide an overview of the demographic situation in different countries and cultures in Asia and beyond to compare and contrast outlooks for the aged. It will also examine the concepts of healthy, active and beautiful aging.

*A complementary panel will be held on the same theme at the European Conference Series 2017 in Brighton, UK.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Featured Presentation: James W. McNally

Recent health emergencies such as the ebola outbreak in 2015 and the current zika virus reflects the pressing need for the rapid and statistically meaningful collection of data, often within small geographic areas. The collection of public health data at the community level is challenging for a number of reasons. Building respondent trust and gaining local support are key, but even when these barriers are overcome the choice of questions and how they are asked is central to the success of a study and to its impact on health improvements and policy change. One of the common problems found in many community level studies is the lack of comparability and the inability to generalize findings beyond the study area. While interesting and useful information is often obtained, translating this information into a framework that facilitates policy impact often proves difficult due to a lack of comparability. The NACDA Program on Aging has been promoting a methodology for overcoming the challenges of generalizability and comparability that has been successfully employed in several small area studies of public health and healthcare unitization. The presentation will describe this methodology and provide examples of its efficacy in real-world research situations. The presentation will provide supporting materials to guide interested users in applying this approach for their own research specializations. This approach is flexible and works across languages and research disciplines so it can be applied in a variety of public health studies, including RAPID AREA ANALYSIS (RAP) situations.

*A complementary presentation was held on the same theme at the Hawaii Conference Series 2017 in Honolulu, USA.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Applying a Rights-Based Approach in Investigating Repatriation of Fukushima’s Nuclear Refugees
Spotlight Presentation: Jane Singer

The complex human and natural disaster – earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown – that occurred on March 11–13, 2011, caused the evacuation of 180,000 residents of Fukushima prefecture, Japan. Today, more than 80,000 compulsory and voluntary evacuees remain outside their original communities. For some of the original 11 affected communities the evacuation order has been lifted after extensive decontamination efforts, and residents are being urged to return. Yet despite government privileging of rapid repatriation, as of January 2017 only 13% of the evacuees have returned to the five communities where evacuation orders have been lifted. Although residents are assured that health risks of repatriation are negligible, expressed concerns about health and safety issues and economic and social community sustainability, along with eroded public trust in official assurances, have contributed to few returning, especially young families. Few studies have been published examining the long-term economic, social and policy implications of the Fukushima evacuation experience and future prospects for repatriation. Drawing on interviews with compulsory and voluntary evacuees and focus group discussions with evacuees who have already returned to original communities, this paper applies a rights-based framework to discuss repatriation and engagement in re-articulation of long-fragmented communities.

Image | Fukushima Prefectural Flag

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Xinhua News Agency’s Coverage of the Kunming Railway Station Attack in the Context of Reshaping China’s National Identity
Spotlight Presentation: Guo-qiang Liu

Through a comparative framing analysis of print media coverage of the Kunming Railway Station incident in March 2014, this article examines the Chinese state media’s attempted projection of a “new” China to the outside world. This projection is occurring in the context of the nation’s changing international status as the result of its rapid economic rise. It is observed that by calling this incident a terror attack, and even “China’s 9/11”, and by reporting condemnations and condolences from other countries, China clearly identifies itself as a victim of terror and expresses a strong wish to be recognised as a member of the mainstream international community. It is argued that Xinhua’s projection of China in its coverage reflects a new national identity that China is trying to develop, while legitimising its crackdown on Uyghur “terrorists”. However, the comparison with elite media sources in the West shows that Western governments and media may be reluctant to embrace China fully as a new member of the “international community”. While the Chinese government attempted to use the incident as a way of leveraging its position and status within the “international community”, and Xinhua supported this aim, the Western media appears to have quickly forgotten the incident and seems not to have supported China’s claims.

Read presenter biographies on the Speakers page.

Toshiya Hoshino
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

His Excellency Professor Toshiya Hoshino is presently Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations in New York.

Previous to his role at the UN, Professor Hoshino was on the faculty at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (Osaka University), serving as Dean from 2011​ to ​2014, before being appointed Vice-President (International) of the University from 2014​ ​to 2016.

From August 2006 to August 2008, he served as a Minister-Counselor in charge of political affairs at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (UN). At the UN, he was a principal advisor to the Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) when Japan assumed its chairmanship. He graduated from Sophia University, Japan, completed a Master’s at the University of Tokyo, and received his Doctorate (PhD) from Osaka University.

His previous positions​ have​ include​d​: Senior Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs; Guest Scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Fellow at Stanford Japan Center, Stanford University; Visiting Fellow, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University; and ​Special Assistant (Political Affairs) at the Embassy of Japan to the United States.

He is a specialist in UN peace and security policies (conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding), human security and humanitarian issues, security in the Asia-Pacific region and Japan-US relations.

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2017) | East Meets West
Hiroshi Ishida
University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Hiroshi Ishida is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo. He served as the Director of the Institute of Social Sciences and the Director of the Center of Social Research and Data Archives, at the University of Tokyo, from 2012 to 2015. He received his PhD in sociology from Harvard University, conducted post-doctoral research at Nuffield College and St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and held positions of Assistant and Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. He was a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan and a Visiting Fellow of Sociology at Yale University.

Professor Ishida’s research interests include comparative social stratification and mobility, school-to-work transition, and social inequality over the life course. He is the author of Social Mobility in Contemporary Japan (Stanford University Press) and the co-editor with David Slater of Social Class in Contemporary Japan (Routledge). His work has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes, including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, and Japanese Sociological Review.

Professor Ishida was the president of the Japanese Association of Mathematical Sociology from 2011 to 2013, and currently serves as the secretary/treasurer of the Research Committee on Social Stratification of the International Sociological Association. From 2005 to 2010, he was the editor-in-chief of Social Science Japan Journal, an international journal on social science research on Japan published by Oxford University Press. He is the principal investigator of the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys, funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He presently serves on the international editorial board of several journals, including British Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, and Social Forces. He is currently the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Official Representative for the University of Tokyo.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Health Across the Lifecourse

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
Maxime Jaffré
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France

Biography

Dr Maxime Jaffré is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). His researches focus on issues of deterritorialisations and cultural recompositions. He is also interested in processes of institutionalisation of culture and in issues of implementation of cultural practices in the urban space. Dr Jaffré has also worked at the University of Chicago with Terry Nichols Clark, with whom he participated in the elaboration of a Cultural Mapping of Paris Métropole, on the behalf of the City of Paris. Dr Jaffré is now developing innovative statistical and cartographic methodologies involving Small and Big Data data analysis applied to urban and institutional issues. His current researches aims to determine the economic impacts of culture on cities, and on urban mobilities. Dr Jaffré has also been a consultant for the UNESCO at the Cultural Policy Division.

Previous Presentations

Spotlight Presentation (2017) | Can Data Science Do Without the Field Survey? Developing Innovative Statistical and Cartographic Methodologies Involving Small and Big Data Analyses in Social Sciences
Guo-qiang Liu
Deakin University, Australia

Biography

Dr Guo-qiang Liu is Associate Professor in Chinese Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University in Australia. His interests include language and identity, language policy and planning, and China’s reconstruction of its national identity.

Previous Presentations

Spotlight Presentation (2017) | Xinhua News Agency's Coverage of the Kunming Railway Station Attack in the Context of Reshaping China's National Identity
James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Featured Presentation (2019) | Defining and Measuring Resilience in an Aging World
Featured Workshop Presentation (2019) | Locating Data for Research: Data Collections and Resources for Thesis Writing, Teaching, and Grant Development for the Social Sciences and the Environment

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Health Across the Lifecourse
Featured Workshop Presentation (2018) | Locating Data for Research
Featured Presentation (2017) | Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
Haruko Satoh
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Haruko Satoh is Specially Appointed Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering Science in charge of CAREN (Osaka University Centre for the Advancement of Research and Education Exchange Networks in Asia) and also lecturer at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), where she runs MEXT Reinventing Japan project on “Peace and Human Security in Asia (PAHSA)” with six Southeast Asian and four Japanese universities. She is also the President of the The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA).

In the past she has worked at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Chatham House, and Gaiko Forum. Her interests are primarily in state theory, Japanese nationalism and identity politics. Recent publications include: “Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-‘Postwar’ Narrative” in Jain & Lam (eds), Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment (World Scientific, 2012); “Through the Looking-glass: China’s Rise as Seen from Japan”, (co-authored with Toshiya Hoshino), Journal of Asian Public Policy, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 181-198 (July 2012); “Post-3.11 Japan: A Matter of Restoring Trust?”, ISPI Analysis No. 83 (December 2011); “Legitimacy Deficit in Japan: The Road to True Popular Sovereignty” in Kane, Loy & Patapan (eds), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New Leadership Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “Japan: Re-engaging with China Meaningfully” in Tang, Li & Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Professor Haruko Satoh is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. She is Chair of the Politics, Law & International Relations section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | East Meets West
Philip Sugai
Doshisha Business School, Japan

Biography

Dr Sugai joined the Global MBA faculty at Doshisha Business School as a full-time faculty member in September 2013. He currently teaches Marketing, eMarketing, Marketing Research, and Sustainable & Responsible Marketing. Dr Sugai is also a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, where he teaches an undergraduate course on Innovation in Japan at the Stanford Overseas campus in Kyoto. Prior to joining the Doshisha University faculty, Dr Sugai taught at the International University of Japan in Niigata from January 2002, where he also served as Associate Dean and Dean of the IUJ Business School for six years.

Dr Sugai is the author of two books, The Value Plan and The Six Immutable Laws of Mobile Business (John Wiley & Sons), and has published case studies on KITKAT Japan, Australia’s AGL, Hatsune Miku and Walt Disney Internet Group, all of which are available through the Harvard Business School Publishing case study portal. He received his doctorate from Waseda University’s Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunications Studies, and his MBA in Marketing and Operations Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has worked as a marketing executive at American Express, Muze and Lightningcast, and currently serves as a marketing advisor and marketing strategy consultant to companies both in Japan and globally.

Featured Presentation (2018) | Towards a Universal Standard of Value through Blockchain

Previous Presentations

Featured Presentation (2017) | Establishing a Value Mindset
Jane Singer
Kyoto University, Japan

Biography

Dr Jane Singer is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), Kyoto University, Japan. She has a Master of International Affairs degree specialising in economic and political development from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, and a PhD from GSGES, Kyoto University, focusing on development-forced displacement and resettlement. Her principal research focus is migration and displacement, with recent research investigating dam-displaced ethnic minority communities in central Vietnam and community resilience for government-sponsored transmigrants in Sumatra, Indonesia. Her other principal research focus is campus sustainability and tertiary education for sustainability. Her recent publications include two edited books, Global Implications of Development, Disasters and Climate Change: Responses to Displacement from Asia Pacific (2015, with Susanna Price) and Educating for Sustainability in Japan: Fostering Resilient Communities after the Triple Disaster (2016, with Tracey Gannon, Fumiko Noguchi and Yoko Mochizuki), both published by Routledge.

Previous Presentations

Spotlight Presentation (2017) | Applying a Rights-Based Approach in Investigating Repatriation of Fukushima's Nuclear Refugees
Michael Anthony C. Vasco
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines

Biography

Professor Michael Anthony C. Vasco obtained his PhD in Philosophy, his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, and his Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. He has published numerous single-authored research articles in academic journals, book anthologies and conference documents in Philosophy and Philosophy-related publications. His research interests include Contemporary European Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy and Comparative Philosophy. He is Dean and Full Professor 2 in the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters and is Professorial Lecturer 3 at the UST Graduate School. During his Deanship, the Faculty of Arts and Letters, of UST was declared a Center of Excellence in Philosophy and Center of Development in Journalism, Communication Arts and Literature by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education.

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | East Meets West
William Baber
Kyoto University Graduate School of Management, Japan

Biography

Will Baber has combined education with business throughout his career, teaching business students in Japan and Europe and working in economic development for the State of Maryland and language services in Washington, DC. In his work he has frequently encountered cross cultural conflicts and synergies. He studies these issues as an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Management of Kyoto University. His research interests include cross-cultural adaptation and the impact of expatriates on the workplace.

Featured Workshop Presentation (2018) | What you see and What you do
Sarah Louisa Birchley
Toyo Gakuen University, Japan

Biography

With an undergraduate degree in Geography, an MA in Education (TESOL) and a Doctorate in Education, with a focus on Management, Sarah Louisa feels extremely comfortable working in an interdisciplinary environment. She teaches courses in Organisational Behavior, Professional Skills, Academic Skills, Global Business and Management at Toyo Gakuen University, Japan and is also the Deputy Director of the International Exchange Center, responsible for running inbound and outbound study abroad experiences. Additionally, Dr Birchley works as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where she teaches courses in literature and presentation.

Sarah is currently a Series Consultant for the Pearson ELT textbook series, English in Common, based on the CEFR, and she has experience teaching and researching about CLIL and language policy in Japan. She is also a certified Birkman Consultant and is currently undergoing micro-expression training to improve her coaching skills.

Dr Birchley’s primary research is grounded in the field of Education Management. Recent research has explored the marketing of higher education, human resource management in education and organisational behavior in academic institutions.

Grant Black
Chuo University, Japan

Biography

Professor Grant Black is a professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan, where he has taught Global Skills and Global Issues since 2013. Grant is engaged in diverse roles as a global manager, systems builder, executive leader and university professor. His research and teaching areas include global management skills, intercultural intelligence (CQ) and organisational management. He also has taught Japanese Management Theory at J. F. Oberlin University (Japan), and a continuing education course in the Foundations of Japanese Zen Buddhism at Temple University Japan. Previously, he was Chair of the English Section at the Center for Education of Global Communication at the University of Tsukuba where he served in a six-year post in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He holds a BA Highest Honors in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an MA in Japanese Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles; and a Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci) from the Department of Management in the School of Business at the University of Leicester. Dr Black is a Chartered Manager (CMgr), the highest status that can be achieved in the management profession in the UK. In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Grant is President of Black Inc. Consulting (Japan), a Tokyo-based firm specialising in international and intercultural project management, communication projects, and executive leadership and training. He is the director of the Nippon Academic Management Institute (NAMI) and the author of Education Reform Policy at a Japanese Super Global University: Policy Translation, Migration and Mutation (Routledge, 2022). He serves as a Vice-President for the International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

Keynote Presentation (2024) | Ethics and Care in Sole Custody Policy

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2022) | Accidental Leadership and Innovative Learning
James Briganti
Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan

Biography

Professor Briganti is currently Assistant Professor at Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan, where he teaches Public Health in the English Section and oversees three different international exchange programs. Previously, Professor Briganti worked for Michigan State University, USA, teaching academic writing to VIPP (Visiting International Professional Program) students from Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among others. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, International Relations, from James Madison College at Michigan State University, Professor Briganti was active in two citizens’ lobby groups, Clean Water Action and Citizens Action, where he was a fundraiser and crew leader responsible for educating citizens state-wide concerning legislative actions on environmental and civil liberties issues. Professor Briganti returned to Japan five years ago after obtaining his Master’s degree. His current interests are cross-cultural competence, social justice, international academic collaboration, and Content-Based Instruction. He has an abiding love of literature, learning, nature and progressive ideas.

Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and a Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within the university.

He is also a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

A black belt in judo, he is married with two children, and lives in Japan.

Hiroshi Ishida
University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Hiroshi Ishida is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo. He served as the Director of the Institute of Social Sciences and the Director of the Center of Social Research and Data Archives, at the University of Tokyo, from 2012 to 2015. He received his PhD in sociology from Harvard University, conducted post-doctoral research at Nuffield College and St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and held positions of Assistant and Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. He was a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan and a Visiting Fellow of Sociology at Yale University.

Professor Ishida’s research interests include comparative social stratification and mobility, school-to-work transition, and social inequality over the life course. He is the author of Social Mobility in Contemporary Japan (Stanford University Press) and the co-editor with David Slater of Social Class in Contemporary Japan (Routledge). His work has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes, including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, and Japanese Sociological Review.

Professor Ishida was the president of the Japanese Association of Mathematical Sociology from 2011 to 2013, and currently serves as the secretary/treasurer of the Research Committee on Social Stratification of the International Sociological Association. From 2005 to 2010, he was the editor-in-chief of Social Science Japan Journal, an international journal on social science research on Japan published by Oxford University Press. He is the principal investigator of the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys, funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He presently serves on the international editorial board of several journals, including British Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, and Social Forces. He is currently the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Official Representative for the University of Tokyo.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Health Across the Lifecourse

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Featured Presentation (2019) | Defining and Measuring Resilience in an Aging World
Featured Workshop Presentation (2019) | Locating Data for Research: Data Collections and Resources for Thesis Writing, Teaching, and Grant Development for the Social Sciences and the Environment

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Health Across the Lifecourse
Featured Workshop Presentation (2018) | Locating Data for Research
Featured Presentation (2017) | Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia