Deputy Counsel General of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Koji Abe will be discussing the current situation in Japan and challenges to come. He will consider Japan's relations with East Asia and South Asia, as well as the US-Japan alliance. He will examine the USJTA and TPP, grassroots activities in Japan, and other political, social, and economic aspects of Japan.It will be held from 3:00 to 4:30 pm at 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.
After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold.When Shoplifters was released in Japan in June it was the country's highest-grossing movie its first three weekends, and finished the year as Japan's fourth highest-grossing domestic film of the year.
At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces.
Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them...
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary “Battle Royale” act.
Battle Royale became a cultural phenomenon, and has been highly influential in global popular culture. Since the film’s release, the term “battle royale” has been used to refer to a fictional narrative genre and/or mode of entertainment inspired by the film, where a select group of people are instructed to kill each off until there is a triumphant survivor. It has inspired numerous media, including films, manga, anime, comics, visual novels, and video games; the battle royale game genre (including Fortnight), for example, is named after the film.
Leading attorney Shigemori takes on the defense of murder-robbery suspect Misumi, who served jail time for another murder 30 years ago. Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, 124 minutes, rated RThe movie runs from 2:30 to 4:30 pm in Classroom A and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map) and is accessible by buses 28X, 54, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, and 93.
Since the late 1970s, the three most salient minority groups in Japan - the politically dormant Ainu, the active but unsuccessful Koreans, and the former outcaste group of Burakumin - have all expanded their activism despite the unfavorable domestic political environment. In Rights Make Might, Kiyoteru Tsutsui examines why, and finds an answer in the galvanizing effects of global human rights on local social movements. Tsutsui chronicles the transformative impact of global human rights ideas and institutions on minority activists, which changed their understandings about their standing in Japanese society and propelled them to new international venues for political claim making. The global forces also changed the public perception and political calculus in Japan over time, catalyzing substantial gains for their movements. Having benefited from global human rights, all three groups repaid their debt by contributing to the consolidation and expansion of human rights principles and instruments outside of Japan. Drawing on interviews and archival data, Rights Make Might offers a rich historical comparative analysis of the relationship between international human rights and local politics that contributes to our understanding of international norms and institutions, social movements, human rights, ethnoracial politics, and Japanese society.The talk runs from 4:00 to 5:30 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.
