Japan/日本

 From Japan Focus  Abstract: The Coronavirus hit Japan during our study-abroad semester in Kyoto. Here we present similarities in Japanese societal response to chemical pollutants throughout the long twentieth century and to COVID-19, as they became apparent to us through a chemistry course on Japanese industrial pollution.    Key Words: Study abroad, chemistry, … [Read more...] about Study-abroad in Japan under COVID-19: Emerging Parallels with a Course on Environmental Pollution

 From Japan Focus  Abstract: Indigenous people are often depicted as helpless victims of the forces of eighteenth and nineteenth century colonial empire building: forces that were beyond their understanding or control. Focusing on the story of a mid-nineteenth century diplomatic mission by Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw), this essay (the first of a two-part series), … [Read more...] about Indigenous Diplomacy: Sakhalin Ainu (Enchiw) in the Shaping of Modern East Asia (1: Traders and Travellers)

 From Japan Focus  Abstract: Certain fundamentals of the geopolitical frame of inter-state relations in East Asia remain as set around 70-years ago in the wake of the cataclysmic Second World War and subsequent San Francisco Treaty (1951), when the US was undisputed master of the world, China divided and excluded, Korea divided and at war, and Japan occupied. The … [Read more...] about Japan, Australia, and the Rejigging of Asia-Pacific Alliances