[KS] Takeshima and Shimane Prefecture: Sophia University (Tokyo) lecture announcemenmt (December 5, 2013)

[Frank Joseph Shulman]

Takeshima and Shimane Prefecture

Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2013

Alexander Bukh, Senior Lecturer, Victoria University, Wellington
(http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/html/events/2013-2014/131205_bukh.pdf)

Date: December 5 (Thursday), 2013
Time: 17:30-19:00
Venue: Sophia University (Tokyo), Building 10, 3F, Rm 301

In 2005, the passage of “Takeshima Day” ordinance by Shimane prefecture
has propelled the territorial dispute over the Takeshima/Dokdo islets to the
fore of Japan's domestic discourse on bilateral relations with South Korea.
So far, Shimane Prefecture’s Takeshima related activism has been largely
ignored by scholarship devoted to the dispute. Occasional references to the
2005 ordinance suggest that it was driven by a combination of nationalism
and fisheries related interests. Based on extensive archival research in
this talk I examine the fifty years of Shimane Prefecture’s activities
related to Takeshima and offer a different interpretation of this activism.
I argue that in the early 1950s the prefectural authorities’ interest in
the uninhabited rocks was instigated by the collapse of the colonial
economic sub-zone that encompassed Shimane, Takeshima and Korea’s Ulleung
Island. From early 1960s, however, Shimane prefecture’s Takeshima related
activism was shaped and sustained by Tokyo’s contradictory policy on
Takeshima and the Northern Territories disputes. The talk suggests that the
2005 Takeshima Day ordinance was a logical continuation of previous policies
and actions taken by the prefecture and concludes by analyzing the domestic
political processes that enabled the passage of the ordinance despite Tokyo’s reluctance.

Alexander Bukh holds an LLM in International Law from Tokyo University and a
PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He is
currently a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand. Prior to taking this appointment he
held teaching positions at the University of Tsukuba and Waseda University
in Japan.
Bukh has published a number of academic articles and book chapters on
Japan-Russia relations and Japan's national identity and foreign policy. His
latest publications include an article on Japan's quest for the Northern
Territories published in the International Relations of Asia-Pacific and an
edited volume chapter on early Soviet perceptions of Japan and China.
Alexander is the author of "Japan's Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia as
Japan's Other" (Routledge 2009) which was translated to Russian and
published in November 2012.

SOURCE: H-JAPAN  Online Editor: David Wittner <dwittner at utica.edu>
November 19, 2013