On Thursday, October 8th, the 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI*) hosted Mr. Tobias Harris for a webinar discussion about his 2020 book entitled “The Iconoclast: Shinzo Abe and the New Japan”. The event was organized in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Centre for the Study of Global Japan (CSGJ) and moderated by 21JPSI and CSGJ Directors Adam Liff and Phillip Lipscy.
In his remarks, which were based on his 2020 book, Mr. Harris discussed the unique career of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving post-war prime minister. He discussed various aspects of Abe’s family history and political career, including his influence on foreign policy and trademark domestic policies such as Abenomics. Harris also highlighted how Shinzo Abe’s rise to politics coincided with the rise of a conservative contingent within Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and their efforts to realize a new vision for Japan.
After concluding his remarks, Mr. Harris engaged in a short discussion with 21JPSI Director Adam Liff and CSGJ Director Phillip Lipscy about Abe’s policy legacy. The event closed with a robust Q&A with the global audience tuned into the live webinar.
21JPSI would like to thank Professor Phillip Lipscy and the Center for the Study of Global Japan for their collaboration!
21JPSI programming note: Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, all events will be held exclusively online for the foreseeable future. To learn more, please check out our calendar of upcoming public webinars and sign up for our event announcement mailing list!
*The 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative (21JPSI) was launched at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in 2018. Under the leadership of Founding Director and HLS faculty member Adam Liff, 21JPSI aims to invigorate and expand research, teaching, and programming on contemporary Japanese politics, society, and international (esp. U.S.-Japan) relations, and to educate, raise awareness, and debate policy responses to the various political, social, and foreign policy challenges that Japan faces in this extremely dynamic era of 21st-century change. Supported by a generous $900,000 grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, in its first five years 21JPSI has enabled a new tenure-track faculty search; new courses on contemporary Japan; a speaker series on Japanese Politics and Society; biennial conferences and webinars on U.S.-Japan relations; graduate research fellowships, and faculty travel grants. For more information, please see https://jpsi.indiana.edu/ or write to jpsi@iu.edu