Graduate School of East Asian Studies

Edited by Cornelia Reiher (GEAS vice director) and Nora Kottmann (DIJ Tokyo), this handbook is the first comprehensive guide on qualitative methods, research designs and fieldwork in social science research on Japan. The book covers the entire research process from the outset to the completion of a thesis, a paper, or a book.The authors provide basic introductions to individual methods, discuss their experiences when applying these methods and highlight current trends in research on Japan.

In this article in Pacific Affairs, GEAS Alumna Eunhee Woo analyzes how democratization has affected the dynamics of candidate selection in South Korea after the 2000s. To explain the persistence of such exclusive, centralized features of candidate selection, the article highlights the limited impact democratization has had on the political environment in which the parties operate.

In this journal article, Hendrik Johannemann reflects on South Korea's mobilization against LGBT rights, mainly emanating from conservative Protestant forces. This anti-LGBT mobilization has been attributed to the need to create an “external enemy” as a means for covering up internal scandals. Hendrik's study examines how the Protestant anti-LGBT movement creates an “internal enemy”, too, by fighting against pro-LGBT activism and attitudes within its faith.

In addition to other profound impacts, the corona virus has offered global energy markets an unprecedented natural experiment. Oyuna Baldakova and David Roland-Holst report on Global Decarbonization after the pandemic.

Associate Research Professor and former Einstein Visiting Fellow Gunter Schubert and project member Franziska Plümmer highlight questions of the GEAS project" Sovereignty and International Law in the PRC. Global Migration, Global Terrorism and International Law: Chinese Perceptions and Responses" in this article in the IIAS newsletter 87 (Autumn).

How to understand the Self and Significant Others? GEAS Alumna Ji-Young Heo explores this question in her dissertation by analyzing a variety of domestic as well as foreign policy reforms of South Korea towards North Korea and the US.

In her published dissertation thesis, GEAS Alumna You-kyung Byun analyzes and explores the dynamics of the exchange of monetary gifts, so-called helping money (pujogŭm), in a South Korean high school alumni network association.

In this collaborative Special Issue in the Australian Journal of International Affairs, edited by Giulio Pugliese and colleagues, attendants of the 2017 KCL-FUB Joint Workshop have published their research on the change of Japanese foreign and security policies. GEAS doctoral researcher Simon Schwenke's article deals with the change in civil-military relations in Japan, 2009-2021.

GEAS vice-director Elena Meyer-Clement and her colleagues in the DFG project Steering Urban-Rural Intergration have published a Special Issue in China Information, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2020. OnlineFirst print of the introduction by Elena Meyer-Clement and Jesper Willaing Zeuthen "China's Rural urbanization and the state: Putting the countryside first?" is available now.