WIAS Newsletter is published twice a year and covers the work of WIAS and its researchers.
CHENG, Tony
My research focuses on how human and animal minds work, integrating a priori conceptual analysis and empirical methods. More specifically, I study consciousness, bodily experiences, spatial senses, and so on. Accordingly, I collaborate with both philosophers and empirical scientists for joint theoretical and experimental projects.
ESCANDE, Jessy
This study focuses on a segment of contemporary Japanese fantasy constructed through the reception of foreign cultures. I defined it as “database fantasy,” a genre that transcends media and subgenre boundaries but revolves around the repeated introduction and internalization therein of motifs derived from foreign mythologies, folklores, or religions.
An overarching concern of this research project is to deepen the understanding of the culturally hybridized imaginary found in database fantasy. Based on a transnational and interdisciplinary approach that includes game studies, comparative cultural studies, aesthetics, folklore studies, semiotics, and information studies, among others, this study aims to provide a detailed overview of the network of cultural transfers in database fantasy.
HUNG, Tak Wai
This study examines the interactions between Islam and overseas Chinese religions in Nusantara focusing on the diasporic Chinese communities’ perspective in the region.
KANG, Jing
Land use and land cover changes (LULCC) contribute to significant uncertainty in the global carbon budget, crucial for achieving carbon neutrality. This study explores the nonlinear relationship between net carbon exchange and LULCC, identifying CO2 uptake or emission thresholds. Leveraging satellite remote sensing and innovative geospatial machine learning, it aims to understand how land management can act as effective carbon sinks, informing resilient climate solutions.
KIRATLI, Osman Sabri
Dynamics of public attitudes on international cooperation
LE, Duc Dung
My research interests lie at the intersection of health economics and development economics, with a particular focus on issues related to health, education, and aging and retirement. My current work investigates the intergenerational effects of (i) education and early marriage, and (ii) natural resource booms on health and development outcomes.
MATSUO, Risa
This study examines the Fantaisies that Fryderyk Chopin wrote intensively in the 1840s through a comparative analysis with the works of two artists who were close to him －the French novelist George Sand and the Lithuanian-Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. By unraveling the ideas they shared across nationalities, genders, languages, and artistic genres, it will lead to consideration of various issues in the modern world (international conflicts, emigration, religious issues, etc.).
OTA, Eisuke
Natural resources often contain chemical structures found in medicinal and agrochemical agents. The technology to “cut and paste” these structures, which are difficult to construct through chemical synthesis, would contribute to shortening the synthetic process of medicinal and agrochemical agents. However, transformations targeting natural resources require highly chemoselective cleavage of stable bonds in the presence of diverse functional groups, making these types of transformations elusive. In this study, we aim to develop innovative photocatalytic reactions to transform natural resources using visible light. Achieving challenging bond cleavage reactions would not only advance synthetic organic chemistry but also contribute to the field of drug discovery by creating highly biologically active molecules.
SHIRAI, Tatsuhiko
This research focuses on exploring the performance limits of non-adiabatic quantum computation and its application. Since the operation time of current quantum computers is severely restricted due to errors, it is challenging to develop quantum algorithms that efficiently work within a short operation time. This study develops a fast ground-state generation method based on non-adiabatic quantum computation and offers effective solutions across various fields such as combinatorial optimization and quantum chemistry.
STOKES, Alexander
My research seeks to understand a class of mathematical models known as nonlinear integrable systems. While nonlinearity generally leads to chaos, integrable systems exhibit regular behaviour and an abundance of symmetry, which can in many cases be explained in terms of some underlying geometric structure. My current work aims to extend the geometric picture for a class of integrable systems in two-dimensions, called Painlevé equations, to analogous systems in higher and infinite dimensions.
YAN, Zi
The rapid aging of populations in China and Japan has brought about significant challenges, including an increased demand for caregivers. Family caregivers face unique pressures and responsibilities in providing care to their elderly family members due to the inevitable decline in both physical and cognitive capacities, particularly for family caregivers of people with dementia. This research endeavors to explore how families can be resilient, rebound from, resist, or adapt to the physical and psychological demands of caregiving. Recognizing that various interconnected factors shape ‘family caregiving resilience,’ this ongoing study seeks to construct a comprehensive theoretical framework delineating its core components and their impacts on family caregivers in both China and Japan. By delving into the intricacies of family caregiving resilience, this research aims to lay the groundwork for developing targeted programs and social policies that can provide substantial support to caregivers within the context of the super-aging society.
YANG, Yun Jung
Limited research has been conducted on the reasons why civilians are victimised during armed conflicts, despite the ongoing human rights violations in conflict zones. Rebel groups are committing an increasing number of human rights violations. However, the reasons behind their violence against civilians have not been fully developed. This research project aims to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of rebel violence during armed conflict by examining when and how rebel groups are likely to commit human rights violations, and what types of human rights violations they are likely to commit. In addition, this research is important because research on human rights violations in conflict zones can contribute not only to the protection of humanitarian violations in conflict zones, but also to examine broader and more detailed studies of conflict research, such as conflict resolution and conflict management, and to understand why people use violence against others and even why armed conflicts occur.
At the beginning of this academic year, WIAS Directors and office managers visited institutes for advanced studies in Germany and Switzerland. This time, we visited the Zukunftskolleg (ZUKO) at the University of Konstanz in Germany, the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) at the University of Freiburg, and the Collegium Helveticum (Collegium) in Switzerland. Collegium is a joint institute for advanced studies of the three universities, ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich (UZH), and Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
The reason behind this visit is that 16 years have passed since the establishment of the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, and the environment surrounding universities has significantly changed, particularly with the increase in international mobility. In order for our institute, which has supported early-career researchers as an institute dedicated to nurturing young researchers, to continue being a unique institution, we decided to conduct visits to overseas advanced research institutes that are undertaking distinctive initiatives.
This visit, including visits to FRIAS and Collegium, was conducted with the full cooperation of ZUKO, which has been our respectful partner institute.
The University of Konstanz, which houses ZUKO, was founded in 1966 and is a relatively small, emerging university within Germany, with approximately 10,000 students and 1,000 faculty members. However, it is currently recognized as one of the eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany under the federal and state government’s “Excellence Initiative.” The university is one that has been advancing as a research university through strategic research and internationalization measures. ZUKO is a part of this research strategy and is notably focused on nurturing early-career researchers, which is rare among European advanced research institutes.
What was particularly impressive was the nature of ZUKO’s fellowship program, which recruits highly innovative researchers. The words of Director GALIZIA, “Bold recruitment is necessary to exceed expected results.”, were especially insightful. During our visit, we also had the opportunity to meet with the Vice Rector for Research, Innovation and Impact, and the Director of International Office, and learn about the University of Konstanz’s strategy of “creative.together,” as well as the two research clusters that have expanded the university’s name, “The Politics of Inequality” and “Collective Behavior”. We also learned about their development of international collaboration in research as seen in the number of international co-authored papers.
Konstanz University’s approach of sharing its strategy across the organization and leveraging the cross-organizational and agile nature of a small university to implement bold measures like those seen in ZUKO may serve as a reference for many institutions.
Next, we visited FRIAS at the University of Freiburg, a prestigious and historic comprehensive university in Germany known for producing many Nobel laureates. The University of Freiburg was selected for the Excellence Initiative in the first phase and established FRIAS. Although it was not selected in the second phase, this led to the establishment of an independent operating system, which contributed to the current state of FRIAS. The transition to self-sustained operations after the end of a large fund is a challenge faced by any organization, and it was a valuable opportunity to reconsider the advantages and disadvantages of fund acquisition. FRIAS promotes research activities at the University of Freiburg by offering various types of fellowships to international researchers, especially for mid-career to senior researchers, and it has become a hub for many international research projects, as noted in the remarks of Director VON DEN HOFF. It was also notable that the administrative members supporting its operations were well-equipped and had recently begun focusing on public relations. The approach of setting target groups for each institute’s initiatives and utilizing multiple communication channels as effective marketing tools was something we could definitely learn from.
A common impression from the two German institutes was their emphasis on contributing to and collaborating with the local community. This reflects a strong sense of social contribution among higher education institutions in Germany and the idea that universities are part of society.
Finally, the Collegium in Switzerland, a unique institute in Zurich operated by three universities specializing in natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, and the arts. It was initially operated solely by ETH and later included the other two universities, resulting in the current model of integration of the three universities in the region. At the start of the operation with the three universities, Collegium was composed of professors from each university, but in recent years it has evolved into an international initiative providing fellowships to researchers at various career stages from abroad. The fact that Collegium not only welcomes researchers but also embraces artists is a distinctive feature of this institute that includes the art university. While Swiss universities have a very relaxed atmosphere, they also boast high research capabilities on a global scale, and we felt we caught a glimpse of the charm that attracts many researchers from overseas.
All the institutes we visited provide an international environment where researchers from both domestic and overseas gather and emphasize interdisciplinary with a focus on interaction among researchers from diverse fields. This visit was a valuable opportunity to experience the unique characteristics and atmospheres of each institute that can only be felt on-site. We intend to utilize the innovations and uniqueness of these institutes in the future management of our institute and maintain the strengthened connections between organizations to stimulate mutual growth and development.
The results of Assistant Professor Yuko Sato’s research were published in Political Research Quarterly on May 27, 2024. The following is an introduction to her latest research.
Disinformation*1 is a growing concern worldwide today, and its deleterious effects are becoming palpable, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As information is a fundamental resource for voters to hold governments accountable, disinformation is characterized as one of the key challenges to democracy. Drawing on novel datasets, we provide the first global comparative study of disinformation and the survival of democratic and authoritarian regimes,*2 respectively.
(1) What we know from the previous studies
In autocracies, disinformation is an inherent part of propaganda. Here, the studies focus on governments’ strategies for information control and dissemination. Anti-pluralists*3 and aspiring autocrats in democracies such as the United States, Brazil, Germany, and Sweden are also increasingly spreading “fake news” to influence voters’ opinions. Targeted campaigns abroad by autocratic regimes such as Russia, China, and Iran are adding further stress to democracies.
Despite the abundance of disinformation and the growing concern around it, comparative research on the issue and its political consequences is rare. To date, empirical research has almost exclusively studied the cases of Russia and China. At the same time, the macro-level political consequences, such as its effect on regime stability, have been understudied. In democracies, most prior research has focused on questions at the individual level, such as voters’ exposure and susceptibility to disinformation, but also less on its consequences on the political system. Thus, it remains debated whether disinformation poses an immediate threat to democracy or remains a marginal phenomenon without far-reaching consequences.
Figure 1: Correlation between Disinformation and the Level of Electoral Democracy.
(2) New findings
In this article, we systematically analyze the consequences of disinformation used by governments on political systems. We argue that disinformation proves to be an effective tool for dictators to retain their hold on power and show that democratization*4 is less likely in authoritarian regimes that disseminate more disinformation. On the other hand, we also echo concerns surrounding growing disinformation in democracies and suggest that higher levels of disinformation are associated with onsets of autocratization*4 by inciting political polarization and domestic conflicts.
In order to test this argument, we employ a comparative study. We draw on measures of disinformation from the Digital Society Project (DSP) and combine them with the Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) dataset—both datasets are from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, the research institute in Sweden—that identifies episodes of autocratization as well as liberalization. These datasets allow us to conduct a cross-national time-series study to systematically examine the effects of disinformation on regime survival across 148 countries between 2000 and 2022.
Figure 2 shows the predicted probabilities of democratization onsets in autocracies (left panel) and autocratization onsets in democracies (right panel). The left panel indicates that the predicted probabilities of democratization onset decrease on average from 10% to 0% when the disinformation scores move from the lowest to the highest in autocracies. On the other hand, the right panel indicates that the predicted probability of an autocratization onset increases as governments’ use of disinformation increases. This increase amounts to, on average, from 0% to 7% when disinformation levels move from the lowest to the highest in democracies. Taken together, we suggest that disinformation is detrimental to democracy across regime types.
Figure 2: Effects of Government Disinformation on Probabilities of Democratization and Autocratization Onsets.
(3) Future direction
Our findings provide robust evidence that disinformation negatively affects the quality of democracy in any regime type. Future research may test the different mechanisms more explicitly, especially in contexts other than Russia and China, to expand our knowledge of disinformation in authoritarian regimes. Second, we confirm the warnings of disinformation as a threat to democracy empirically and, therefore, echo calls that countering disinformation becomes increasingly important. On the other hand, our results also suggest a backlash against disinformation from civil society and pro-democracy actors, which can be critical for resisting autocratization.
(4) Terminology
1. Disinformation: Purposefully created information that “has the function of misleading” and is “intentionally and verifiably false.”
2. Democracy and autocracy: To be considered minimally democratic, a country has to meet sufficiently high levels of free, fair, and competitive elections as well as universal suffrage, freedom of expression and association. Autocracy is a regime that does not meet such institutional requirements, or the country’s representatives are not selected by its citizens, such as a military dictatorship or monarchy.
3. Anti-pluralist: Political leaders who lack commitment to the democratic process, disrespect fundamental minority rights, encourage demonization of political opponents, and accept political violence.
4. Democratization and autocratization: Democratization is a substantial increase in de-facto decline of core institutional requirements for electoral democracy, while autocratization refers to a substantial decline in such institutional requirements.
(5) Article information
Journal: Political Research Quarterly
Title: Disinformation and Regime Survival
Authors (Affiliation): Yuko Sato1 and Felix Wiebrecht2
(1. WIAS; 2. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK)
Achievements of WIAS and its researchers in AY 2023 are shown in numbers below (Click the following picture to see whole slides).
WIAS invites outstanding overseas researchers who are active internationally, and contributes to the energizing of research activities at Waseda University through academic exchanges and seminars between our researchers and the invitees. Click here for more information.
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URL：https://www.waseda.jp/inst/wias/en/
TEL：03-5286-2460
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E-mail：[email protected]
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