Objective: Study social conflicts caused by global/local population dynamics in the 21st century and solve problems of culture clash and wellbeing in East Eurasia
The Kobe University Base of East Eurasian Studies Project（EES Kobe） was established as one of the four projects “Global Mediterranean Studies”, “Indian Ocean Rim Studies”, “Maritime Asia and Oceania Studies”, and “East Eurasia Studies”, which were planned as a network-type core research project “Promoting Area Studies” by the National Institutes for the Humanities.
The EES Kobe will conduct comprehensive and integrated research on social change in East Eurasia, particularly in East Asian societies. We study various phenomena affecting the region from within and outside, with a focus on the issue of “declining birthrates, aging populations, and their conflicts”.
As we enter the 21st century, the phenomena of population change, such as the aging of society and declining birthrates, is having a profound impact on a wide range of social, cultural, and natural environments and is a common problem for East Asian societies. In Japan, South Korea, North Korea, China, Russia, Mongolia, Taiwan, and other regions, the declining birthrate and aging population, transborder and migrant labor, and transnational issues are interlocking, and conflicts and social changes occur from micro to macro level under the increasing influence of globalization. At EES Kobe, we will first set specific topics to capture the realities of these issues and examine them from various angles. The problem of low fertility and an aging society is not only a problem of population change, but also a serious issue in each society because of the history of building communities and societies in East Asia based on Confucian values that are based on family relationships, and the conflicts this brings about.
This problem is not confined to each society. We note that the phenomena of declining birthrates and an aging population has a major impact beyond this society and region, and has a major impact globally. In other words, the migration of people to other societies in the region (North Korea, Central Asian societies, and continental Southeast Asia), such as migrant labor, international marriages, and the establishment of production sectors and economic advancement through economic policies to secure labor and markets, are also influencing other societies in the region, and are becoming a factor in global conflicts that go beyond the East Eurasian region. This has become one of the factors causing global conflict beyond the East Eurasian region.
The center will take an interdisciplinary approach from the perspective of comprehensive knowledge in humanities and social sciences to the interaction between various issues the region and beyond it, and to comparisons within the region, without being bound by conventional spatial frameworks. We seek to contribute to people’s lives based on the co-creation of knowledge obtained from these studies with the real world.