Kazuo Ogura, former president of the Japan Foundation, unraveled anti-globalism in a Special Seminar called “Genealogy of Anti-Globalism,” held by the Graduate School of International Relations.　

The seminar was held on Wednesday, January 11^th. Aside from students and faculty members, approximately 150 Japan Foundation fellows from all over the world participated.

 Against a backdrop of conspicuous crises rocking the global capitalism system such as the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and European Sovereignty Crisis, anti-globalism movements like OWS (Occupy Wall Street) are becoming more conspicuous. This trend of movements, ones with strong anti-global capitalism sentiment, diverse contexts/persons affected(participants), and complicated connections with past social movements is attracting much attention.

In this seminar, former president of the Japan Foundation and expert on anti-globalism movements and trends, visiting professor Kazuo Ogura discussed the movements’ cultural characteristics, potentials and limitations. At the keynote lecture, Professor Ogura introduced a wealth of examples on anti-globalism as something embedded in the process of globalization.

In the discussion that followed, Professor Norihisa Yamashita (College of International Relations) tossed questions concerning the movements’ relationship with reflexive modernization and comparativeness to the Global Revolution of 1986. Professor GyonSu Mun (College of International Relations) also raised issues in the context of anti-globalism and anti-American movements in Korea about the pathway of East Asia in a neoliberal world.

Profile/ Kazuo Ogura

Visiting Professor of Ritsumeikan University, Graduate School of International Relations. Graduate of Tokyo University Japan and the University of Cambridge. Former president of the Japan　Foundation(2003~2011), deputy foreign minister, ambassador to Vietnam, South Korea and France, and director-general of the Economic Affairs Bureau. Professor Ogura is also the author of many books including “Globalism he no Hangyaku” (Revolt against Globalism).