IJS Lecture/Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: Gil Latz, "Effective Leadership in Japan: the Case of Shibusawa Eiichi, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist"

Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture Speaker: Gil Latz
Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs
Department of Geography
The Ohio State University

Discussant: David Welch
Department of Political Science
The University of Waterloo, Balsillie School of International Affairs

Title: "Effective Leadership in Japan: the Case of Shibusawa Eiichi, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist"

Schedule:
Doors Open: 4:15
Opening Remarks: 4:30-4:45
Lecture with Q&A: 4:45-6:45
Reception: 6:45-7:30

Flyer: Latz-Welch Flyer

Abstract: The presentation addresses possible lessons for twenty-first century Japan by reviewing the leadership and vision of Shibusawa Eiichi (1840-1931), a significant figure in modern Japanese history who played a key role in the country’s transformation into a modern nation. 

Eiichi is widely regarded as a key leader in the development of Japan as a modern country, as a dynamic force in the industrial world, and as a person dedicated to social and public welfare. To realize a new and more appropriate social system for the country, Eiichi argued that Confucianism legitimizes economic activity as a rational act, laying the foundation for Japanese leaders, and society-at-large, to embrace the need for change from feudal to modern.  Such neo-Confucian thought included a distinguishing characteristic: all social organizations are expected to define their relationship to the public interest, and to do so hand-in-hand with their mission or profit-seeking agenda. 

There is a remarkable similarity between the national challenges tackled by Eiichi throughout his long life—values, citizenship, and world affairs—and those facing Japan today. Were he alive, Eiichi would not be alone in arguing for discussion of these factors and their contribution to Japan’s social cohesion. His voice is noteworthy, however, because of the unique, Confucian-based principles he brings to such discussion.

Eiichi approached Japan’s modernization based on a framework that recognized roles for entrepreneurship as well as for philanthropy, particularly in relation to government, business, and NGO collaboration.  The presentation incorporates this framework to address two themes: first, the role of historical analysis in understanding Japan’s realities, identifying the challenges and opportunities facing modern Japan; and second, Japan’s future, by identifying practical strategies for the emergence of a “New Meiji.” Specifically, by introducing ideas related to individual empowerment and better governance, as well as venture philanthropy, I identify the elements that might comprise new international and regional development thinking that creatively address various challenges and opportunities facing Japan in the first quarter of the 21^st century.

Gil Latz is Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs, and Professor of Geography, The Ohio State University. His graduate research training took place at the University of Chicago (MA, 1978; PhD, 1986, Geography) and the University of Tokyo (1980–1984). He has longstanding research interests in the comparative dimensions of resource management and the conservation of cultural landscapes in East Asia, North America, and Europe. For the past fifteen years his advisory affiliation to the Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation has included study of entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and civic leadership and the role they have played in Japan’s modernization process since the late nineteenth century. As Ohio State’s senior international officer, he currently leads strategic planning efforts to address the international dimension of the university’s mission by identifying goals and strategies that fully integrate global research, teaching and service across the campus, and by expanding the university’s global reach and reputation.

David A. Welch is University Research Chair and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs.   He graduated with an Honours B.A. in International Relations and Philosophy from the University of Toronto Trinity College (1983), an A.M. in Political Science from Harvard University (1985), and Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University (1990).   Prior to the University of Waterloo, he was Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.  He has published numerous articles on East Asian security issues, on themes of general importance to political science, and discourses on contemporary political history.  He has contributed a plethora of book reviews and book chapters on all major aspects of political science and international political studies.  He has written 14 monographs and books, four of which have been translated into Japanese.   Among them, Painful Choices: A Theory of Foreign Policy Change (Princeton University Press) is the inaugural winner of the International Studies Association ISSS Book Award for the best book published in 2005-2006, and Justice and the Genesis of War (Cambridge University Press 1993) is the winner of the OSU Mershon Center’s 1994 Edgar S. Furniss Award for an Outstanding Contribution to National Security Studies.  Professor Welch’s outstanding record of scholarship includes several teaching awards at the University of Waterloo (2010) and the University of Toronto (2008) as well as the American Political Science Association and Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society Award for Outstanding Teaching in Political Science (2008).

Free and open to the public

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center, the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund, and the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit.