Speaker: Celeste Arrington (George Washington University)
Discussant: Hye Won Um (Sogang University)
Moderator: Yoojin Koo (EAA, University of Tokyo)
Date & Time: Thursday, March 3, 2022, 10:00-11:30 JST
(Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 20:00-21:30 EST)
Registration: https://u-tokyo-ac-jp.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlce6ppzwvHtItRBHX78z-xuPyuDJ8V4k7
Overview: Professor Celeste Arrington will speak about her current book project, which examines changing approaches to law and regulation in Japan and South Korea. In contrast to the adversarial legalism of the United States, Japan and Korea historically had informal, cooperative, and bureaucratic approaches to regulation. Yet, in the new millennium, we have seen more formal rules and enforcement mechanisms, including through the courts, in both countries. Unlike existing top-down explanations for this trend, the talk argues that Japanese and Korean activists and lawyers are underappreciated bottom-up drivers behind more legalistic approaches to governance. The talk illustrates how they are contributing to increasing legalism with examples from paired case studies of recent reforms related to secondhand smoke prevention and accessibility for people with disabilities.