Political Change and National Identity in the UK and Japan – 2010 Seminar Series by The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

Date: Monday, 18 January 2010, 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Venue: Daiwa Foundation Japan House, 13/14 Cornwall Terrace, London NW1 4QP

This first seminar in the 2010 series, States in Change: National Identity in the UK and Japan, will explore the impact of political change or its prospect on society, its values and aspirations.

The Democratic Party of Japan’s recent election victory has overturned over fifty years of nearly unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Does this major political upheaval represent a rejection of the past or does it point to a profound change in Japanese society and its expectations of government?

The prospect of political change in the UK is similarly dominating the headlines some thirteen years since the Labour Party was returned to power. Here, too, national identity and politics are intertwined and electoral choices may influence the future nature of British society.