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Words That Move: Emotions in Abe Shinzō’s Foreign Policy Rhetoric
This presentation is based on a collaborative research project with Tadashi Iwami (Hokkaido University) and Marc Barcelos (Aarhus University), exploring how Japan’s longest-serving prime minister Abe Shinzō strategically used emotional rhetoric to garner international support for his Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision. The study introduces an innovative methodology using Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), a machine learning model capable of detecting and analysing syntax-sensitive emotional expressions in texts. Alongside presenting key findings, the talk offers a critical reflection on the opportunities and limitations of AI-based approaches to discourse analysis of Japanese texts, highlighting the important role Japan Studies can play in shaping scholarly engagement with digital transformation and computational methods in the humanities and social sciences.
Date:
13 November 2025, 17:00
Venue:
St Antony's College, 62 Woodstock Road OX2 6JF
Venue Details:
Syndicate Room, Old Main Building
Speaker:
Professor Raymond Yamamoto (Aarhus University)
Organising department:
Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies
Organiser:
Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies
Organiser contact email address:
administrator@nissan.ox.ac.uk
Hosts:
Professor Kristi Govella (University of Oxford),
Professor Hugh Whittaker (University of Oxford)
Part of:
Nissan Institute Seminar in Japanese Studies
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Andrew Melling
