NEWS

2022.01.31

The 40th AJI Frontier Seminar on "Japanese Public Diplomacy in European Countries: The Japan Foundation in Bulgaria and France"

On January 11, 2022, the 40th AJI Research Frontier Seminar took place online. This time, Dr. Gadjeva Nadejda Petrova, a Researcher at the Graduate School of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University delivered a stimulating presentation in English based on her recently published book entitled "Japanese Public Diplomacy in European Countries: The Japan Foundation in Bulgaria and France".

She explored an integrated approach for Japanese public diplomacy through public-private partnerships to address the lack of integration and common policy among Japan’s cultural promotion actors. She selected the Japan Foundation facilitating a Public-Private Partnership Platform.as the central public diplomacy actor in Europe. Focusing on France and Bulgaria she examined the Japan Foundation’s role, contributions, and activities implemented between the 1970s and 2018, both autonomously and in collaboration with Japanese and local public and private actors and compared the Foundation’s initiatives in the two countries. From interviews with Bulgarian and French representatives, she portrayed the image and the future expectations from Japan and made specific project proposals for integrated public diplomacy initiatives implemented through a Public-Private Partnership Platform facilitated by the Japan Foundation.

In an enthusiastic Q&A session, Dr. Gadjeva gave her audience detailed and interesting answers tto a variety of questions on aspects of Japan that are popular in the west, methods for promoting Japanese culture, and the reason for selecting a “Kind Japan” approach to diplomacy.

Dr. Gadjeva delivering her presentation

Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/