Profile Information
- Affiliation
- Professor, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sophia University(Concurrent)Dean, Graduate School of Global Studies
- Degree
- Dr. Phil. (Ph.D.)(1999, Univ. of BONN)
- Other name(s) (e.g. nickname)
- Sven Saaler
- Researcher number
- 70401205
- J-GLOBAL ID
- 200901007736624683
- researchmap Member ID
- 5000090424
- External link
I am a historian of modern Japan teaching at Sophia University in Tokyo. As an academic, my main interests are the foreign relations of modern Japan and Japan’s place in the world with a particular focus on East Asian regionalism. Please refer to my website for details: http://www.japanesehistory.de/
Closely related to these historical issues, I have also explored the legacies of Japan’s history in the twentieth century. Addressing how history is discussed in contemporary society, I have written extensively on monuments, museums and memorials and how they portray the history of colonialism and war. In total, I have written and edited more than twenty books, almost a hundred articles, several encyclopedia entries and many columns and commentaries on topical issues. I have written articles in German, English and Japanese, and some of my publications have been translated into French, Korean, Chinese and Turkish. My academic work also includes half a dozen of exhibitions on historical topics.
I also have been serving on a number of editorial and advisory boards. Currently, I am a member of the board of the National Institutes of the Humanities (NIHU) of Japan, a member of the editorial board of the German East Asiatic Society of Japan (OAG), and a member of the editorial board of Japan Focus/The Asia-Pacific Journal.
I have appeared in and written for a variety of media outlets, including CNN, NHK (Japan), Deutsche Welle TV (Germany), ARD (German TV and radio), ZDF (German TV), BBC, the news agencies AP (US), Reuters (UK), dpa (Germany) and Kyodo (Japan) as well as the newspapers Asahi Shinbun, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Die Welt, Japan Times, Handelsblatt, taz and a number of Japanese regional newspapers. I also have written columns for Asahi, Kyodo, IPG, nippon.com, the online journal “Article 9.” Podcasts I have participated in can be found here.
Research Interests
11Research Areas
2Research History
7-
Apr, 2017 - Present
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Sep, 2008 - Mar, 2017
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Apr, 2005 - Sep, 2008
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Jan, 2004 - Mar, 2005
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Nov, 2000 - Dec, 2003
Education
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Oct, 1989 - Sep, 1990
Committee Memberships
2-
Apr, 2019 - Present
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May, 2008 - Present
Papers
63-
Nachrichten der Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, (175-176) 59-91, Dec, 2004 Peer-reviewed
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Japanstudien. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Instituts für Japanstudien, (16) 167-199, 2004 Peer-reviewed
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Jinmin no Rekishigaku (人民の歴史学), 158 27-42, Dec, 2003
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Kan-Nihonkai Kenkyû 環日本海研究 (Journal of the Japan Sea Rim Studies), (8) 1-20, Dec, 2002The term "race" originally developed within the field of the natural sciences. However, since the late j9th century, an increasing relevance can be observed within the discourse on identity, national character, nation-building, and also regionalism. Introduced by Fukuzawa Yukichi, in Japan the category of race was first instrumentalized by the early Pan-Asian movement, which aimed at an alliance of the Asian yellow peoples' against the colonialist West. With the emergence of "Yellow Peril-propaganda after 1895, the term race also became of increasing importance in Japanese foreign policy decision-making. Especially in the Imperial Army, influential figures such as Yamagata Aritomo or Utsunomiya Taro belonged to early voices that predicted a "clash of races" (jinshu toso-ron). During and shortly after World War I, these fears seemed to materialize. Germany was said to spearhead a return of "white powers" to East Asia by planning an "advance to the East" (Doitsu tozen-ron), building on the stock of Prisoners-of-War that were interned by Russia in Siberia and the Far East. The dealings with these German (actually mostly Austro-Hungarian) POWs on the side of Japanese politicians, military, academics and media showed an increase of irrational behavior in discourse on foreign policy and a lack of flexibility to adjust to new developments in international politics. This lead to an increasing antagonism with the Western powers becoming obvious during the Siberian Intervention. The scenario of a "clash of civilizations" obviously was more attractive to contemporaries than Okuma Shigenobu's and Yoshino Sakuzo's scenarios aiming at "harmony of civilizations" (bunmei no chowa).
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Japanstudien: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Instituts für Japanstudien, (14) 103-138, Dec, 2002
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Kokusai Koryu (国際交流 97), 25(1) 68-79, Oct, 2002
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Japanstudien. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Instituts für Japanstudien, (13) 13-33, Dec, 2001
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Economic Review of Kanazawa University (金沢大学経済学部論集), 19(2) 251-287, Mar, 1999
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Economic Review of Kanazawa University (金沢大学経済学部論集), 19(1) 259-285, Dec, 1998
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Kanzawa University Center for Urban and Regional Studies Newsletter, (48) 3-8, Aug 31, 1998
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Kanzawa University Center for Urban and Regional Studies Newsletter, (47) 3-7, May 27, 1998
Misc.
58-
IPG - Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, Jul, 2025 Peer-reviewedInvitedLead author
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IPG - Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, Oct, 2024 Peer-reviewedInvited
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集英社オンライン (Shueisha Online), Mar, 2024 Peer-reviewedInvitedLead author
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IPG - Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Dec 15, 2023 Peer-reviewedInvitedCorresponding author
Major Books and Other Publications
66-
Leiden: Brill, 2020 (ISBN: 9789004414433) Refereed
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London and New York: Routledge, 2018 Refereedhttps://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Modern-Japanese-History/Saaler-Szpilman/p/book/9781138815186
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Munich and Tokyo: Iudicium, 2011 (ISBN: 9783862051373)
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Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2011 (ISBN: 9781442205963) Refereed
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Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2011 (ISBN: 9781442205963) Refereed
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Munich/Tokyo: Iudicium (Bilingual: German/Japanese), Aug, 2007 (ISBN: 9783891299302)
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Global Oriental, Jul, 2007 (ISBN: 9781905246380) RefereedFor the historian and social scientist the opportunity to access recorded memories is invariably welcomed as a valuable building block in research and a determinant in establishing balance and perspective. Subjects treated include the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps (Tokkotai), how Comfort Women are remembered in ‘historical revisionism’ in Japan, the history and memory of the Nanjing massacre, the ‘Tokyo Trial view of history’, historical memory in novels, and an analysis of the post-occupation war movies. The Power of Memory in Modern Japan will be widely welcomed by students of modern Japanese history, politics and international relations.
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London and New York: Routledge, Jan, 2007 (ISBN: 9780415372169) Refereed
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Deutsches Institut fur Japanstudien der Stiftung Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland (Bilingual publication: German/Japanese), Mar, 2005
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Munich: Iudicium (DIJ Monograph Series, vol. 39), Jan, 2005 (ISBN: 3891298498) RefereedThis volume explores the political and social backgrounds of the ongoing history textbook controversy in Japan. In chapter 1, the resurgence since the 1990s of the conservative interpretation of history known as historical revisionism is identified as the major reason for the renewed debate. Chapter 2 demonstrates that, as a consequence of a strong connection between revisionism and politics, perspectives on Japan’s recent history underlying the “culture of memory” as it is
Presentations
121-
Nov 12, 2025, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (OAG)
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THE LIVES AND AFTERLIVES OF AMATEUR SOLDIER-PHOTOGRAPHY IN WOLRD WAR II, Jul 1, 2025, Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte Paris / Max Weber Stiftung Invited
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The Legacy of the Japanese Peace Preservation Law at its Centennial, May 29, 2025, Sophia University, Institute for Comparative Culture Invited
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Japan for Academic Advisors, May 16, 2025, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Invited
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Mar 21, 2025, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (OAG)
Professional Memberships
1Research Projects
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Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Apr, 2012 - Mar, 2018
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Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Oct, 2012 - Mar, 2016
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Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2008 - 2010
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Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2006 - 2009
Major Academic Activities
10-
Review, evaluationhttps://brill.com/display/serial/BJSL?language=en, Jan 1, 2019 - Present
Major Social Activities
18Media Coverage
74-
Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Spektrum, Aug 15, 2025 Newspaper, magazine
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Deutschlandfunk (ドイツ国営ラジオ局), Hintergrund (Background), Aug 4, 2025 TV or radio program
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Deutschlandfunk, Campus & Karriere, Aug, 2025 TV or radio program
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25 March 2025, Der Spiegel, Mar, 2025 Newspaper, magazine