National Identities and Bilateral Relations of Japan and Russia

課題番号：2181000

Ainu Identity and Japan's Identity: The Struggle for Subjectivity

This paper seeks to contribute to the academic debate on the contemporary identity of the Ainu. Ainu, the indigenous people of what today constitutes part of northern Japan, as well as the Russian Kurile Islands and parts of the island of Sakhalin, became the first subjects of modernizing Japan's expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century. In general, the Ainu's history, culture, and the struggle for recognition as indigenous people as well as against discrimination in Japan have been subjected to intense academic scrutiny in both English and Japanese. This article, however, aims to shed a different light on the construction of Ainu identity, by locating it within the broader contemporary discourse on Japan's national identity. It argues that the emergence of Ainu subjectivity in the public discourse in the 1970s can be partially attributed to the domestic struggle between the conservative and the progressive camps over the definition of Japan's identity. The paper analyzes both sides of the discourse and examines the role of the Ainu 'other' within this construction. It proceeds further to examine the challenge that the emergence of Ainu subjectivity has posed to Japan's politics, mainly in the context of the 'Northern Territories' dispute. The concluding part briefly examines the policy responses aimed at addressing these challenges

Russia in the construction of Japan's identity: Implications for international relations.

The purpose of this thesis is two folded. One is to explore the discourse on Russia and the role it has played in constructing contemporary Japan's national identity. The other is to explore the relationship between the identity discourse and Japan's foreign policy towards post-communist Russia. In this thesis, national identity is conceptualized as a discursive narrative that engages in the construction of the national "self" vis-a-vis multiple "others." The thesis focuses on Russia as the "other" in Japan's identity discourse. Russia has always occupied a special place in Japan's identity construction, and has never been part of "Asia" or the "West", which have been the main paradigms in Japan's identity discourse. The analysis focuses on works of leading Japanese scholars and public figures to examine the contemporary identity discourse, which has emerged in 1970s and continues to dominate the debates on Russia till the present day. The thesis also explores the construction of "Japan" and "Russia" in the writings of one of the most popular Japanese historical fiction writer, Shiba Ryotaro. It argues that the construction of hierarchical difference between Japan and Russia has served two purposes: one was to establish Japan's belonging to the universal realm of modern civilization, the second was to establish Japan's superior uniqueness not only vis-a-vis Russia, but also vis-a-vis the West. The last chapter examines the economic, political and military dimensions of the Japanese foreign policy vis-a-vis Russia, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This chapter examines the discourse of foreign policy along three dimensions: economic, military and the territorial dispute, arguing that identity functions differently in all three cases. Identity does not matter for the economic sphere, where the search for profits overrides concerns related to territory and history. Identity is, however, visible in the security discourse as seen in the lack of long-term trust of Russia's intentions among the members of the security community. In the context of the territorial dispute, identity shapes and, at the same time, is shaped by the policy related to this dispute. The thesis argues that, the policies Japan has implemented to enhance the return of the disputed islands are located within the same cognitive framework that has created Japan's cultural and civilizational superiority vis-a-vis Russia. It argues that it is not the security discourse but the conception of the territorial dispute and related polices which engage in creation of boundaries and hierarchical difference between the "self" and the "other."

Proposed Revision to the Taxonomy of the Genus Pestivirus; Family Flaviviridae

We propose the creation of seven new species in the genus Pestivirus (family Flaviviridae) in addition to the four existing species, and naming species in a host-independent manner using the format Pestivirus X. Only the virus species names would change; virus isolates would still be referred to by their original names. The original species would be re-designated as Pestivirus A (original designation Bovine viral diarrhea virus 1), Pestivirus B (Bovine viral diarrhea virus 2), Pestivirus C (Classical swine fever virus) and Pestivirus D (Border disease virus). The seven new species (and example isolates) would be Pestivirus E (pronghorn pestivirus), Pestivirus F (Bungowannah virus), Pestivirus G (giraffe pestivirus), Pestivirus H (Hobi-like pestivirus), Pestivirus I (Aydin-like pestivirus), Pestivirus J (rat pestivirus) and Pestivirus K (atypical porcine pestivirus). A bat-derived virus and pestiviruses identified from sheep and goat (Tunisian sheep pestiviruses), which lack complete coding region sequences, may represent two additional species

Broadly neutralizing antibodies from an individual that naturally cleared multiple hepatitis c virus infections uncover molecular determinants for E2 targeting and vaccine design

Cumulative evidence supports a role for neutralizing antibodies contributing to spontaneous viral clearance during acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Information on the timing and specificity of the B cell response associated with clearance is crucial to inform vaccine design. From an individual who cleared three sequential HCV infections with genotypes 1b, 1a and 3a strains, respectively, we employed peripheral B cells to isolate and characterize neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (HMAbs) to HCV after the genotype 1 infections. The majority of isolated antibodies, designated as HMAbs 212, target conformational epitopes on the envelope glycoprotein E2 and bound broadly to genotype 1–6 E1E2 proteins. Further, some of these antibodies showed neutralization potential against cultured genotype 1–6 viruses. Competition studies with defined broadly neutralizing HCV HMAbs to epitopes in distinct clusters, designated antigenic domains B, C, D and E, revealed that the selected HMAbs compete with B, C and D HMAbs, previously isolated from subjects with chronic HCV infections. Epitope mapping studies revealed domain B and C specificity of these HMAbs 212. Sequential serum samples from the studied subject inhibited the binding of HMAbs 212 to autologous E2 and blocked a representative domain D HMAb. The specificity of this antibody response appears similar to that observed during chronic infection, suggesting that the timing and affinity maturation of the antibody response are the critical determinants in successful and repeated viral clearance. While additional studies should be performed for individuals with clearance or persistence of HCV, our results define epitope determinants for antibody E2 targeting with important implications for the development of a B cell vaccine.</div

Proposed update to the taxonomy of the genera Hepacivirus and Pegivirus within the Flaviviridae family

Proposals are described for the assignment of recently reported viruses, infecting rodents, bats and other mammalian species, to new species within the Hepacivirus and Pegivirus genera (Family Flaviviridae). Assignments into 14 Hepacivirus species (Hepacivirus A to N) and 11 Pegivirus species (Pegivirus A to K) are based on phylogenetic relationships and sequence distances between conserved regions extracted from complete coding sequences of each proposed taxon. We propose that the species hepatitis C virus is renamed Hepacivirus C in order to acknowledge its unique historical position and so as to minimise confusion. Despite the newly documented genetic diversity of hepaciviruses and pegiviruses, members of these genera remain phylogenetically distinct, and differ in hepatotropism and the possession of a basic core protein; pegiviruses in general lack these features. However, other characteristics that were originally used to support their division into separate genera are no longer definitive; there is overlap between the two genera in the type of internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) and the presence of miR-122 sites in the 5'untranslated region (UTR), the predicted number of N-linked glycosylation sites in the envelope E1 and E2 proteins, the presence of poly U tracts in the 3' UTR and the propensity of viruses to establish a persistent infection. While all classified hepaciviruses and pegiviruses have mammalian hosts, the recent description of a hepaci-/pegi-like virus from a shark and the likely existence of further homologues in other non-mammalian species indicates that further species or genera remain to be defined in the future