If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to [email protected]. The inaugural lecture of The Tetsuo Najita Distinguished Lecture Series in Japanese Studies, by Professor Tetsuya Takahashi, University of TokyoProfessor Takahashi's writings, including his 2005 bestseller, The Yasukuni Issue, make unmistakably clear that the role of the Shrine is antithetical to democratic values in Japan and to reconciliation with Asia, which requires acknowledgment of the harms inflicted through colonialism and war. The subject of his lecture is Japan at a crossroads today, its hard-won postwar democratic values at stake as never before.Professor Takahashi teaches philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo. He specializes in contemporary European philosophy and has been particularly interested in the ethical aspects of the work of Jacques Derrida.