Japan and the Global Threat
During his inaugural lecture at Hagen University’s Leipzig campus, Junior Professor Dr Julius Weitzdörfer spoke about Japan and the existential challenges facing humanity.
The 21st century is one of extremes. The collapse of civilization on a global scale poses a lasting threat. “To put it simply, we’re talking about the risk of the human species becoming extinct,” explains Junior Professor Dr Julius Weitzdörfer. To underline his point, he cites the existence of pandemics, climate change, nuclear weapons, and the evolutionary dead end in which humanity could find itself just as other species have before it. “There is no reason to assume that this should not apply to our species,” said the scientist from Hagen University in his inaugural lecture, which he recently delivered at Hagen University’s Leipzig campus.
Julius Weitzdörfer spent a large amount of his academic career in Cambridge and at the House of Lords in London, where his work focused, among other things, on issues related to extreme risks. Since 2020, he has been the Junior Professor of Japanese law at Hagen University and heads the Department of Japanese Law at the Institute for International Legal Relations. He also works as a research consultant at the Leipzig campus of the FernUniversität.
Both a Pioneer and a Threat
The specialist in Japanese law vividly describes scenarios ranging from highly plausible to utterly hypothetical regarding how humanity might come to an end, whilst drawing a connection to Japanese studies. In doing so, he not only demonstrates how Japan itself can increase or reduce existential risks to the planet, but also examines the relevance of Japanese studies as a regional discipline in an age of global challenges.
Species conservation on the one hand, and overfishing and pollution on the other. A potential nuclear power on the one hand, and a pioneer in innovative information technology on the other. Professor Weitzdörfer’s lecture paints a controversial picture of a country whose inhabitants make up just 1.6 per cent of the world’s population, yet whose actions can certainly be regarded as significant from a global perspective, and whose research is pioneering and forward-looking on a worldwide scale.
