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KEIO SFC JOURNAL Vol.25 No.2 New Dynamics of Contemporary China Studies: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies
published on 2026.03
New Dynamics of Contemporary China Studies: New Sources, Methods, and Field Strategies
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Foreword
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-00.pdfTomoki Kamo (Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University)
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Frontiers of Research on China’s Military and Security ―Institutional Reforms, Military-Civil Fusion, and Technological Hegemony
Takahiro Tsuchiya (Professor, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies) This article reviews China’s military under Xi Jinping across four pillars: post 2015 military reform and joint operations, civil-military fusion, maritime strategy, and responses in new domains (space, cyber, electromagnetic). It highlights advances in multi domain integration and AI-enabled C2, the gray zone toolkit, and dual use technologies such as quantum and hypersonic. Methodologically, it outlines an OSINT centered approach combining patent and publication network analysis, with implications for export controls, norm building, and crisis management.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-01.pdf -
Text-as-data Approach for China Studies ―New Opportunities for Familiar Problems
Vida Macikenaite (Assistant Professor, Graduate School of International Relations, International University of Japan) This paper advocates the use of the text-as-data approach – automated or computer-assisted text analysis – for the study of Chinese politics and foreign relations. It reviews how computational text analysis has been applied in China studies and demonstrates its analytical potential through a pilot semantic network analysis of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokespersons’ remarks on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The findings reveal the centrality of the United States in China’s narrative, the moral framing of China’s position, and a subtle discursive shift from “justice” to “dialogue” over time. Nevertheless, the paper concludes that computational text analysis enhances, rather than replaces, human interpretation, opening new avenues for rigorous, data-driven China research validated by human expertise.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-02.pdf -
Objectivity and Subjectivity in China Studies ―On “Co-Behaviorism” Advocated by KAGAMI Mitsuyuki
Eiichi Tajima (Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University) KAGAMI Mitsuyuki once advocated “Sinology” as a new way of studying China. His argument was based on the works of Husserl, Said, Derrida and other scholars. He recognized that we should proceed with our research under assumption that each of us is a subject, and therefore the relationship between us and various Chinese actors is co-subjective. However, what Kagami is confronting goes far beyond such a discussion, and it seems to involve issues that extend to classical philosophy and theology. It is related to “science” itself, the objectification and acquisition of explicit knowledge that humans have been engaged in for thousands of years, and it is especially noticeable in the social sciences. Therefore, if we are to solve this problem in some way, we may have to search for a method that goes beyond the framework of “science”.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-03.pdf -
Trends and Challenges in Research on China’s Local Governance ―Focusing on Overseas Studies
Haolan Zheng (Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University) This paper examines the trends and challenges in research on China’s local governance over the past two decades, with particular attention to overseas scholarship. By reviewing studies on policy implementation by local government cadres from the Hu Jintao era to the Xi Jinping era, it explores the challenges facing local governance research from the perspectives of social transformation and grassroots governance practices. In addition, it points out the need to consider the impact of social structural changes on grassroots governance and the corresponding policy responses.
Download this article (PDF):FCJ-25-2-04.pdf -
The Next Frontier of Speech Act Research in Modern Chinese ―Prospects Opened by Visualization and Methods
Daisuke Miyamoto (Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University)
This paper maps 2001-2024 trends in The Japanese Journal of Language in Society and Bulletin of the Chinese Language Society of Japan via title-based correspondence analysis and co-occurrence networks, and reviews five speech acts. Interaction- and CA-oriented topics cluster in the former, while structural description and pedagogy dominate the latter; speech-act studies remain limited. We trace methods from DCTs to role-play/oral DCT to natural conversation/CA, and propose mixed-methods, cross-media/multimodal comparisons, and Sino-Japanese contact corpora to advance the next frontier of Speech Act research in Modern Chinese.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-05.pdf -
Incremental Fiscal Reform in China ―The Policy Process of Fiscal Centralization Reform
Hanqing Zhao (Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University) This study examines the policy process of China’s fiscal recentralization reforms, focusing on the 1994 tax-sharing reform and the 2002 income tax reform. Both cases reveal how the central government employed gradual institutional design to mitigate local resistance and consolidate fiscal resources. Through flexible mechanisms such as trial implementation and phased tax sharing adjustments, the reforms maintained central dominance while increasing institutional acceptance. This study proposes an analytical perspective that situates China’s fiscal reform as a form of gradual institutional change under an authoritarian regime.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-06.pdf -
The “Paper Tiger Phenomenon” in Contemporary China’s Central Government ―Institutional Design, Party Control, and Central-Local Relations
Yihe Liu (Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University) This paper examines factors generating the “paper tiger phenomenon” in China’s central government, where agencies’ de jure power diverges from de facto authority. Case analysis reveals three factors: the “rigid-flexible duality” of the “Three Determinations” system, the “umbrella structure” reallocating authority by Party priorities, and central-local relations amplifying authority weakening. The paper demonstrates that their interaction constrains policy effectiveness through horizontal power relations within central government. This phenomenon results from structural tension between Party governance logic and bureaucratic rationality, manifested in cycles of institutional reform.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-07.pdf -
Why Must the Central Government Control the Media? ―Cultural Hegemony, Social Movements, and the Case of Hong Kong
Qiuyan Duan (Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University)
Since the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law, media control has suppressed dissent and shaped state discourse. This paper examines how such control influences policy windows and public identity, applying agenda-setting, framing, and Kingdon’s policy window theory, with cases including Apple Daily, to explore media’s dual role in policy implementation and social governance.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2ｰ08.pdf -
The Structure of Cx-con ―Speculations on the Foundation of Linguistic Theory
Toshio Ohori (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo) Studies in the field of linguistics ordinarily consist of well-defined case studies and the discussion of their implications for an equally well-defined sub-area of a certain theoretical model. In this study, however, I will speculate on the foundational issues of linguistics starting with the discussion of the semiotic nature of human language, and then proceed onto the design features of linguistic signs. It is argued that not just simple signs (=words) but complex signs (=syntactic constructions) are treated comprehensively and systematically as belonging to a network of constructions, called constructicon (=Cx-con). Conjectures on the being and becoming of human language will be provided building on this conceptual framework.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-09.pdf -
The Stipulation Under the Constitution of Japan That Authorizes Disciplines on Online Platform Operators About Moderation of Content Distributed Over Their Platforms
Atsushi Umino (Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University) As social networking platform operators exercise their private power to control the information on their platforms, legislation that requires the removal of problematic information is understood to be a constitutional requirement. As the basis for this, the objective aspect of the “right to know” based on Article 21, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of Japan and the concept of digital constitutionalism have been inappropriately addressed. However, it can be seen as a requirement for “development of a sound institutional environment to use communications” derived from paragraph 2 of the same article.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-10.pdf -
A Statistical Analysis of the Differences in the Conceptualization of Image Schemas between Native and Non-native Speakers of English Using Item Response Theory ―Focusing on the Preposition “in”
Takafumi Fujiwara (Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University / Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Matsumoto University) Yasuhide Numata (Professor, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University) Fujiwara (2022) conducted a psychological experiment to investigate the extent to which native and non-native speakers of English consider noun phrases that come after in to be “containers”. To analyze the data of the experiment, we propose a method based on Item Response Theory. We obtained some indication that the answers of native speakers seemed to be based on some concept shared by participants. On the other hand, the answers of Japanese speakers for some usages did not seem to be based on a shared concept.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-11.pdf -
Practical Study on Sustainable Promotion of CP Football ―Analysis Using Semi-structured Interviews and Text Mining
Haruna Nishioka (Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo) This study aimed to clarify strategies for promoting CP (Cerebral Palsy) Football, which has particularly low recognition among disability sports. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 citizens aged 10-40s, and the data was analyzed through quantitative text analysis using KH Coder. As a result, six major categories were extracted regarding the promotion of CP Football: “promoting disability understanding through experiential events”, “expanding awareness through education and media”, “creating diverse involvement and competitive culture”, “deepening understanding through contact with the general public”, “strengthening credibility through cooperation with professional soccer”, and “information dissemination aimed at empathetic understanding through SNS”. The findings suggest that promoting CP Football can contribute not only to increasing the number of participants but also to solving social issues such as disability understanding and the realization of an inclusive society.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-12.pdf -
“Half-open” Structure in the Mental Health Care for Hikikomori ―Life History Survey of Hikikomori Experiencers in Japan and France and Fieldwork at La Borde Clinic
Hiroki Fujitani (Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Cross-Cultural and Japanese Studies, Kanagawa University) This paper reports on life history interviews with Hikikomori experiencers and fieldwork at La Borde Clinic in France. This paper aims to reconsider current mental health care approaches to Hikikomori from the perspective of Hikikomori individuals themselves and reframe the relationship between Hikikomori and mental health care. Drawing on the philosophy of Institutional Psychotherapy and the structural features of La Borde Clinic, this paper explores the possibility of Hikikomori individuals and experiencers living with others in a “half-open” environment.
Download this article (PDF):SFCJ-25-2-13.pdf
