December 19, 2024
Associate Professor Masahito Watanabe of the Faculty of Policy Management has received the 46th Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities in the Society and Mores category.
The Suntory Foundation, a public interest incorporated foundation, annually presents the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities to individuals who have produced outstanding, original research and criticism on society and culture through their publications. The prize is divided into four categories: Politics and Economics, Arts and Literature, Society and Mores, and History and Civilization.
Since the prize's inception in 1979, there have been 387 recipients up to the 46th awards (for fiscal year 2024). The works of these recipients are highly acclaimed for their novel approaches to their subjects, their research in areas that cross traditional academic boundaries, and their pioneering of new frontiers. The award ceremony for the 46th prize was held in Tokyo on December 9, 2024.
Award-Winning Book
Taiwan's Democracy: Media, Elections, and the United States
By Masahito Watanabe
Acceptance Speech by Associate Professor Masahito Watanabe (at the Award Ceremony)
Thank you very much for this prestigious award. This year, I also published a book titled "A Cultural Reader on American Cinema," which is complementary to this award-winning book. This led to some confusion, with people wondering if there were separate individuals—a film critic, a Taiwan scholar, and an America scholar—who all shared the same name, or if I had concluded my research on American politics. However, this book is itself a study of America as well as a study of Taiwan. In the sense that it contains one area study within another, both the film book and this Taiwan book were a "return to my roots" of sorts. I am deeply grateful that this cross-disciplinary endeavor has been so highly regarded.
The common thread connecting everything was "elections," and within them, "the media." Elections are fascinating; they expose identities and conflicts that are not visible in normal times. By experiencing firsthand at an early stage how to handle constituencies where these factors are laid bare, I was able to find clues that made visible what would otherwise remain unseen, even for an ordinary person like myself, no matter how long I stayed on the ground.
In a divided society—whether it's conservative versus liberal, or green versus blue—not being an insider can sometimes be an "observational advantage." The United States is indeed a diverse society, but it also has a paradoxical nature where ethnic groups are quite siloed, making it difficult to grasp the internal nuances of other groups. Asian Americans, who are diverse in language and religion, are a prime example of this, and the divisions within Taiwan are doubly imported into the divisions within America. In the population statistics from the Taiwanese government, Han Chinese are listed as over 95%, with the only other categories being indigenous peoples and "new residents"; it does not specify the breakdown or percentage within the Han Chinese group. While there are separate surveys regarding the Hakka people, the point is that the government does not make a judgment on this. Leaving it to an individual's "self-identification" or "identity" and respecting that choice can be said to reflect Taiwan's complex circumstances. When trying to imagine diversity in these different contexts, associations drawn from American-style census classifications can sometimes be a hindrance. Confronting these mutual misunderstandings has been a part of my quarter-century relationship with Chinese and Taiwanese communities.
At this moment, South Korea, which has also experienced democratization, is facing instability in East Asia, and for Taiwan, the term "martial law" is tied to memories that are anything but distant. I hope this book will serve as an opportunity to deepen discussions on whether democracy in Asia can hold its ground. In that sense, I am also pleased that it will be available to readers in the Chinese-speaking world through a translated edition. Although I could not include the entire manuscript for the American section in this book, I have listed the US and Taiwanese sources I interviewed that were helpful, even if not directly quoted. Also, I am something of an "afterword author," and I have put special thought into the afterword of this book as well. So, for those of you who are busy, I would be delighted if you would read it, even starting from the end. That too would be a great honor for me as an author. I will conclude my remarks with the hope that this book will lead to the expansion of this new type of research. Thank you very much.
Comment from Associate Professor Masahito Watanabe
As I wrote in the August/September 2024 combined issue of "Mita-hyoron (official monthly journal published by Keio University Press)," it is a great honor to have the opportunity to present this book to the world from SFC, the forefront of interdisciplinary research, at Keio University, a leader in political science and area studies in Japan. This book is a study that crosses the narrow fields of American and Asian politics, as well as comparative politics and area studies. I hope this will be the beginning of disseminating new "knowledge" in policy management concerning the study of democracy and media, together with my colleagues at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) and the Masahito Watanabe Seminar.
Source: General Affairs, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) Office