Imploding Populations in Japan and Germany A Comparison

Florian Coulmas, chair of Japanese Studies, Duisburg-Essen University, and director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo. He has published extensively in Japanese Studies, most recently Population Decline and Ageing in Japan - the social consequences, London (2007), and Die Illusion vom Glück. Japan und der Westen, Zurich (2009). He is co-editor of the Trilingual Glossary of Demographic Terminology (Brill, 2007) and The Demographic Challenge. A Handbook about Japan (Brill, 2008).

Ralph Lützeler studied Geography and Japanese Studies at the University of Bonn (Dr. phil. 1993, habilitation degree 2006). He was senior research fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Tokyo (1993-98, 2007-10), and at the Department of Japanese Studies, University of Bonn (1998-2007). He is affiliated with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies (ZEFIR), Ruhr-University of Bochum. He has published extensively on demography, human geography and urban society of Japan.