JSPS Core-to-Core Program on Antarctic Governance Research has commenced from April 1, 2025, and this report covers its very first research activity held at the University of Tasmania (UTAS), Australia, one of the Core Institutions under the Program. The City of Hobart is one of the Antarctic gateway cities, with many renowned Antarctic research institutions and organizations, including UTAS’ Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and the Headquarters (Secretariat) of the Convention on Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). The state of Tasmania also hosts wonderful nature and unique wildlife. We the Program’s participating researchers from Japan will look forward to visiting this city during the period of this Program (April 2025 to March 2030) to establish a strengthened research network with UTAS and its participating researchers.

From April 29^th until May 8^th, Associate Professor Maiko Raita (Osaka University), Professor Akiho Shibata, the Coordinator of the JSPS Core-to-Core Program, and myself (Fumika Iwama, LL.M. Candidate, GSICS, Kobe University) visited Hobart, Tasmania in Australia to organize and participate in several collaborative academic workshops between Kobe PCRC and the UTAS, as part of the Early-Career Scholars Initiatives (ECSI) under the JSPS Core-to-Core Program on Antarctic Governance. We also visited the Secretariat of CCAMLR and interviewed Dr. David Agnew, the Executive Secretary.

The highlight of our initiatives was the Workshop “Antarctic Youth Discussion” held on May 2 which I planned and organized to have a frank discussion on the emerging issues of Antarctic governance so as to gain futuristic insights for my research from interdisciplinary perspectives. There were 15 undergraduate and graduate students and post-graduate early-career researchers participating from UTAS along side with Professors Tony Press, Jeff McGee, Elizabeth Leane who are the UTAS participating researchers under JSPS Program. The UTAS participants are diverse, from several different countries with unique international backgrounds, representing multiple academic disciplines: social science, natural science, arts, and human science.

The session started with my opening remarks, taking the gender-related issues in Antarctica, especially the sexual harassment issues of the Antarctic field research. We then broke into two smaller groups and the participants discussed several issues according to their own interests, for instance, issues relating to Antarctic tourism, comparison of outreach of the Antarctic activities especially towards the future generations, and the inclusivity at the Antarctic research. Although it was an interactive opinions exchange occasion mainly for young scholars, it should be noted that it was with the supervision of the experts: the experts who joined the session were Professor Shibata, Professor Jeff McGee, Professor Elizabeth Leane, and Adjunct Professor Tony Press, who is also the UTAS coordinator for the JSPS program. The experts also gave some comments to assist the discussion. Through this workshop, I was able to establish an international network of early-career researchers interested in Antarctic governance issues, as I was able to continue the discussions with some of the participants even after the workshop.

During the visit, there were other occasions kindly set up by the host institution to expand our academic networks, for example a lecture on the history of Japan’s participation on Antarctic governance by Prof. Shibata, where Senior Lecturer Dr. Indie Hodgson-Johnston, another participating researcher in the Program, joined the discussion. We were able to visit the UTAS Law School and participate in “faculty morning tea session” where we met Adjunct Senior Researcher Dr. Peter Lawrence (UTAS) and, through online, Dr. Bruno Arpi (Senior Lecturer at Adelaide Law School, the University of Adelaide). At the tea session, we were also fortunate to meet participants from Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). We discussed the potential academic as well as governmental cooperation between Japan and Australia on many of the Antarctic governance challenges, particularly towards the upcoming Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) in Hiroshima, Japan in 2026.

Fumika Iwama, LL.M. Candidate, Kobe University
JSPS Core-to-Core Program participating researcher