The EUSAAP Conference 2026, themed “The EU in the Age of Turbulence,” was organized by the European Union Studies Association Asia Pacific (EUSAAP) and the European Union Studies Association Asia Japan, and was held in Tokyo, Japan, from June 1–2, 2026.

At the conference, partner institutions presented research findings from the collaborative project “The Rise of the Climate State: Analysing Socio-legal Transformations in the Anthropocene,” which has been jointly conducted since 2024 by CGCMG, the Institute for Policy Studies (USA), Waseda University (Japan), and Tilburg University (the Netherlands).

In particular, the paper “Decarbonizing the Developmental State: How Climate Politics are Rewriting Japan’s and South Korea’s Industrial Futures” was developed based on interviews conducted in South Korea by CGCMG in collaboration with researchers from Tilburg University. The paper argued that while both South Korea and Japan can be understood through the lens of the “Developmental State” (Johnson, 1982), their responses to climate change have evolved in different ways. Rather than exhibiting a coherent developmental-state model, the two countries demonstrate divergent climate governance trajectories shaped by factors such as their domestic political systems, the actors influencing policymaking processes, and the role of civil society.

In addition, a consortium meeting among the partner institutions was held during the conference to discuss the progress of the project and explore future directions for collaboration.