Seminars
I currently organize two online seminar series on cultural evolution: the Asian Cultural Evolution (ACE) Seminar for Asia-based audiences, and the Intelligence and Cultural Evolution Theory (ICET) Seminar for domestic audiences in Japan.
Asian Cultural Evolution (ACE) Seminar
The Asian Cultural Evolution (ACE) Seminar is an online seminar series designed to strengthen the international research network in cultural evolution, with a particular focus on researchers in the Asia-Pacific region. It is currently held every other month and welcomes researchers and students from a wide range of fields related to cultural evolution, including anthropology, psychology, economics, mathematical biology, and complex systems science.
To register for ACE, please send a blank email to ace-seminar+subscribe@googlegroups.com. Recordings of ACE seminars are announced on the official YouTube channel. Please note that recordings are available only when the speaker has agreed to make them public.
- 2026-03-17
- 2026-01-27ACE Seminar #8: 'What Are Rituals For? Evolutionary Functions, Cross-Cultural Intuitions, and Collective Action Problems'A talk by Christopher Kavanagh (Rikkyo University).
- 2025-11-18ACE Seminar #7: 'What a phylogeny of all the world’s languages can teach us about the past, present and future of human cultural diversity'A talk by Quentin D Atkinson (University of Auckland).
- 2025-09-22ACE Seminar #6: 'Culturomics and the Concept of Harmony Between Humans and Nature'A talk by Siyang Luo (Sun Yat-sen University).
- 2025-07-29ACE Seminar #5: 'Motor–environment exploration in the human developmental niche'A talk by Ryutaro Uchiyama (Singapore University of Technology and Design).
- 2025-05-20ACE Seminar #4: 'Data scientific methods for analyzing music style evolution'A talk by Eita Nakamura (Kyushu University).
- 2025-03-18ACE Seminar #3: 'Mental representation and decision-making in an interconnected world'A talk by Lusha Zhu (Peking University).
- 2025-02-18ACE Seminar #2: 'The Cultural Evolution of Games of Chance - A Historical Investigation of Chinese Gambling'A talk by Kevin Hong (University of Macau).
- 2024-11-19ACE Seminar #1: 'Principles of the Evolution of Diverse Human Social Structures: Kinship and Gift-giving'A talk by Kenji Itao (RIKEN).
Intelligence and Cultural Evolution Theory (ICET) Seminar
The Intelligence and Cultural Evolution Theory (ICET) Seminar is an online seminar series for researchers in Japan who are interested in mathematical approaches to human culture and its evolution. It brings together participants from fields such as biology, physics, informatics, psychology, and economics. The talks are held in Japanese.
To register for ICET, please send a blank email to icet-seminar+subscribe@googlegroups.com. Recordings of ICET seminars are announced on the official YouTube channel. Please note that recordings are available only when the speaker has agreed to make them public.
- 2026-03-20ICET Research Meeting 2026ICET Research Meeting 2026 was held at the Hongo Campus of the University of Tokyo on March 20-21, 2026. The two-day meeting featured research presentations, paper introductions, and a themed session on major questions across disciplines and possibilities for collaboration.
- 2026-02-12ICET Seminar #19: Collective Action and Mechanism DesignA talk by Ryutaro Mori (The University of Tokyo).
- 2026-01-08ICET Seminar #18: Nature, Culture, and Innovation: Environmental Destruction as a Problem of Human DevelopmentA talk by Ryosuke Nakadai (Yokohama National University).
- 2025-12-11ICET Seminar #17: Cultural Differences in the Mind Supporting Cooperation: Focusing on Reputation and Institutions as Structural FoundationsA talk by Yuta Kido (The University of Tokyo).
- 2025-11-13ICET Seminar #16: Dynamics of Cooperative Relationships and Applications to LLM Agent SystemsA talk by Keita Nishimoto (The University of Tokyo).
- 2025-10-09ICET Seminar #15: A Shift in Thinking in the Study of “Culture”: Prehistoric Japan as a Case StudyA talk by Kohei Tamura (Center for Northeast Asian Studies).
- 2025-09-11ICET Seminar #14: Computational Modeling of Prestige Bias: Effects of Different Cues on Cultural EvolutionA talk by Seiya Nakata (International Research Center for Neurointelligence, The University of Tokyo).
- 2025-07-10ICET Seminar #13: Mathematical Modeling and Experimental Studies of Cooperation beyond Group BoundariesA talk by Wakaba Tateishi (Hokkaido Musashi Women's University).
- 2025-06-12ICET Seminar #12: Matthew Effects, Diffusion, and Classics: Cultural Phylogenetic Analysis of Waka Using Neural Language ModelsA talk by Takuma Tanaka (Shiga University).
- 2025-05-08ICET Seminar #11: Capturing Semantic ChangeA talk by Daichi Mochihashi (ISM / NINJAL).
- 2025-04-24ICET Seminar #10: What is “Cumulative” in Cumulative Cultural Evolution? Reinterpreting Research through Buskell (2022)A talk by Naoki Suyama (Yasuda Women's University).
- 2025-03-13ICET Seminar #9: On the Evolution of Cooperation in Division of Labor on NetworksA talk by Mayuko Nakamaru (Institute of Science Tokyo).
- 2025-01-16ICET Seminar #8: Evolution of Cooperation through Indirect ReciprocityA talk by Yosuke Murase (RIKEN).
- 2024-12-12ICET Seminar #7: Reputation Management Mechanisms in Reciprocal Cooperation: Focusing on Punisher Reputation and Trade-offsA talk by Sakura Arai (JSPS / The University of Tokyo).
- 2024-11-14ICET Seminar #6: Studies of Social Learning, Collective Intelligence, and Cultural Evolution Using Multi-Armed BanditsA talk by Wataru Toyokawa (RIKEN).
- 2024-10-17ICET Seminar #5: Legal Knowledge Graphs and the Evolution of Normative OrdersA talk by Ryohei Kuno (The University of Tokyo).
- 2024-08-08ICET Seminar #4: What Norms Sustain Cooperation in Large-Scale Societies? Analysis of Indirect Reciprocity under Private AssessmentA talk by Yuga Fujimoto (CyberAgent AI Lab).
- 2024-07-11ICET Seminar #3: Empirical Studies on the Geographic Diversity of Cultural TraitsA talk by Yuri Nishikawa (Tokai University).
- 2024-06-13ICET Seminar #2: Cultural Evolution of Belief Systems and Technology, and Toward Understanding Their Co-Creative RelationshipA talk by Haruka Nakawake (JAIST).
- 2024-05-09ICET Seminar #1: Principles of the Emergence of Diverse Human Social StructuresA talk by Kenji Itao (RIKEN).