Abduction or nuclear war?

Japanese people are more worried about being abducted than being killed in a nuclear war, Brunel students have been told.

Third year students from Brunel and Kobe University in Japan presented their research projects to younger years which included a survey from a country that has previously seen two atomic bombs dropped on them.

Miyaka Nishimoto, student from Kobe University, who has been researching Japanese public opinion on the government sending economic aid to North Korea to avoid abduction and nuclear threat: “The issue of abduction is very big in Japan, so they are more concerned by this than a nuclear threat.”

Organised by Dr Steve Pickering from Brunel University, the event was open to first and second-year students to see what the third years have been researching for their dissertation, he said: “It allows students to see what topics are available to them, things that people won’t have thought of. It might not be what they want to do, but it allows them the freedom to think of what they do want to do.”

Dissertation subjects also focused on the UK, Selin Akmanlar, studying Politics and Sociology from Brunel, has found that most MPs who do not have Twitter come from predominantly white, middle-to-upper class constituencies and how the number of Twitter followers doesn’t translate into electoral support.

She added: “Jeremy Corbyn has more followers than Theresa May, so you would think he would be the prime minister, but clearly there’s a huge difference between what happens on social media and what happens in the real world”

Speaking on behalf of Kobe University, Naoko Matsumura, Associate Professor, said: “We’re hoping to make it an annual thing and it would be ideal if you guys can come to Japan and make a presentation that would be fantastic.”