The workshop intends to approach contemporary Japan through the lens of ‘governance’, taking cognizance of past academic debates on this highly contested concept. After reviewing governance-related discussions in some selected fields in Japan and abroad, we hope to identify the problems and issues involved in the conceptualization and to locate state and society of contemporary Japan in this new perspective. This is our second institute-wide international symposium following the first one held in 2006, and is also the first international activity of our joint research project newly launched on the same topic.