In the “Denkwerk” project the Robert Bosch Foundation is sponsoring project partnerships between academics, teachers and students. This project, initiated within the framework of the FU Berlin project “Japan in the 21st Century - Society in a State of Flux?” Is a cooperative project between the Japan Studies Department of the Free University of Berlin, two high schools from Berlin and the JDZB. Foci of the project are current social challenges in Japan as well as related discourses on Japanese politics, economics and society. As a consequence of globalization, ageing societies, growing social inequalities as well as the effects of the massive earthquake and nuclear disaster in northeast Japan in March 2011, Japan is facing a number of social challenges that will push to the limits relationships between social stakeholders. The project will seek to focus on the students. They shall learn more about humanistic and social science methods and how to deal with academic and scientific discourses in an interdisciplinary approach. The students’ work will then be presented at the JDZB and discussions will be held with students from the Free University of Berlin. The project will be sponsored by the Robert Bosch Foundation.