Description

The University of Toronto—in conjunction with the new Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk School, and the Japan Futures Initiative—is pleased to host the 2017 Japan Studies Association of Canada Annual Meeting, October 12-15, 2017.

The theme of the conference will be Future Uncertain: Economic, Environmental, Social and Political Challenges Facing Japan. Panels and presentations will draw from a full range of social science and humanities approaches to understanding Japan’s past, present, and future. Speakers will come from across Canada, Japan, the United States and Europe. Presentations will provide the most recent updates on political, social and economic events and trends occurring in Japan. Speakers will address a diverse range of topics that place Japan at its centre, including lifetime employment in the 21st century, agricultural policy, popular culture, infrastructural aid to developing countries, science and technology policy, Tohoku’s recover from the 3/11 disaster, and Japan’s relationship with the U.S. A major theme of this year’s conference will be Japan’s approach to environmental and energy issues. Concerns about climate change, nuclear energy, Japan’s disaster risk and the country’s economic future have sparked a concerted effort in the development of renewable energy, smart communities and smart cities, and the integrated policymaking necessary to support these initiatives.

Although designed for academics with a serious interest in Japan, JSAC is a welcoming and warm conference that encourages attendance from not only undergraduate and graduate students, but also the general public.

FOR TICKETS: CLICK LINK AT THE END OF THE PROGRAM

PROGRAM [draft 8.22.17]

Thursday, October 12

12:00–16:00 Professional development: A Seminar for Graduate Students and Junior Faculty Members [Registration required: https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/csgj/event/23594/]

15:00–18:00 JSAC Conference Registration

18:00–21:00 Opening Reception

Welcoming Remarks
• Professor Randall Hansen (Interim Director, Munk School of Global Affairs)
• Professor Louis Pauly (Interim Director, Centre for the Study of Global Japan, University of Toronto)
• Professor Carin Holroyd (President of JSAC)
• Consul‐General of Japan in Toronto

Opening Keynote

Maria Toyoda (Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Government, Suffolk University)
“The Political Economy of Things: Some Considerations for Japan’s Infrastructure Aid to Developing Economies”

Friday, October 13

08:30–09:00 Breakfast

09:00–10:30 Session 1: Keynote

Joseph Caron (Former Ambassador of Canada to Japan)
“Being Ambassador to Japan”

10:30‐10:45 Break

10:45–12:15 Session 2A: Society and Culture (I)

Mark Rowe (Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University)
“Ghosts and Spirits in Contemporary Japanese Buddhism”

Josh Trichilo (Ph.D. Candidate, Humanities, York University)
“3.11, Interspecies Trauma, and Kawakami’s ‘Kami‐sama’ Story(ies): Mobilizing Limits to (Not) Represent What it is Like to Whisper Across Finitudes”

James X. White (Ph.D. Candidate, School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, UK)
“Josei no(!) osake no(!) nomikata‐‐How Women Drink: The Perception and Evaluation of Women’s Alcohol Consumption in popular media”

Sheri Zhang (Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, University of Ottawa)
“Inspiration of Japan: Silence, Avoidance and Positive Approach Tackling Prejudice and Racial Discrimination”

Session 2B: Politics

Scott Harrison (Project Specialist, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada)
“Canada and Japan‐Canada Relations”

Jacob Kovalio (Associate Professor of History, Carleton University)
“Japan in the 21st Century: A Model Pacifist Liberal‐ Democracy Coping with a Corporatist Chinese Regime’s Lebensraum Foreign Policy”

Matthew Linley (Designated Professor, International Education and Exchange Center, Nagoya University)
“Explaining the Gap in the Provision of Disaster Preparedness Information to Foreign Residents in Japanese Cities”

Yves Tiberghien (Associate Professor of Political Science, UBC)
Title TBA

12:15–13:30 Lunch

13:30–15:00 Session 3: Keynote

Atsushi Sunami (Vice President and Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS))
‘‘Society 5.0’ as Japan’s Science and Technology, Innovation Strategy”

15:00–15:15 Break

15:15–16:45 Session 4A: Disaster Recovery

Millie Creighton (Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia)
“Difficulties, Disasters, Dams and the Backside of Japan: Re‐Ordering People, Place, and Pollution in Precarious Times”

David Edgington (Professor, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia)
“The Road Back: Arrangements for Recovery of Population and Jobs in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture”

Shinya Nagasaki (Professor and Canada Research Chair in Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Management, Department of Engineering Physics, McMaster University)
“Uncertainty in nuclear policy in Japan: A Comparison of Japanese and Ontarians’ Opinions on Nuclear Energy”

Maxine Polleri (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, York University)
“Commodifiable Phantasm: The Politicization of the Native Land in a Post‐Fukushima Context of Radioactive Contamination”

Session 4B: Art and Language

Norio Ota (Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University)
“Uncertainties of the future of the Japanese language: A Case Study of Conditionals”

Cary Takagi (Adjunct Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University)
“Future Uncertain for the Early Japanese Diaspora in Canada: Challenges and Responses to Religious Identity”

Noriko Yabuki‐Soh (Associate Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University)
“Images of Japanese women: An Analysis of Language Use in Advertisements”

X. Jie Yang (Professor, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures, University of Calgary)
“Life Scenes in Classical Painting: A Research Approach with Digital Technology”

19:00–21:00 Dinner and Keynote
John Nilsson‐Wright (Fuji Bank University Senior Lecturer in Modern Japanese Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge University)
Title TBA

Saturday, October 14

08:30–09:00 Breakfast

09:00–10:30 Session 5: Keynote

Patricia Maclachlan (Associate Professor, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin)
“Cultivating Institutional Change in Japan: Globalization, Demographic Decline, and the Future of Farming”

10:30‐10:45 Break

10:45–12:15 Session 6A: Education and Tourism

Teri Bryant (Associate Professor Emerita, Haskane School of Business Leighton Wilks Instructor, Haskane School of Business)
“Developing Cross‐Cultural Skills in Undergraduate Students through a Group Study Program to Japan: Design and Implementation Issues”

Atsuki Hashimoto (Department of Geography and Tourism Studies, Brock University)
David Telfer (Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Tourism Studies)
“A Comparison of Historic Tourism at the Villages of Shirakawa‐go and Gokayama”

Saeko Suzuki (Ph.D. Candidate, University of British Columbia)
“Digital Humanities: Electronic Resources or Print Resources”

Gregory Wheeler (Assistant Professor, Center of Medical Education, Sapporo Medical University)
“Morality or Neo‐nationalism? Examining Concerns Over the Implementation of
Moral Education as an Official Subject in the Japanese Elementary and Junior High Schools”

Session 6B: Roundtable on the Japan Futures Initiative
• Ken Coates (Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation, Johnson‐Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan)
• Carin Holroyd (Associate Professor of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan)
• Seung Hyok Lee (Adjunct Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto)
• Masayuki Tadokoro (Professor of International Relations, Keio University)
• David Welch (CIGI Chair of Global Security and Professor of Political Science, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo)

12:15–13:30 Lunch and Business Meeting

13:30–15:00 Session 7: Keynote

Andrew DeWit (Professor, School of Policy Studies, Department of Economics, Rikkyo University)
“Japanese Smart Communities as Industrial Policy”

15:00–15:15 Break

15:15–16:45 Session 8: Greening Japan

Teri Bryant (Associate Professor Emerita, Haskane School of Business, University of Calgary)
Iain Macpherson (Assistant Professor, MacEwan University)
“Colouring Japanese Organizations Green: Environmental Image‐Making Strategies for the 21st Century”

Jay Goulding (Professor, Department of Social Sciences, York University)
“Tokugawa’s Environmental Philosophy”

Sachiyo Kanzaki (Department of Anthropology, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM))
“Yusuhara: regional autonomy, revitalization and green energy”

Thomas Waldichuk (Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies)
“Green Space and Suburban Planning”

Sunday, October 15

08:30–09:00 Breakfast

09:00–10:30 Session 9: Society and Culture (II)

Fumiko Ikawa‐Smith (Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, McGill University)
Title TBA

Evan Koike (Ph.D. Candidate, University of British Columbia)
“‘If the Top Changes’: Nonprofit Organizations’ Attempts to Raise Japan’s Low Birthrate by Educating Company Managers”

Brian Pendleton (Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies, Langara College)
“‘My Generation are Lost Sheep ... We Must Worship Democracy’: The 1961 Garden
Club of America Tour to Japan”

Bill Sewell (Associate Professor, Department of History, Saint Mary’s University)
“Realism and Recollection: the Perils of Recalling Historical Figures”

10:30–10:45 Break

10:45–12:15 Session 10: Economy and Business

Dick Beason (Professor of International Business and Business Economics, Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta)
“Lifetime Employment in 21st Century Japan: Employment Trends in Research Intensive Firms”

Derek Hall (Associate Professor of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University)
“Japanese Overseas Agricultural Investments”

Shigenori Matsui (Professor, Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC)
“AirBnB and Uber in Japan: Is Law Killing the Development of New Technology?”

James Tiessen (Associate Professor and Director, School of Health Services Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University)
“Strategies of Japanese for‐Profit Long Term Care Providers: How do Firms Compete?”

12:15–12:30 Closing Remarks
Carin Holroyd (President, JSAC)