The annual conference of the Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC) will be held at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) (uqam.ca/en) from October 24 to 27, 2024.
Theme: A laboratory for a future Japan
Important Dates 
Abstract submission deadline : May 20th, 2024 (EST)
Confirmation of acceptance : June 5th, 2024 (EST)
Registration can be done before May 20 through the following form: https://forms.gle/E5p9r8b2Rj5QCk5L6
This year’s theme, “A laboratory for a future Japan”, is inspired by Expo 2025, which will take place next year in Osaka, where Expo 1970 was held after Expo 1967 in Montreal. These universal exhibitions, having attracted worldwide attention to Japan and Canada, left a legacy of various infrastructures, leading to a wider vision of the world and profound socio-cultural, economic, and technological changes.

If Expo 1970 introduced the rest of the world to the Japanese economic "miracle", Expo 2025 will take place in a completely different socio-economic context and is intended to introduce a new form of society as it relates to the national project of a Society 5.0 and to place the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals at the forefront of this event.

The post-pandemic world, however, is confronted with new forms of conflict, climate change, and an intensification of economic and technological competition, within a geopolitical context where traditional wars endure and the international order weakening. Will Japan prove resilient when faced with these challenges? This multidisciplinary JSAC conference is open to panels and individual papers addressing Japan's past, present and future.

The conference will begin on the afternoon of Thursday, October 24 with its opening speech. The conference will take place all day on Friday, October 25, and Saturday, October 26 as well as the morning of Sunday, October 27.

This annual conference, which will be held at UQAM, represents an important milestone for the JSAC, founded in 1987. Although the JSAC annual conference is organized each year by a different university across Canada, this is the first time that it will take place in a French-speaking institution. JSAC meetings are truly multidisciplinary and are known for their exceptionally collegial welcome. Members and participants come from a wide range of disciplines, united by a shared interest for Japan. We hope you will join us. Do not hesitate to share this call for papers with other academics and students.
We will have a series of keynote addresses to which you are all warmly invited:

Augustin Berque. Sur la contingence de tout Japon à venir (On the contingency of any future Japan?). Professor emeritus, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris (EHESS – School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences).
Bernard Bernier. Le Japon, un monde en transformation depuis 1966 (Japan, a World in Transformation since 1966). Professor, Département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal (Department of Anthropology, University of Montreal).
Sébastien Lechevalier. Société 5.0 et innovation tirée par le care dans le cas des soins aux personnes âgées dépendantes au Japon (Society 5.0 and Innovation Driven by Care in the Case of Care for the Dependent Elderly in Japan). Professor, EHESS. President of the France-Japan Foundation of EHESS.
Leonard Schoppa. Creating Livable Society at the Local Level: How Population Decline and Civic Engagement Combine to Reshape Localities in Japan (Créer une société vivable au niveau local: comment le déclin démographique et l'engagement civique se combinent pour remodeler les localités au Japon). Professor, Department of Politics, University of Virginia.
Yuriko Yokoyama. 日本社会のジェンダー 性売買の歴史を手がかりに Gender in Japanese Society: Through the history of sex trade. Professor, National Museum of Japanese History.
Toru Yoshida. Du populisme au Japon. Quoi de neuf ? (Populism in Japan, what’s new?). Professor, Doshisha University.

This year, we will organize a workshop for university students in the presence of Emil Pacha Valencia, editor-in-chief of Tempura Magazine, a French publication based in Paris.

We invite you to make a proposal (panels or individual communications). Each panel session lasts 90 minutes. Please prepare a 20-minute presentation per participant. A Q&R session will follow at the end of each panel.

Please send your name, the title of your presentation or panel and an abstract in the language of presentation (article: max 200 words/panel description: max 500 words) using the following link before May 20: https://forms.gle/E5p9r8b2Rj5QCk5L6

When a group of presenters wishes to form a panel, the panel organizer must coordinate with the other speakers and take responsibility for that panel.
Each (co-)presenter must register for the conference before July 1st, 2024 (EST).
The conference website will be online soon.
Please contact the following address for any inquiry about the submission process: conferencejsac2024uqam@gmail.com
Please include the words JSAC Panel or JSAC Paper in the subject line.