Call for Papers for the 9th Young Scholars Workshop on Transnational Japan "Japan’s Multiple Publics: A Transnational and Comparative Perspective"　日本の多様なパブリックス―トランスナショナルと比較の視点から

▶Call for Papers in PDF　【English】

Call for Papers / Travel Grant
　　
▶▶▶日本語（PDF版）はこちらをご参照ください。
　
■Date:  November 20 ~ 22, 2026
■Place: Hosei University (Tokyo)
■Organizing Committee
・Hosei University Research Center for International Japanese Studies (HIJAS)
・European Center for Japanese Studies in Alsace (CEEJA)
・Consortium for Global Japanese Studies (CGJS)

Accepted participants will receive a travel grant to visit Hosei University in Tokyo (see below for details).

■Outline
This year’s workshop invites papers that examine the characteristics and development of publics in Japan. Publics are spheres outside the state and the private sphere. Within publics, people and information connect to engage in various forms of interaction. Political communication is one form of practice that takes place in publics, as demonstrated by the social theorist Jürgen Habermas. However, political discussion is not the only one. Recent discussions of the publics encompass a range of cultural interactions, including literature, art, music, drama, festivals, rituals, food, games, etc. Furthermore, communication within publics is not limited to rational debate but may also involve nonverbal or physical interactions that entail emotion. Publics are formed across multiple spheres, including face-to-face, mediated, and virtual spaces that may go beyond national boundaries. These publics can be observed throughout history and in contemporary Japanese civil society. A unique cultural public emerged during the medieval and Edo periods. Various political and cultural publics that flourished in the Meiji and Taisho eras contributed to the development of Japanese modernity. In post-war Japan, publics, in both mediated and face-to-face forms, developed within and beyond the nation to enhance democracy and transform society. Mass and counter-cultural publics flourished during the period of economic development and have also diffused beyond Japan. In recent years, we have observed new forms of publics, such as virtual and online spheres that can easily cut across national boundaries. Based on this understanding, we welcome papers that explore various publics across different times and forms (face-to-face/mass media/online). We particularly welcome those that focus on its transnational dimension - how Japanese publics are formed through transnational interaction and how publics developed in Japan were diffused to generate hybrid publics overseas. We would also encourage papers that employ a comparative lens to capture the unique characteristics of Japanese publics.

Keynote Speakers
TBA

■Reports of our past workshops on Japanese transnationalism
2025: ‘Revisiting’ Transnational Relations between Japan and the West
2024: Transnational Japanese Spaces
2023: Transnational Change in Contemporary Japan
2022: Japanese Transnationalism and Empire
2021: Japanese Studies and Transnationalism

■Workshop Format
◇Presenters: Approximately 10 presenters
◇Presentation: 40 minutes for each presenter (20 minutes presentation + 20 minutes discussion)
◇Language: English (a mix of English and Japanese for Q&A)

■Eligibility, Application, and Conditions
◇Eligibility: The workshop is intended for early-career researchers—Ph.D. students, postdocs, and young scholars who hold junior positions at academic institutions.
◇Travel grant: 
　・Presenters will be paid for travel costs.
　　＊Traveling from abroad: Flight tickets between the nearest airport from your current residence to Tokyo (Haneda or Narita).
　　＊Traveling within Japan: Flight or train tickets from your residence to Tokyo.
　・Accommodation (3 nights) and meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) during the workshop will be provided.
　　（Accommodation will be provided to participants who live more than 90 minutes away from the Hosei Ichigaya campus by train.）
◇Application procedure: Applicants must submit the following information through the submission form.
　・Proposal title (English and Japanese) / Abstract (max. 300 words in English) / Curriculum Vitae

Deadline: September 6th (Sun), 2026 [JST]

■Contact: Hosei University Research Center for International Japanese Studies
Kei Takata (Associate Professor, HIJAS)
E-mail: hijas-ws@ml.hosei.ac.jp    Tel: (+81)-3-3264-9682    https://www.hosei.ac.jp/hijas/