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 full travel grant to visit CEEJA in Colmar.
This year’s Alsace workshop invites papers to discuss “transnational Japanese spaces” widely from social science and humanities. We aim to understand the historical and contemporary development of transnational Japanese spaces and how such spaces are imagined and depicted in Japanese culture. While the nation-state remains a vital container in our world today, there is a significant development of transnational spaces evolving in Japan in various forms and settings, either public or private, urban or rural, virtual or physical spaces, as a result of drastic increasing migrants, international students, and tourists. At the same time, Japan generated spaces with substantial transnational characteristics in the past, such as port cities where foreign merchants enter, the neighborhoods where American military bases are concentrated, and cities and towns where ethnic minorities reside. Also, we should not forget about the “Japanese transnational spaces” where Japanese diasporas become actors in creating transnational social spaces in foreign lands, most notably known as “Japanese towns.” Furthermore, the workshop would also like to pay attention to the culture of transnational space. On the one hand, culture is crucial in creating transnational spaces that mediate and hybridize Japanese and foreigners. On the other hand, the representation of transnational spaces in Japanese culture also requires in-depth exploration. For example, how ethnic towns are portrayed in Japanese films, literature, and anime. We invite papers that touch upon but are not limited to these points. We aim to develop ideas on the characteristics of transnational Japanese space while comparing it with those in Europe and other parts of the world.