Dear JSAC Members,
Table of Contents
President’s Letter

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JSAC Annual Meeting 20172

Member News

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JSAC Executive 2016-201715

Welcome to spring and to my first JSAC newsletter! I hope thisfinds you all well and keenly anticipating our upcoming JSAC
conference October 12th to 15th at the University of Toronto.
The call for papers has gone out and is also included in the
newsletter. Please plan on attending and submit your abstract
by August 1st! This will be JSAC’s 30th anniversary – quite anaccomplishment! – so we are planning a full and exciting
program. If you know of any scholars interested in Japan who
have not attended a JSAC before, please encourage them toattend this year.

Many JSAC members sent in news of their varied activities and accomplishments. Congratulations to everyone
and thanks so much for sharing your news. In past newsletters, David included a “Where is this photo?” section.
If anyone has photos to contribute for future newsletters, do send them along.
With best wishes to everyone for a wonderful summer,
Carin Holroyd
President, Japan Studies Association of Canada

Nagoya Castle, Aichi

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Call for Papers: 2017 JSAC Annual Meeting
The University of Toronto—in conjunction with the new Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk
School of Global Affairs, 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” (a modification from theoriginal, somewhat narrower theme “Green Japan”). Papers or presentations related to the conference theme areespecially welcome, but so also are papers on any and all topics of interest to the JSAC community.
Some JSAC members kindly indicated an early interest in presenting papers in support of JSAC’s application to
the Japan Foundation for conference support. If you were among these, you will receive an email message fromProf. David Welch, the conference organizer, confirming your interest. For all others, please send Prof. Welch(david@davidwelch.ca) a paper proposal by August 1st with the following information:
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Your full name as you would like it to appear in the programYour affiliation
Your current preferred email address
The name(s) and affiliation(s) of any co-presenter(s)Paper title
Brief abstract______________________________________
JSAC has received notification of our successful application to the Japan Foundation for our annual conference.
As always, we are very grateful to the Japan Foundation for its continued support of JSAC. Funding this year isa little lower than in the past so that will likely have an impact on how much of your conference travel will beable to be reimbursed.

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Member News
Teri Bryant and Leighton Wilks (Associate Professor Emerita of Strategy and Global Management and PhD
candidate in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources, University of Calgary)•

Leighton Wilks and Teri Byant have successfully launched their Haskayne group travel study program to
Japan. The group will leave May 9 and return May 30, spending two weeks in the Tokyo area and one week
in the Kyoto area. Prior to leaving there will be an intensive week in the classroom, and in Japan we will
follow an itinerary mixing business and cultural site visits. We will have 22 undergraduate students, eight
men and 14 women. They will get credit for two half-courses in business, developing a business concept
related to Japan and maintaining a reflective journal on their experiences. Leighton is also using the
program to conduct research into the impact of travel study programs on students' cross-culturalcompetence.

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Ken Coates (Professor and Canada Research Chair, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy,
University of Saskatchewan)•

Ken is the Director of the Thematic Network in Circumpolar Innovation, which is endeavouring to connect
Circumpolar communities with East Asian technology innovators.

•

He presented a paper on the prospects for rural Japan to the "New Meiji" workshop held at Narita in
December 2016 and assisted Kimie Hara, Marie Soderburg and Carin Holroyd in the origination of thatmeeting.

•

He is continuing his comparative research on the future of small towns and rural communities in the area of
rapid technological and economic change.

•

Ken also worked with Carin Holroyd on their paper "Non-Arctic States and their Stake in Arctic
Sustainability," in K. Keil and S. Knecht, Governing Arctic Change: Global Perspectives.

Millie Creighton (Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia)
Photo Left to Right: Professor Millie Creighton,
Department of Anthropology, University of British
Columbia, Mayor Gregor Robertson, Mayor ofCity of Vancouver, BC, and Professor Masahiro
Hamashita from Kobe College, Japan.
Professor Hamashita was the selected invitedlecturer from Japan for the 2017 Japan Foundation
and Japan Studies of Canada (JSAC) program,nominated by Millie Creighton in the Departmentof Anthropology at UBC and also affiliated with
the Centre for Japanese Studies at UBC. He gave
lectures on comparative Japanese and Chinese
aesthetics at UBC in Vancouver and on the historyof women's education at the University of Alberta
in Edmonton. This photo was taken at the Mayor of Vancouver's special Lunar New Year Luncheon on Feb. 3,2017 to which Dr. Creighton was invited and allowed to bring Dr. Hamashita as her guest since he happened toarrive in Vancouver in time for this special event.
Professor Masahiro Hamashita, the selected invited lecturer of the Japan Foundation and Japan Studies
Association of Canada (JSAC) program gave a special additional lecture on the history of women's education in
Japan to Dr. Millie Creighton's Japanese Culture and Society (Anth 315) class at UBC on Feb. 6, 2017 which
was accompanied by Millie Creighton's linking lecture on the history of Valentine's Day and women's status in
Japan.

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Dr. Masahiro Hamashita is shownstanding to the left and Dr. Millie
Creighton kneeling in Valentine heart
sweater. As it was the last meeting of theclass before Valentine's Day, students inthe class are also showing their hearts inseveral cases.
•

Creighton, Millie. 2016. “Throughthe Korean Wave Looking Glass:
Gender, Consumerism,
Transnationalism, and Tourism Reflecting Japan-Korea Relations in Global East Asia. Asia Pacific Journal:
Japan Focus. volume 14, issue 7, number. 7, pp. 1-15.

Other Involvements in terms of research include the following.
•

Millie Creighton received funding from a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) grant to pursue
research over the summer of 2016 on Architecture, Art, Tourism and the Triennial Seto Island Festival in
Japan. This was followed up by an invited presentation on that research at UC Berkeley entitled: 'Contents
Tourism Surrounding Japan's Seto Inland Sea Triennial Art Festival' on March 11, 2017.
On March 24, 2017, his 81st birthday, David
Suzuki (prominent scientist and co-author of
the book, The Japan We Never Knew), and hiswife Tara Cullis (lecturer and environmental
activist) visited the Department of
Anthropology at the University of British
Columbia for a graduate student poster exhibit
and event in which their daughter Severn
Cullis-Suzuki was involved. Pictured left toright: Ganhlaans Sentaro Suzuki-Brown andTiisaan Kaoru Suzuki-Brown (sons of
Anthropology graduate student Severn CullisSuzuki), Dr. Tara Cullis, Dr. David Suzuki, Dr.
Millie Creighton (Anthropology Department
professor and long-term JSAC member) and Dr.
Patricia Shaw (Anthropology Department
professor). Severn Cullis-Suzuki's poster was
about language revitalization among the Haida.

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Spring 2016 NewsletterDavid W. Edgington (Professor, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia)
Publications:•

D.W. Edgington (2016) How Safe is Safe Enough? The Politics of Decontamination in Fukushima, in M.
Yamakawa and D. Yamamoto (Eds.) "Unravelling the Fukushima Disaster", London, Routledge, 80-106.

•

D.W. Edgington, N. Ota, N. Sato and J.Steele (eds.) (2016) "Japan and Canada in Comparative Perspective:
Economics and Politics; Regions, Places and People", a Collection of Papers from an International
Conference held in Tokyo, May 2015, Japan Studies Association of Canada.

Presentations:•

September 2016: "Population Migration and Disaster Recovery in Fukushima and Chernobyl", Paper
presented at Yokohama City University.

•

October 2016: "Geographies of Exclusion: Fukushima Dai-ichi at Five, Chernobyl #4 at 30", Paper
presented to the Japan Studies Association of Canada annual meeting, Vancouver.

•November 2016: "`Building Back Better’ Along the Sanriku Coast of Tohoku, Japan: Five Years After the`3.11' Disaster", Paper presented to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Portland, OR.

•

December 2016: "Natural Disasters in Japan", Paper presented at the JFI-EJARN “New Meiji” conference,
Narita.

•March 2016: "A Day Out in Fukushima", Paper presented at `The Politics of Invisibility: Fukushima, 6Years After 3.11', Centre for Japanese Research, UBC.

•

April 2017: "The Road Back: Arrangements for Recovery of Population and Jobs in the Futaba District ofFukushima Prefecture", Paper presented to the American Association of Geographers meeting, Boston.

•2 x JSAC/JFT lectures since October - both are recorded and now on the JSAC web site.
· Japan’s 'Quality Service': Can Omotenashi be a Source of Japan’s Soft Power?" by Professor Takamichi(Tam) Mito, Kwansei Gakuin University (November 8, 2016, UBC) : Link
· "How Much Difference is There Between Japan and China in Terms of Aesthetics?" by Professor
Masahiro Hamashita, at Centre for Japanese Research, UBC, February 7, 2017: Link

Fieldwork:
Tokyo, Yokohama and coastal Miyagi Prefecture.

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Kimi Hara (Director, East Asian Studies, Department of Cultural and Language Studies, Renison University
College; Professor and the Renison Research Professor, University of Waterloo)
Publication•「旧金山体系下的竹岛/独岛问题」『边界和海洋研究』第２卷 第１期（"Takeshima/Dokdo Problem
in the San Francisco System,” Journal of Boundary and Ocean Studies）Vol 2 No.1, January 2017, pp.100111.

Presentations•“Japan and Security: Asian Affairs and Global Connections – Meiji and Today”, The IX Annual Conferenceof the Association of Japanologists, <Japan in the era of great transformation> Moscow State Institute ofInternational Relations (MGIMO), Moscow, Russia, Moscow, Russia, December 22-23, 2016.

•「中華民国外交部の戦後琉球問題検討と尖閣列島」(“The Ryukyu Problem and the Senkaku Islands inthe early post-war study by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China,” 華人教授会議 (Chinese
Professors Convention), Tokyo, Japan, December 13, 2016.

•“Introduction,” & “Japan and Security in East Asia: Finding connections with Europe and Canada,” Japan
Futures Initiative (JFI) and European Japan Advanced Research Network (EJARN) Joint Conference,
Japan’s Future: International Reflections on the Prospects for a “New Meiji” Transformation, Narita-shi,
Japan, December 11-12, 2016.

•“Exploring Settlements of Regional Conflicts in the San Francisco System,” International Conference Beyond the San Francisco System: Seeking a Peace Regime in East Asia, Columbia University, NY, USA,
October 28-29, 2016.

•“Living with a Cold Peace & Planning for a More Stable Future: Considering the Helsinki Declaration(Accords) for East Asian Borders,” The 2016 International Symposium on Boundary and Ocean Studies,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, September 23-25, 2016.

•「日本の領土問題を考えるカギ～サンフランシスコ体制と尖閣・竹島・北方領土：過去、現在・未来*」(“A key to consider Japan’s territorial problems - the San Francisco System and Senkaku, Takeshima
and the Northern Territories: Past, Present and Future“), Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Nagoya,Japan, July 16, 2016. (*Link to the event report & 中日新聞 newspaper article.)

Carin Holroyd (Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan)•

Carin took over from Dr. David Edgington as President of JSAC at the October meeting in Vancouver. She
has been immersed in JSAC affairs since that time, working with David Welch on the Japan Foundation
application and planning for the October 2017 meeting.
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Her major academic contribution for the year is Green Japan: Environmental Technologies, Innovation
Policy and the Pursuit of Green Growth to be published shortly by the University of Toronto Press.

•

She co-authored a paper "Non-Arctic States and their Stake in Arctic Sustainability," in K. Keil and S.
Knecht, Governing Arctic Change: Global Perspectives (2017).

•

Carin has given a series of invited lectures and conference papers, including “Canadian digital content
companies and the challenges of the Japanese market,” Canadian Digital Opportunities Annual Conference,
Saskatoon, April 2016; “Digital Disruption: The Japanese Digital Content Industry,” European Japan
Advanced Research Network, Warrick, England, June 2016; “National Innovation and “New Meiji” inJapan,” JFI-EJARN Conference, Narita, Japan, December 2016; “Green Japan: Combining TechnologicalInnovation, Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability,” Munk School of Global Affairs,
University of Toronto/Japan Foundation of Toronto.

•

Carin also received the Governor General's Meritorious Service Medal at a ceremony held in Edmonton,
Alberta in December 2016. The award recognized her work with the Vietnam Education Society whichworks to improve educational opportunities for children in rural Vietnam.

Fumiko Ikawa-Smith (Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, McGill University)
2016 Publications:• Peopling of the New World, as seen from the Japanese Archipelago. PROGRAM AND PROCEEDINGS of
the 21st Suyanggae and Her Neighbors International Symposium: Suyangage and Hell Gap, edited by M.
Kornfeld, et al., pp. 94-106. Paleoindian Research Lab, University of Wyoming.
• Some of the papers that were given at the session, entitled “Starting over again: the Early Palaeolithic
research in Japan Today” co-organized by Hiroaki Sato of the University of Tokyo and myself, at the 6th
Worldwide Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology on June 6-10, 2014 in Ulaan Baatar,
Mongolia, were published in Bulletin of the society for East Asian Archaeology (BSEAA), Vol. 3, 2016.
(www.seaa-web.org). They include my “Introduction” (pp. 1-3) and Sato’s “Overview” (pp. 29-35).
2016 Meeting Participation:• 7th Worldwide Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology (SEAA), Boston, 8-12 June 2016.
Chaired a general session on “Archaeology of Japan”.
• 21st Suyanggae and Her Neighbors International Symposium: Suyangage and Hell Gap: PleistoceneHolocene Archaeology from the Cape of Good Hope to Tierra del Fuego, held in Laramie Wyoming, 26
July – 3 August 2016.
•

Delivered a keynote address, “Peopling of the New World, as seen from the Japanese Archipelago”,
published in the Proceedings as listed above.
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8th World Archaeology Congress (WAC8), held in Kyoto 28 August – 2 September, 2016
Chaired a FORUM: Methodological Approaches to TephroArchaeology, organized by Gina L. Barnes of
SOAS, University of London, and Tsutomu SODA (早田勉) of the Kazanbai Kōkogaku Kenkyūsho (火山灰考古学研究所).

Forthcoming Conference:•

22d Suyanggae International Symposium in Sakhalin, entitled “The Initial Human Exploration of theContinental and Insular parts of the Eurasia 2: Suyanggae and Ogonki”, July 5-12. 2017.
I plan to give a paper on “The Sakhalin-Hokkaido-Kurile Peninsula: a cul-de-sac or stepping stone? “.

Jacob Kovalio (Professor, Department of History, Carleton University)•

Lecture Series, Carleton University
o The Year That Was: Japan’s Society, Politics, Foreign Policy in 2016, January 17, 2017
o Japan’s Constitutional Monarchy, Democracy and Pacifism, February 14, 2017•

"Reactions of American, Canadian and Japanese Academe to the 9/11 Jihadi Attacks against the UnitedStates" will be available as an e-book in late summer.

•

Participated in three radio interviews : one on the Japanese emperor's expected abdication , and in twoothers, mentioned the Japanese angle of the North Korean nuclear program and of the THAAD missile
defense deployment issue in South Korea, respectively.

•

A member of a Carleton University task force on enhancement of cooperation with Japanese universities,
especially Waseda with which a MoU was signed last month.

Norio Ota (Associate Lecturer, Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, York University)
Paper presented:•'Standardization vs. Innovation in Language Education', 2016 JSAC annual conference, UBC, Vancouver,
October 13-16, 2016.

Activities:•

Hosted the 2016 Japanese Language Proficiency Test with the record 530 registrants at York University,
Toronto, December 4, 2016.

Personal:•

I will be on sabbatical leave: July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018. Plan to do research in Japan.

•

Review of a conference on academic freedom http://buna.yorku.ca/nota/harrycrowe2016_report_ota.pdf
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Stephen Nagy (Politics and International Relations, International Christian University, Tokyo)
Journal publications:•Nagy, S.R. 2017. “Proactive Pacifism: Investing in Multilateralization and Omnidirectional Hedging,” inStrategic Analysis. DOI:10.1080/09700161.2017.1295607

Grants: (April 2017 to March 2020)•

JSPS (Kaken). Project Title "Japan’s Grand Strategy?: Chinese interpretations of Japanese Foreign Policy inthe post-Cold War Era"•

Japan ICU Foundation-Study Abroad Grant. JAPAN-CHINA YOUNG LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Program. http://www.jicuf.org/news/2017/1/4/japan-china-yldp-participant-experiences

Opinion Pieces:•"Can Tillerson tackle a tense East Asia?" in The Japan Times, March 14th, 2017.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/03/14/commentary/japan-commentary/can-tillerson-tackle-tenseeast-asia/#.WOhGKfmGOUk•Radio interview this morning with China Radio International about Tillerson's visit to China and the region.
http://english.cri.cn/7146/2017/03/20/3747s952829.htm•"There will never be a better time to make a trade deal with Japan," in Ipolitics, with Charles McMillan
http://ipolitics.ca/2017/03/10/there-will-never-be-a-better-time-to-make-a-trade-deal-with-japan/•"Southeast Asia pins its hopes on the Japan-U.S. alliance, " in The Japan Times, Feb 13,
2017http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/02/13/commentary/japan-commentary/southeast-asia-pinshopes-japan-u-s-alliance/#.WOhF2PmGOUm•"In Japan’s national interest: Shinzo Abe’s visit to Pearl Harbour," in Policy Forum, Asia & the Pacific
Policy Society, http://www.policyforum.net/japans-national-interest/•

My Radio interview with China Radio International about Japanese right wing
movement.http://mod.cri.cn/eng/magazine/today/20170210today1.mp3•"Trump’s policies on the peninsula: Does South Korea have cause for concern?" in Policy Forum, Asia &the Pacific Policy Society,https://www.policyforum.net/trumps-policies-peninsula/

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Brian Pendleton (Professor Emeritus, Asian Studies, Langara College)•

attended the NAJGA (North American Japanese Garden Association) Regional Conference in Los Angeles
in January. The major focus included visits to several historic gardens in the area, including the 100 year-old
Huntington Estate, Storrier-Stearns, Descanso, and the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant site, named'Suihoen' (the Garden of Water and Fragrance) -- readers might reflect on the well-chosen name for the
fragrant water treatment plant.

•

prepared an article entitled "Restoration or Renovation: Where Do You Stand?" for publication by the
VJGA (Vancouver Japanese Gardeners Association).

•chaired a three-member External Review Team which conducted a review and evaluation of the AsianStudies Degree Program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, B.C.

•

continues to serve as Editor of the NAJGA Journal of Japanese Gardening in preparation for release of its
next issue in summer 2017.

M. Cody Poulton (Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Victoria)
2015-16: Research Fellow, Interweaving Performance Cultures International Research Center, Freie Universität,
Berlin, Germany
2015-16: Faculty of Humanities, University of Victoria Research Excellence Award
With Mitsuya Mori, J. Thomas Rimer, eds. The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama. 726 pp.
Columbia University Press, 2014. Besides general editing of the volume, contributed 3 introductory historicalchapters and six out of 27 translations.
•“From Puppet to Robot: Technology and the Human in Japanese Theatre." In John Bell, Claudia Orenstein,
Dassia Posner, ed. The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, 2014. pp. 280-293.

•“Modern Drama.” Chapter for Haruo Shirane, Tomi Suzuki, eds. The Cambridge History of Japanese
Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 702-710.

•

Contributing editor on modern theatre for The Cambridge History of Japanese Theatre. Jonah Salz, general
editor. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

•“Contemporary Theatre.” Chapter for The Cambridge History of Japanese Theatre. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 326-348.

•“Antigone in Japan: Some Responses to 3.11 at Festival/Tokyo 2012.” In Barbara Geilhorn, Kristina IwataWeickgenannt, eds. Negotiating Disaster: ‘Fukushima’ and the Arts. Routledge, 2016, pp. 127-143.
••

A translation of “At Yushima Shrine—A scene from the play A Woman’s Pedigree,” by Izumi Kyōka.
(5,200 words.) In Sumie Jones, Charles Inouye, eds. A Tokyo Anthology: Literature from Japan’s Modern
Capital, 1850-1920. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2017.

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Bill Sewell (Associate Professor, Department of History, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, N.S.)•

John Lee, Bill Sewell (ed.), Seven Crucial Centuries: Changes in Premodern Chinese Society and Economy,
499 BCE – 1800 CE, Halifax: Department of History, Saint Mary’s University, 2016•

John Lee (1952-1999) was an Associate Professor of History at Saint Mary’s University and a JSAC
member. His final manuscript was an extended mediation on the nature of social and economic change in
China, ultimately aiming to explain why China did not develop capitalism indigenously. His researchreflected a long and thorough search of secondary materials in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English,
though he illustrated his work with his own translations from classical Chinese sources.
The unfinished manuscript came to Bill Sewell’s attention in 2010, who edited it for publication. The bookwill be available from Amazon and the Department of History.

Mark Rowe (Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University)•

Along with Justin McDaniel and Jeffrey Samuels, Mark Rowe published Figures of Buddhist Modernity in
Asia. 2016. Honlulu: University of Hawaii Press.

•

Mark was awarded a SSHRC Insight Grant for his project: “Female Buddhist Priests in Contemporary
Japan.”•Mark also gave a public talk at the Japan Foundation in Toronto, titled: "Bikers, Bodhisattvas, and Widows– Female Priests in Japanese Buddhism.”

Scott Simon (University of Ottawa)•

He will be spending the academic year 2017-2018 as a visiting scholar at the National Museum of
Ethnology in Osaka.

•As the first part of a SSHRC-funded project called "Austronesian Worlds: Human-Animal Entanglements in
the Pacific Anthropocene," he will be working with museum artifacts and with ethnographic materials tobetter understand human-animal relations in Japanese Formosa (1895-1945) and in Japanese territories in
Micronesia. He will be working to understand the ontologies and embodied practices through which
Japanese, Palauans, Chamorro, and Indigenous Formosans interact with non-human entities in the Western
Pacific.

•

His research partner there is Dr. Atsushi Nobayashi.

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Tom Waldichuk (Faculty of Arts, Thompson Rivers University)•

Taking 12 students on a field course to Japan from May 15 to 25. The three credit field course is Geography
3700, which involves taking students on day trips throughout the metropolitan Tokyo area, such as Dream
Island (Yumeina Shima) in Tokyo Bay, which is made out of garbage and is home to a garbage incinerator,
the heat from which keeps the nearby tropical arboretum warm. This year we will also visit bonsai nurseriesin Kawaguchi, north of Tokyo. As an individual project, each of the students will evaluate the walkabilityof a tourist walking route in Bunkyo Ward. We will also take the local train from Tokyo station to Uji City,
next to Kyoto – a trip that almost takes 12 hours. Uji is the sister city of Kamloops, and the home of
Byodoin, which is on the 10 yen coin. The students will experience two nights of homestay, and during the
day they will study the historic preservation of downtown Uji and the tea fields within the city limits. In Uji
we will also meet up with Cara Cadre from TRU, who is leading 13 students in a second year Modern
Languages field course from Tokyo to Hiroshima, with help from TRU horticulture instructor KevinScollon.

David Welch (Director of the Japan Futures Initiative, University of Waterloo)•“The Justice Motive in East Asia’s Territorial Disputes.” Group Decision and Negotiation 26:1 (January2017): 71–92.

•“The age of three emperors: the direction of U.S. foreign policy and the future of U.S.-Japan relations.”
Panelist, Japan Now series, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, March 17, 2017.

•“The Rise of China and ‘the Thucydides Trap’.” Keynote presentation to the symposium, “The Thucydides
Trap: Aspects of International Security in a Fundamentally Changing World.” International University ofJapan, Urasa, Niigata, January 13, 2017.

•“Geopolitical Dynamics in East Asia.” Presentation to the Symposium on Korean Peninsula & Regional
Dynamics in East Asia, Global Affairs Canada, Ottawa, ON, December 1, 2016.

•“The Psychology of Territorial Disputes: Cases from East Asia.” Presentation to the Department of Political
Science, Guelph University, Guelph, ON, November 4, 2016.

•“Re-examining Japan in Global Context.” Public presentation, Suntory Foundation, Osaka, Japan, August
10, 2016.

•“Nuance, not force, will get nukes out of North Korea.” The Globe and Mail, March 20, 2017, p. A13.

•

“Why Ontario should steer clear of East Asia’s identity politics.” The Hill Times, February 13, 2017.

•“When it comes to the Nanjing Massacre, should Canada weigh in?” OpenCanada.org, February 13, 2017.

•“The Real Significance of Prime Minister Abe’s Pearl Harbor Visit,” CIGI, January 4, 2017.

•

The Japanese government has given US$5 million to the University of Toronto to establish an endowed
chair in Japanese politics and global affairs, and to launch a Centre for the Study of Global Japan. Dr.
David Welch will be the inaugural visiting chair.

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Japan Futures Initiative (JFI) and European Japan Advanced Research Network (EJARN) Joint Conference(PDF) Japan's Future: International Reflections on the Prospects for a "New Meiji" Transformation. Date:
December 11-12, 2016. Venue: Narita View Hotel, 700 Kosuge, Narita-shi Chiba, Japan•

https://uwaterloo.ca/japan-futures-initiative/sites/ca.japan-futuresinitiative/files/uploads/files/jfi_ejarn_conference_poster_-_final_0.pdf

Sheri Zhang (Department of Moder Languages and Literatures, University of Ottawa). Sheri has been leading
tours to western China since the 1980s. She writes•“The college that hosted the lectures are in the Muslim area in Ningxia, about 400 kilometers west of Xi’an.
Also, there are many Hui Muslims in the ancient capital Xi’an (known in Japan as Chang’an), as it is thestarting point of the ancient Silk Road. On the way to the Muslim college, we saw hills of yellow, green,
red in different shades coloured from the plantation. A huge Buddha statue carved out of the mountain in themountainous area. There were no people around, only mountains, we wondered who could have done such amarvellous job in the wilderness? It was unbelievable.

•

In my research, I focused on Chinese regional cultures inspired by what Sugimoto (2001) wrote in the book“Modern Japanese Culture”. Sugimoto (2001) also pointed out the diverse nature of culture – people withdifferent professions would not share the same cultures, for example.

•(https://www.amazon.ca/Cambridge-Companion-Modern-JapaneseCulture/dp/0521706637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491196828&sr=81&keywords=modern+japanese+culture)•

Earlier this year on February 9, I attended an event held at the Ottawa City Hall with the theme on"Addressing Islamophobia", and discussed the power of art based on my experience in Japan. My researchand teaching on the contrast between Japanese and Chinese modern cultures included ethnic minorities intheir respective countries. A Chinese music group became famous in Japan in 2004 or 2005. One of themusic pieces they played was “Alamuhan” - a Muslim music from Xinjiang area. I provided the students
with the lyrics and phonetics. After holiday, when a new semester started, some Japanese students told me
they had traveled to Xinjiang and saw many “Alamuhan” – girls in Xinjiang with long braids.

•

The following is the lyrics of Uyghur Muslim folk music song “Alamuhan” .
What does Alamuhan look like? Her figure is neither fat nor thin.
Her eye brows are like crescent moon. Her slender waist is like weeping willow.
Her little mouth is pretty. Her eyes can make you tremble.

•

The following is from the animated Disney extravaganza "Aladdin". Some people complained about themeaning containing prejudice against Arabs.
“Oh, I come from a land from a faraway place where the caravan camels roam.
Where they cut off your ear If they don't like your face It's barbaric, but hey, it's home.”•

Review for the Chinese Political Studies Association of Matthew S. Erie, author, China and Islam: The
Prophet, the Party, and Law (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society). Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Here is a link to a shortened version of the review - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customerreviews/R1DCEH96W99RL/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1107053374

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Japan Studies Association of Canada

Spring 2016 Newsletter

JSAC Executive
2015-2017 President (2016-2019):
Prof. Carin Holroyd
Department of Political Studies
University of Saskatchewan
Arts 283A, 9 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5
Tel: (306)966-5506
E-mail: carinholroyd@gmail.com

Secretary-Treasurer (2016-):
Prof. Norio Ota
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON, Canada M3J 1P3Phone: (416)736-2100 ext. 88750
Fax:(416)736-5483
E-mail: nota@yorku.ca

Regular Executive Members:
Prof. Thomas Waldichuk (2014-)
Department of Geography &Environmental Studies
Thompson Rivers University
900 McGill Road
Kamloops, BC, Canada V2C 0C8
Tel. 250-371-5718
E-mail: twaldichuk@tru.ca

Prof. David W. Edgington (2016-)
Department of Geography
University of British Columbia
1984 West Mall,
Vancouver BC, Canada V6T1Z2
Tel: 1-604-822-5612
Fax: 1-604-822-6150
E-mail: david.edgington@ubc.ca

Professor Jim Tiessen (2014-)
Ted Rogers School of Management
Ryerson University
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, ON M5B 2K3
E-mail: jhtiessen@ryerson.ca

Prof. Shige Matsui (2016-)
Peter A. Allard School of Law
University of British Columbia
E-mail: Shige MatsuiProf. David A. Welch (2016-)
Department of Political Science
University of Waterloo
E-mail: David Welch______________________________________________________________________In order to keep your updates uniform, please use the template on the next page or use thesame format on your fall updates. Send to: Sherilee.diebold@usask.ca

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Japan Studies Association of Canada

Spring 2016 Newsletter

Name:___________________________________________________________________________________
Institution and position:_____________________________________________________________________
Publications
Articles:

Chapters

Books

Other:(specify)

Interviews

Committee service

Conferences/Meetings Attended

AwardsGrantsPresentations

Field Work

Other
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