Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC)
Minutes: Annual General Meeting (AGM) October 2, 2021
Location: Virtual via ZOOM, due to COVID-19. Hosted by Norio Ota (York) and Tom Waldichuk(Thompson Rivers University)
The AGM, held from 2:15 PM (PDT), Oct. 2 during the JSAC Conference (Oct 1-3, 2021), was chaired by
JSAC President Carin Holroyd (Saskatchewan).
The Conference was originally scheduled to be held at Thompson Rivers University (Kamloops, BC). Dr.
Tom Waldichuk and his TRU colleagues planned the Conference, applied for and received JapanFoundation support. However due to the pandemic it was necessary to postpone the TRU conference
again. Norio Ota stepped up to assume the host role.
Attendees
Executive
President: Carin Holroyd (Saskatchewan)

Secretary Treasurer: Norio Ota (York)

Regular:Owen Griffiths (Mount Allison)David Edginton (UBC)
Maxime Marcotte Bouthillier (York)Aya Fujiwara (Alberta)
Tom Waldichuk (Thompson Rivers)
James Tiessen (Ryerson)

Other participants
Audrey Zhang
Yuko Shimizu (Japan Foundation)David Telfer (Brock)
Millie Creighton (UBC)Tim Reiffenstein (Mount Allison)
Atsuko Hashimoto (Brock)
Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki (Tsukuba)
Christopher Satoor (York)

Teru Ikeda
Brian Pendleton (Langara College)
Jay Goulding (York)
Noriko Yabuki-Soh (York)Yuko Shibata (UBC)
Millie Creighton (UBC)
Yuko Shibata (UBC)

1. Agenda
Motion to accept the Agenda as posted. Moved by Brian Pendleton. Seconded Norio Ota. Passed.
2. Minutes
Motion to accept minutes as posted. Moved by Yuko Shibata. Seconded by Jay Golding. Passed.
3. President’s Address and businessAppreciation

1

Carin Holroyd welcomed AGM participants and thanked organizers Norio Ota, Tom
Waldichuk and Cara Cadre for organizing the online conference.
Carin also thanked the Japan Foundation for their continued financial support and Maxime Marcotte
Bouthillier for being JSAC’s first graduate student Board member.
Aya Fujiwara was also thanked for organizing the judging of student presentations for the Klaus
Prinsgsheim Award. Nine students presented at the Conference.
Carin appreciated the efforts of those who submitted articles for the JSAC newsletter.
4.

Princess Takamodo Essay Contest
Aya Fujiwara announced the Essay Contest and the 2021 Winners. The winners were:i.

Luca Paolo Bruno from Leipzig University, “Artificial Intimacy: Gynoid and ArtificialIntelligence as Visual Novel Game Character Templates”; Yang Siyu from Ritsumeikan
Universityii. “China’s Governmental Restriction and Game Players’ Countermeasures to it: The
Virtual Place Created in Battlefield 4.” Bianca Chui from University of British Columbiaiii. “Eating Your Way Through Sugoroku: Imaginary Travel in a Japanese Board Game”
5. Book exchange
A JSAC book exchange was discussed at the 2020 AGM. This may be held next year at JSAC 2022.
6. JSAC 2022 Conference
JSAC 2022 will be hosted at Ryerson University in Toronto. James Tiessen will be the Conference
Chair. It will be held in the fall.
7. Treasurer’s report
Norio Ota reported that, due to COVID-19, he is still unable to receive and deposit membershipcheques at the University. So, for now we are not asking people to mail cheques.
Norio displayed a financial summary. JSAC has about $26.673 in cash. JSAC has expenses associatedwith 2021 conference support and other expenses, meaning the balance is about $25,086.
There was a discussion on the use of electronic rather than written check payments. The logistics
associated with a small Association make moving to online payments difficult.
Motion to accept the financial report. Moved by Owen Griffiths. Seconded by Millie Creighton.
Passed.
8. JSAC 2020 Conference Report2The Conference was held virtually and hosted by Norio Ota (York), due to the COVID 19 pandemic. It
was hoped it would be in person at Thompson Rivers University, but this was not feasible. There wasno registration fee for the conference.
The online format was successful in terms of attendance. There were 26 presentations, and a keynote
session. Overall about 85 people registered and participated.
The sessions were recorded and later posted. This was well received.
9.

AdjournmentCarin Holroyd adjourned the meeting at about 3:10 PM.

3