Japan Studies Association of Canada
October 4-6, 2002--Calgary, Alberta
Japan in a Changed World
Final Conference Program
Sponsored by the Japan Foundation; University of Calgary; Asian Studies Group;
Haskayne School of Business.
Friday, October 4, 2002
12:00 Registration Desk Opens (Location: In the Hallway Just Outside Professional
Faculties Building Room 118, University of Calgary Campus)
12:50PM-1:00PM Welcome and Conference Opening-Professional Faculties Building
Room 118
Teri Jane Ursacki-Bryant, Conference Chair, JSAC
Daphne Taras, Associate Dean (Research), Haskayne School of Business
Carin Holroyd, Co-President, JSAC
1:00PM-3:00PM Session #1 Challenges and Responses in Business
Chair: Teri Jane Ursacki-Bryant, University of Calgary
Vern Jones and Allan Conway, University of Calgary: “Surviving the Nineties: A
Japanese Entrepreneurial Firm Goes Public and Prospers”
Teri Jane Ursacki-Bryant, University of Calgary: “Foreign Investment and Managerial
Change in Japan’s Life Insurance Industry”
Carin Holroyd, University of Saskatchewan: “In Pursuit of a “Usable” Japan: The
Business Press and the Analysis of Economic Change in Japan”
Jim Tiessen, McMaster University: “Canadian Small & Medium-sized Enterprise (SME)
Web Localization for Japan's Market: Early Findings of a 10-Firm
Experiment"
3:00PM-3:15PM Coffee Break
3:15-4:15PM Session #2 Political Economy
Chair: Terry Wu, University of Regina
Dick Beason, University of Alberta; Dennis Patterson, Texas Tech University: “TheJapan That Never Was”
Monir Hossain Moni, Hitotsubashi University and University of Dhaka: “Party Factionand Coalition Dynamics in Japan”
Satoshi Ikeda, University of Alberta: “Japan’s Third Failure at Modernization: An
Overview of Japan’s Trajectory from the East Asian Regional and World-Systemic
Perspectives”

Terry Wu, University of Regina & Doren Chadee, University of Auckland: “A New
Approach to Japanese Trade Policy”
6:00PM-8:00PM Reception: Oak Room, Scurfield Hall (Haskayne School of Business)
Brief Comments by Consul-General of Japan Mr.Yoshikazu Takeuchi, Mr. Suichiro
OGINO, Director, The Japan Foundation, Toronto, and Dean David Saunders, Haskayne
School of Business, The University of Calgary.
Saturday, October 5, 2002-Science Building B, Room 144
8:15PM Registration desk opens, coffee available (breakfast available at conferencehotel)
8:45AM-10:15AM Session #3 Perspectives on History, Old and New
Chair: Joe Kess, University of Victoria
Febe Pamonag, University of Alberta: “’Poor, poor women, how I long to do somethingto better your position’: Tsuda Umeko’s Vision of Women’s Education in Meiji Japan”
Cary Shinji Takagaki, Huron University: “The Imperial House in the Changed World of
Late Heian Japan”
Minako Togawa, McGill University:”Gender in Japanese Pre-History”
10:15AM-10:30AM Coffee Break
10:30AM-11:45AM Session #4: International Politics & Economics
Chair: Dick Beason, University of Alberta
Special Speaker: Peter Campbell, Minister (Economic/Commercial), Canadian Embassy,
Tokyo: "Future Directions in Canada-Japan Relations"
Wenran Jiang, University of Alberta: "An Assessment of Japan's Foreign Policy UnderKoizumi"
11:45AM-1:30PM Lunch, Roundtable Discussion on the Future of JSAC, andBusiness Meeting
Chair: Carin Holroyd, JSAC Co-President
1:30PM-3:30PM Session #5: Language, Linguistics & Literature (I)Chair: Tom Waldichuk, University College of the Cariboo
Takehiro Kanaya, University of Montreal: “Typological Differences Between Japanese<aru> and English <do>”Joseph F. Kess and Tadao Miyamoto, University of Victoria: “Changes in Orthographic
Access: Psycholinguistic Dimensions of Script Familiarity in the Japanese Writing
Systems”
Norio Ota, York University: “Can Japanese Language and Culture be PC?”

Noriko Yabuki-Soh, York University: “The Use of Keigo in the Globalized ServiceEconomy”
3:30PM-3:45PM Coffee Break
3:45PM-5:45PM Session #6 Language, Linguistics & Literature (II)
Chair: Fumiko Ikawa-Smith, McGill University
Yoko Riley, University of Calgary: “Anne in the Culture of Conformity”
X. Jie Yang, University of Calgary: “Wars on Picture Scrolls”
Yuzo Ota, McGill University: “Is the Story of Kamiya Mieko’s Life Worth Telling to a
North American Audience?”
Yuko Yamade, University of Florida: “Identity and Cultural Translation in Tawada
Yoko’s Migrant Writings”
5:45PM-6:45PM Address by Keynote Speaker
Midori Ashida, Journalist & Founder, Professional Women’s Coalition for Sexuality andHealth, Tokyo
Midori Ashida received her B.A. in Chemistry from Science University of Tokyoin 1975. She was a science book editor for 17 years before she became a magazine editor
at the American Embassy in Tokyo, where she served for three years. She received anM.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism before she became afreelance journalist in 1996. She established the Professional Women's Coalition forSexuality and Health in 1997, which successfully lobbied to get oral contraceptives
approved in Japan in 1999. She is now chief investigator of an international comparative
study of health care systems for women, which is funded by the Japanese Ministry ofHealth, Labor, and Welfare.
7:30PM Barbecue dinner at Teri’s home
3420 Charleswood Crescent NW, 289-4229 (please see maps)
Sunday, October 6-Science Building B, Room 146
8:00AM Coffee available (Breakfast available at conference hotel)
8:30AM-10:00AM Session #7: Industries, Old and New (I)Chair: Jim Tiessen, McMaster University
Ken Coates, University of Saskatchewan: “Side-Stepping the Dot.Com Chaos: Japan andthe Internet Boom and Bust”
Invited Speaker: Mami Taniguchi, Hiroshima University: “The Relationship between
Firm Performance and Promoting Female Managers in the Japanese Management
Context: Why Are So Many Japanese Companies Incremental?”

Jaydeep Balakrishnan, University of Calgary: “The Just-In-Time (JIT) philosophy - Still
relevant in the 21st century.”
10:00AM-10:15AM Coffee Break
10:15AM-12:15AM Session #8: Geography & Culture*Chair: Norio Ota, York University
David Edgington, University of British Columbia: “The Development of Local Industry
in Higashi Osaka, Japan”
Tom Waldichuk, University College of the Cariboo: “The Fate of Suburban AgriculturalAreas in Japan: A Case Study from Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture”
Jay Goulding, York University: "Kuki Shuzo's Metamorphosis: Heidegger and Japan in a
Changed World."
Millie Creighton, University of British Columbia: “From the Sounds of Sado, to theRhythms of the World: The Re-arrangement of Traditional Identities by ContemporaryTaiko”
Other Confirmed Attendees
Jeff Kucharski, Alberta Government, Dept. of Economic Development (Edmonton)
Suzanne Trigg, Consulate-General of Japan (Edmonton)
Suichiro Ogino, Japan Foundation (Toronto)
Kara Lysne Paris, Japan Foundation (Toronto)
Leslie Kawamura, University of Calgary Asian Studies GroupBen Preston, University of Calgary (student volunteer)
Fumiko Ikawa-Smith, McGill University
Mayumi Hoshi, University of Calgary
Makoto Izakura, Consulate-General of Japan
Emily Pong, University of Alberta student
Lisa Ng, University of Alberta student
Joyce Lam, University of Alberta Student
Susan Smith, University of Calgary Student (Sunday only)
Yoshiko Yamaguchi, student
Tomoko Yoshida, University of Calgary (Saturday only)
Philip Chang, University of Calgary (reception only; Associate Dean-International,
Haskayne school of Business)