European Association for Japanese Studies
ヨ-ロッパ日本研究協会

Bulletin No. 83 |  December 2012

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

eajs Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012ISSN 0308-5139

Editor and Layout:
Office of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS)
Katrin Gengenbach
c/o Freie Universität Berlin
Ehrenbergstr. 26-28
BerlinGermany
tel.: +49-30-838-50929
fax: +4930-838-4-50931
e-mail: office@eajs.eu
website: http://www.eajs.eu

2Members of the Council

Members of the Council (2011-2014)
President

Treasurer

Prof Dr Rein RAUD
University of Helsinki
Department of World Cultures
PO Box 59
SF-00014 Helsinki (Suomi Finland)tel.: +358-9-191-22224
e-mail: raud@eajs.eu

Prof Dr Verena
BLECHINGER-TALCOTT
Freie Universitaet Berlin
Institute of East Asian Studies
Japanese Studies
Ehrenbergstr. 26-28
14195 Berlin (Germany)
tel.: +49-30-838-53599
fax: +49-30-838-57114
e-mail: blechinger-talcott@eajs.eu

Secretary
Prof Dr Bjarke FRELLESVIG
University of Oxford
Oriental Institute
Pusey Lane
Oxford OX1 2LE (United Kingdom)
tel.: +44 (0)1865 278 200
fax: +44 (0)1865 278 190
e-mail: frellesvig@eajs.eu

Immediate Past President
Prof Dr Harald FUESSHeidelberg University
Cluster of Excellence “Asia andEurope in a Global Context”
Voßstraße 2, Bldg. 4400
69115 Heidelberg (Germany)
tel.: +49-6221-54-4006
fax: +49-6221-54-4012
e-mail: fuess@eajs.eu

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EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

Extended Council Members
Prof Dr Reiko ABE-AUESTAD
University of Oslo
Department of Culture Studies
and Oriental Languages
P. O. Box 1010 Blindern
0315 Oslo (Norway)
tel.: +47-2285-6050
fax: +47-2285-4828
e-mail: abe-auestad@eajs.eu
Prof Dr Judit ÁROKAY
Heidelberg University
Institute for Japanese Studies
Akademiestraße 4-869117 Heidelberg (Germany)
tel.: +49 (6221) 54-7660
fax: +49 (06221) 54-7692
e-mail: arokay@eajs.eu
Prof Dr Maria Chiara MIGLIORE
Università del Salento
Dipartimento di Linguistica,
filologia e letteratura
Piazzetta Arco di Trionfo
73100 Lecce (Italy)
tel.: +39-0832-296337
fax: +39-0832-305497
e-mail: migliore@eajs.eu

4Prof Dr Yulia MIKHAILOVA
Hiroshima City University
3-4-1 Ozuka-higashi
Asa-Minami-ku, Hiroshima (Japan)
tel.: +81-82-8301668
fax.:+81-82-8301657
e-mail: mikhailova@eajs.eu
Dr Laura MORETTI
University of Cambridge
Faculty of Asian andMiddle Eastern Studies
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge CB3 9DA (UK)tel: +44-1223-335106
fax: +44-1223-335110
email: moretti@eajs.eu
Dr Brigitte STEGER
University of Cambridge
Department of East Asian Studies
Faculty of Asian andMiddle Eastern Studies
Cambridge CB2 1DQ(United Kingdom)
tel.: +44-1223-335140
fax: +44-1223-335110
e-mail: steger@eajs.eu

Honorary Members
Augustin Berque, France
Adriana Boscaro, Italy
Eduard Klopfenstein, Switzerland
Josef Kreiner, Germany
Olof Lidin, Denmark
Mikolaj Melanowicz, Poland
Ian Nish, UK
Jacqueline Pigeot, France
Brian Powell, UK
Arthur Stockwin, UK

Louis Allen, 				UK, 1922–1991
Frank J. Daniels, 			
UK, 1900–1983
Charles Dunn, 				UK, 1915–1995
Charles Haguenauer, 		France, 1896–1976
Wieslaw Kotanski, 			
Poland, 1915–2005
Bruno Lewin, 			
Germany, 1924–2012
Fosco Maraini, 			
Italy, 1912–2004
Martin Ramming, 		Germany, 1899–1988
Alexander Slawik, 		Austria, 1900–1997
Frits Vos, 			
The Netherlands, 1918–2000

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EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 20126

Contents
Members of the Council (2011-2014)������������������������������������3
Message from the President�������������������������������������������������9
In Memoriam EAJS honorary member Bruno Lewin��������11
Message from the Treasurer�����������������������������������������������12
Final Report from the 13th EAJS Conference, Tallinn������14
Minutes of the EAJS General Meeting 2011�����������������������16
Constitutional Change���������������������������������������������������������23
7th EAJS PhD Workshop, Käsmu, Estonia������������������������24
Report by the Academic Organiser

24

Reports by the 7th EAJS PhD Workshop Par­ticipants

27

8th EAJS PhD Workshop, Newcastle, UK��������������������������41
Report by the Academic Organiser

41

Reports by the 8th EAJS PhD Workshop Participants

44

2nd EAJS Book Prize 2011��������������������������������������������������54

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EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

TIFO Scholarship Reports��������������������������������������������������� 56
In the footsteps of Shimaji Mokurai (1838–1911)

56

Global Consciousness in Early Modern Japan

63(De)regulated Flexibility – Recent Developments and Outcomesof Japanese Labour Policy and Labour Market Reforms –67Forthcoming Events������������������������������������������������������������� 73
9th EAJS PhD Workshop, Frankfurt, Germany 73

1st EAJS Publication Workshop 2013, Bucharest, Romania

75

EAJS in Japan 2013 Conference, Kyoto, Japan

76

List of convenors for the 14th EAJS Conference in 2014 in
Ljubljana, Slovenia

78

Information from our members������������������������������������������� 81
Items Received��������������������������������������������������������������������� 83
Information from the EAJS Office��������������������������������������� 85
Members’ Information Sheet����������������������������������������������� 86
Change of Address Form����������������������������������������������������� 888

Message from the President

Message from the President
Esteemed colleagues,
dear friends,
First of all, let me thank you again,
on behalf of the whole council,
for your trust in us to take care of
the affairs of the EAJS during thecurrent period. Sometimes it may
seem that our organisation comesto life for brief, albeit energetic
periods once over every three
years in order to fall into slumbers again shortly after that. Let
me assure you this is not reallythe case, and update you on ourrecent activities, in addition to theinformation you are also receiving
through the EAJS mailing list.
The year 2012 proved to be a very
exciting year for Japanese Studies.
First of all, the EAJS Office was
relocated to Berlin this summer,
the seat of our 2011 electedtre­asurer,
VerenaBlechingerTalcott, in order to be closer andbetter embedded into a networkof international research and otheropportunities.
Among other upcoming issuesof note I would like to highlightthe 9th EAJS PhD Workshop for
Doctoral Students that will takeplace between 07 and 09 March2013 in Frankfurt. The number
of applicants has even risen
above the figures from last year’s
workshops in Tallinn 2011 andNewcastle 2012, testifying evenfurther that Japanese Studies
have witnessed a new ­popularity
in the area of post-graduate
education, and that our organisation has a lot to contribute to their
quality. In this bulletin, you willfind a few of the enthusiastic andgrateful statements of the workshop’s participants and coordinators. Furthermore, thanks to theconsistent financial support of theJapan Foundation and Toshiba
foundation, we were not only able
to entirely fund the workshops,
but TIFO could also grant three
PhD students a fellowship for
conducting research in Japan.
We have also announced the2011 Book Prize, the second one
after its inauguration in 2008, andare happy to inform you that on
this occasion we have recognised
three outstanding monographs in­Japanese Studies.
In the wake of the site electionof the 14th Conference in 2014
in Ljubljana, we were highly
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EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

impressed by the site proposal
from Bucharest, and in the courseof our continued efforts to increase
the visibility of the scholarly workby European scholars of Japan,
which has not yet been represented in English language, wehave decided to host our first
EAJS Publication Workshop in
Bucharest in 2013.
In addition, in this bulletin, you willfind enclosed the announcement of
the next, smaller, EAJS in Japan
Conference in Kyoto in September
2013, and ­the list of convenors forour 2014 conference. The call for
papers will be included in the nextbulletin for 2013.
The internal organisation of the
EAJS has also undergone several
changes. After the relocation of
the office, we have also moved ourserver and web management to
the Freie Universität Berlin, so that
we are able to better coordinate
and manage all responsibilitiesof the EAJS office in one place.
We will soon introduce the longawaited web shop, which shouldmake it simpler for you to pay andrenew your EAJS membershipfees online. Our EAJS MailingList is open for announcements
and communication with othermembers. There have also beensome recent personnel changes,
and I am glad to welcome Katrin
10Gengenbach as office representative and Susanne Brucksch as
the responsible representative forcoordinating the PhD workshops.
Another upcoming issue will be achange in our constitution. In orderto grow more independent fromexternal funding sources and tostabilise our funding, last year in
Tallinn, we have decided to raise
membership fees in 2013. Thechanges have been made public
on our website, and we hope thatthe new constitution will also help
us to better and quicker respond to
the growing interest in our association.
Yours sincerely,
Rein RaudEAJS President
Tallinn University, Estonia

Obituary

In Memoriam
EAJS honorary member Bruno Lewin, 1924-2012
The EAJS and the Faculty of East
Asian Studies of Ruhr-Universität
Bochum (RUB) are mourning thepassing of Prof. em. Bruno Lewin(*18 July 1924–†18 June 2012).
Bruno Lewin was a distinguishedscholar of Japanese language
and literature. During his tenure at
the Faculty of East Asian Studies(from 1964 until his retirement in1989), Prof. Lewin accrued great
merits by building up an internationally renowned Japanese
linguistics programme at RUB.
Besides, Prof. Lewin was a key
driving force for the establishment of the first chair of KoreanStudies in the Federal Republic of
Germany and one of the founding
members of the European Association for Japanese Studies in
the 1970s. The Faculty of RUB
and EAJS will always honour the
memory of Prof. Bruno Lewin as
an outstanding founding member,distinguished colleague, and an
excellent scholar.

An extensive obituary (in German)
by Prof Dr Sven Osterkamp can beread at the German RUB website:www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/sulj/
lewin_nachruf.shtml
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EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

Message from the Treasurer
Esteemed colleagues,
dear friends,

First of all, let me thank you again
for your trust in me and for electing
me as treasurer of the EAJS in2011! Since the elections, together
with the team of the EAJS office, I
have been hard at work.
As the EAJS currently still follows
the Japanese business year (wewill switch to the calendar yearwith the new constitution), due tofunding issues, the EAJS officestayed in Frankfurt until April 2012.
During that time, I worked closelywith my predecessor, Cornelia
Storz, in administering funds for
the EAJS and also in writing the
grant proposals for EAJS fundingin 2012. I would like to use thisopportunity to thank both Cornelia
Storz and also the Frankfurt office
staff, especially Birgit Schwotzer
for their good cooperation andsupport in the transition period!
From spring 2012, the Berlin officeof the EAJS took shape. I am glad
to report that both the Japan Foundation and the Toshiba International Foundation have generously
12

approved our grant proposals.
The Japan Foundation is kindly
supporting the work of the EAJS
office by funding the running costsof the office and related staff salaries as well by co-funding EAJS
events such as the EAJS PhD
Workshops. The Toshiba International Foundation generously
provided funding for the PhD workshops in Newcastle in May 2012
and in Frankfurt in March 2013.
The move of the EAJS office toBerlin also included a change in
the IT environment of the EAJS.
The EAJS relocated its web
presence to a server at Freie
Uni­versität Berlin, which will
provide web hosting and maintenance for the EAJS free of charge
for the time of office of the current
treasurer. This move allows the
EAJS to save a considerable
amount of money for the next
years and it frees up funding forother purposes. The move of the
EAJS IT environment would nothave been possible without the
support of Horst Plambeck who
has been, for many years, actively
involved in building the EAJS web
presence and in developing newservices. I would like to thankMessage from the Treasurer

Horst Plambeck for all his help andreliable support!
In the course of the move to
Berlin and with the help of Horst
Pla­mbeck, we also relocated the
EAJS mailing list EAJS-L to a newserver that hosts academic mailinglists free of charge. By doing so,
the list changed its character froma moderated to a managed email
list. EAJS members (and only
EAJS members) can now post
their messages to the EAJS-L
mailing list directly and without aprior screening by a moderator.
However, as access to the list islimited to EAJS members only andis managed by the EAJS office,we feel confident to keep the list
free of unwanted postings or spammessages. In the near future,
we will also post the revised setof rules for posting and relatedn­etiquette on the EAJS-L website. ­Let me use this opportunity tothank Tim Tiefenbach, who had
been the EAJS-L moderator fora long time, for all his help andsupport and for his good work tokeep the EAJS-L mailing list going!
The Berlin office of EAJS has
now
three
staff
members:
Katrin Gengenbach joined us
as the new office representative and takes charge, together
with me, of running the EAJS
office, maintaining the website,

external communication, conference liaison and administration.
Susanne Brucksch is in charge ofthe administrative side of the EAJS
PhD and other EAJS workshops,
and Ronja Meising is the student
RA in the EAJS office and is especially involved in membershipadministration.
We just finished preparing the
grant proposals for the 2013-14
fiscal year, and we are also in theprocess of handling the relocationof EAJS as an NPO (“Verein” in
the German legal term) from thejurisdiction of the Munich court toBerlin. Moreover, we are bringing
together the tax declaration thatEAJS has to submit every three
years.
Now that the technical and logisticside of the move have finalized,
we are in the process of improving
our service for EAJS members.
The long awaited webshop –which will allow you to extend
your membership and to pay yourmembership fees online – is about
to be launched. We also expanded
the capacities of the online registration system for the EAJS PhD
wor­kshops and will also use thesystem for the registration for the2013 EAJS conference in Kyoto/
Japan.

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EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

As we are there to serve you,please feel free to contact us withinquiries and questions, and pleasealso feel free to let us know you
want to stop by when you are in the
Berlin area!
Verena Blechinger-Talcott
EAJS Treasurer

Final Report from the 13th EAJS Conference, Tallinn

The XIV International Conferenceof the EAJS took place in Tallinn
University on 24-27 August, 2011,
and was hitherto the biggest in
the history of our organisation,
welcoming more than 700 participants and accompanying persons
from everywhere in Europe andall over the world. The conference
took place in the centrally locatedcampus of the Tallinn University,
the hub of Japanese Studies in
Estonia and the only university inthe Baltics to offer our discipline on
BA, MA and PhD levels.
After the opening ceremony andthe welcoming addresses by
the Rector of Tallinn University,
professor Tiit Land, and HE Mr
14

Hoshi Hideaki, Ambassador ofJapan, the participants had thepleasure of listening to the keynote
lecture by Prof Ueno Chizuko on
the subject of social change inJapan in conjunction with the triple
disasters that befell Japan on thatsame year.
The weather was favourable to us
during the welcoming reception
in and around the notable recent
building of the Art Museum ofEstonia (KuMu), a place to which
many of the conference participants later returned to enjoy theexhibitions. Since Tallinn was theEuropean Capital of Culture duringthat year, the whole city offeredconference participants quite a lot

Final Report from the 13th EAJS Conference 2011of cultural events in addition to its
usual medieval charm combinedwith all the modern comforts,
starting with free internet almost
everywhere.
The work of the conference wasdivided, as usual, between 11
sections and 3 additional subsections, with leading Japanesescholars as keynote speakers ineach field. Members of the organising committee were pleased tonote the almost completely positive feedback on their work andindeed did their best to solve all
the small problems that werereported to them as quickly andefficiently as possible.

Japan Foundation on the future ofJapanese Studies in Europe, andthe symposium of the International
Research Centre for JapaneseStudies (Nichibunken). An EAJS
PhD workshop also took place justbefore the conference.
Rein RaudEAJS President

On the last day of the conference, the general assembly ofmembers adopted several important changes to the EAJS constitution, following a heated debate,and elected two new honorary
members of the as­sociation,
Prof Jacqueline Pigeot and Prof
Augustin Berque, both from
France. It was also decided toestablish two new subsections
for the next conference, namely
philosophy and media studies.
In conjunction with the co­nference,anumberofindependently­o­rg­an­ ised events were held, suchas the roundtable organised by the15

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

Minutes of the EAJS General Meeting 2011
Minutes of the General Meetingof the European Association forJapanese Studies (EAJS) held at
Tallinn University, 14:30, Saturday
27 August, 2011.
1. Welcome
EAJS President Harald Fuess, inthe chair, welcomed the members
to the General Meeting, expressing
his thanks to the participants andSection Convenors for their contributions to a successful and stimulating Conference.

2.2 EAJS and its Current Activities
Fuess reported on the activities
of EAJS over the past three years,
highlighting the following points:•

2. Report by President
2.1 General Introduction
Fuess gave a short presentation
reporting on the current status of
the EAJS. He pointed out that the
EAJS, as one of the world’s largest
Association of Japanese Studies,
is a continuously growing, multinational association with members
from a wide range of JapaneseStudies related disciplines.

16

•

•

PhD Workshops are being
held every eighteen months,
the focus varying between
the humanities and thesocial sciences, and, with
the TIFO scholarships, arevery important as EAJS
support for doctoral students.
Fuess expressed his gratitude to Brigitte Steger fororg­anising the PhD Workshop
2010 Cambridge (UK) andVerena Blechinger-Talcott fororg­anising the PhD Workshop
2011 in Käsmu (Estonia).
The winners of the annual
TIFO
Scholarships
2011
have been announced: Koch,
Marinaro and Plenefisch.
14 submissions for the EAJSBook Prize have been
received. In contrast to the2008 EAJS Book Prize, inthis year’s Book Prize, a wellbalanced range of subjects
as well as a wider range oflanguages had been covered:in 2011, there had been eightMinutes of the EAJS General Meeting 2011

•

•

•

titles in English, one in English
and French, one in English
and Russian, one in Russian
and three in Bulgarian. Due tothis variety, the winner will beannounced after the Conference.
This
year’sConference
showed a continuously risinginterest in the participation at the EAJS Conferences (744 participants, 587
presenting). In an overview
of the current Conference,
including a section overview,
he explained that feedback
from the Tallinn Conference
had indicated discrepancies
among the existing sections.
He suggested to implementing the following changes:
DivisionofReligion
Section into ‘Religion and
Religious Thought’ and ‘Intellectual History and Philosophy’
Division of Section Anthropology into ‘Anthropology’ and‘Media Studies’.

2.3 EAJS
Act­ivities

and

its

Future••Council decided to establish
annual EAJS PhD Workshops. The next workshops
are planned to be held in
Newcastle 2012 (Moretti),Frankfurt 2013 (Storz) andBucharest (Blechinger-Talcott).
Fuess expressed his thanks
to all future workshop organisers for their hard work in thisarea.
Underlining the importanceof EAJS Conferences andother activities to JapaneseStudies worldwide, Fuess
mentioned the possibility ofholding an EAJS Conference in Japan (Kyoto) in
March 2013 and cooperating
on an interdisciplinary levelwith the European Association
for Chinese Studies (EAJS –EACS Workshop).
The Council had consideredestablishinganacademicjournal for EAJS. Fuess
replied that they had exploredthe possibility of an EAJS
journal in cooperation with theGerman Institute of JapaneseStudies (DIJ).

Fuess reported on the activities of
EAJS for the future, highlighting
the following points:• During the last years theparticipation in EAJS PhD
Workshops had risen and the17

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

2.4 Announcement of 2014
Conference Site/Start Date of
Next Conference
Fuess reported that the membersof the old and new Councils had
met on the morning of 26 August
2011 to consider proposals for the2014 Conference Site from Bucharest, Ljubljana, Moscow and Paris.
Fuess stated that the highstandard of the proposals had
made deliberations very difficult,and proceeded to explain the
conclusions from the General
Meeting. These were as follows:
The General Meeting concluded
that the 2014 Conference Siteshould be Ljubljana, taking theview that 2014 is the right time tohold EAJS in Ljubljana, locatedin the heart of Europe between
the Alps and the Adriatic Sea
as the venue for the next EAJS
Conference. The commitment tokn­owledge transfer in the proposal,
involving the city in learning about
Japan while the Conference takes
place, was commended.
With young and enthusiastic
researchers who are eager to face
new challenges in the academic
field Conferences such as the 10thand 19th International Conference on Japanese Language
Teaching 1997 and 2006, the 16th
18

International EACS Co­nference
2006 as well as the 8th Annual
EATS Conference 2011 had been
hosted at the Department of Asianand African Studies of the Facultyof Arts at University of Ljubljana.
The detailed costs for the Conference and the contrast in location- moving from west to east (andsouth to north) after Tallinn andLecce - were also factors in thedecision.
Fuess thanked the Universityof Ljubljana for its proposal,
presented by Prof Dr Andrej Bekeš
and Dr Nataša Visočnik. He said
that the Council is looking forward
to hold the 14th International
Conference in Ljubljana from
27–30 August 2014.
The Local Organising Committee
in Ljubljana is committed topo­sitive inno­vation, and so would
welcome ­s­u­g­g­estions on how toenhance organisation.
2.5 Honorary Membership
Fuess announced a proposal fromthe Council to confer honorary
membership on the following
in recognition of their intensive
engagement in Japanese Studies:••

Prof Augustin BerqueProf Jacqueline Pigeot

Minutes of the EAJS General Meeting 2011

The General Meeting approved
these nominations and congr­
atulatedthenewhonorary
members with a round of
applause.
2.6 Election Results and Presentation of New Council
Fuess gave formal notice of theresults of the election, the votes
having been counted on 11 August2011.
His successor as President is ProfDr Rein Raud of Tallinn University, Estland. Prof Dr Verena
Blechinger-Talcott of Free University Berlin, Germany is elected as
Treasurer and the new Secretaryis Professor Dr Bjarke Frellesvig of
the University of Oxford, UK.
Prof Dr Harald Fuess will remainon the Council as Immediate Past
President. The other members of
the new Council are Prof Dr JuditÁrokay of Heidelberg University,
Germany; Prof Dr Reiko Abe
Auestad of University of Oslo,
Norway; Prof Dr Maria Chiara
Migliore of University of Salento,
Italy; Prof Dr Yulia Mikahilova ofHiroshima City University, Japan;
Dr Laura Moretti of Newcastle
University, UK; Dr Brigitte Steger
of Cambridge University, UK.
Fuess welcomed those joining
or remaining on the Council andthanked retiring members Viktoria
Eschbach-Szabo, Fabio Rambelli,Harald Conrad (in absence) andCornelia Storz. He then invited
each of the members of the oldand new Councils who were
present to say a few words.
Fuess introduced Dr Nataša
Visočnik of University of Ljubljana,
who will work with the new Council
as the 2014 Conference Organiser
and chair the Local Organising
Committee in Ljubljana.
3. Treasurer’s Report
Storz presented the financial
report. She identified the mainareas into which EAJS has channelled funds in the last three years,
noting that these include several
new activities, especially mailinglist and website/IT support.
PhD workshops are taking place
regularly and are planned to beheld annually, as there is a marked
increase in applications, demonstrating demand; there is a newly
created EAJS Mailing list; thewebsite has been overhauled.
There are significant administrative costs in the aspects ofconference and pre-conference
organisation handled through the
EAJS Office; preparation of the
docume­ntation for tax declarationand other information required
19

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

from EAJS due to its status asa non-profit organisation (NPO);
applications for external funds andmanagement of funds secured
for specific purposes. The EAJS
receives annual support fromthe Japan Foundation and also
received support from the Japan
Fo­undation for invited speakers
for this conference as well as fromTIFO for the doctoral scholarships(three are available per year).
She explained that due to theconference this year, there has
been a considerable increase inmembership in the latter part of2010 and in 2011, and EAJS has
received income from fees fromboth new and renewing members.
This is a regular and predictable
pattern.
To finance an annually held PhD
Workshop, the Toshiba Foundation
Funds, which are currently used
for annual TiFo-Scholarships, shallbe re-allocated to fund PhD Workshop activities.
In the latter half of 2010, theplanned improvement of communication through the EAJS Mailinglist was implemented.
Likewise, the planned content
management system will enable
payment of fees by credit cardand generate automatic reminders
for renewal of membership byend of this year. These changes
20

are designed to reduce theadm­inistrative burden on the EAJS
Office and to automate EAJS
Office tasks.
The e-mail distribution of theBulletin to the majority of members
has reduced costs drastically andwith the same aim, it is planned
to publish the Bulletin solely inel­ectronic form once a year, or
twice in conference years.
She clarified that high reserves
are necessary to ensure financing
one year in advance, a point that islegally recognised and accepted interms of the NPO status of EAJS.
She stated that, in the last three
years, the service for our members
had been notably improved, due
to the introduction of the EAJS
mailing list and the expansion ofother new technical features, but
the EAJS is facing a continuously
reduced financial support by third
parties, which makes the increaseof membership fees inevitable.
The Treasurer’s
accepted.

reportwas

4. Membership Fees
Storz explained that an increase inmembership fees aims at ensuring
financial stability of the EAJS. She
proposed two different fee models:Minutes of the EAJS General Meeting 2011a) Case 1: membershipincrease of 50 percent orb) Case 2: membershipincrease of 100 percent.

fee
fee

The
Councilsuggestedanincrease in membership fees of 50
percent (Case 1), and the increaseof the membership fees was
proposed and voted upon. The
proposal was approved with two
objections, and two abstentions.
5.
Reports
Convenors

by•SectionConvenors were each invited
to deliver a short report on
the activities of their respective
sections. In the course of theirreports, some additionally maderequests or suggestions for futureco­nferences. These included thesuggestion to establish a separate
media and law section, a panel
reduction within the sections andinvitation of the convenors to apre-conference.
6. Recommendations for 2014
Conference by the Council
The Council had decided to recommend the following changes basedon the ‘Next Conference Meeting’and the convenors’ suggestions:

•

•

•

The principle rule of a
maximum of 50 percent
panel in one section should
be enforced more strongly
to redress the dominance of
panels, with the exemption of
the Interdisciplinary Section.
A
provisionofEnglishsum­maries
forJapanesepre­sentations shall be necessary.
The deadline for appointing
newconvenors
wasannounced to be 1 October
2011.
The Interdisciplinary Panels
Section should be continued,
as it can function as a safetyvalve for papers that do not fit
in other places.

Migliore expressed her concern
about letting convenors give
papers in their own section asa way of compensation for theirwork. Due to the lack of time,
this issue was not taken up in theplenum.
7. Change of Constitution
Fuess advised the General
Meeting that the Council had
decidedtoproposesome­c­on­s­ti­tutional
amendments
toensure that the constitutionac­curately reflects established21

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

practice, as it was announced in
the EAJS Bulletin No. 81.
An EAJS Constitution Draft andan overview of all constitutionalchanges were distributed at the
beginning of the General Meeting.
An objection by a member was
raised from the floor that the seatshould remain in Munich and not
be changed to Berlin as suggested
in the constitution draft. This objection was voted upon and rejectedby 2 votes for and 97 votes against
it.
Fuess, as the chair of the General
Meeting, asked for an open
vote and this was approved­un­ ­a­nimously,­­
as required by thecurrent EAJS Constitution. The
constitution draft was then voted
upon and the constitution draftwasadoptedunanimously.
Fuess stated that the majority of
two thirds of valid votes cast wasnecessary to amend the current
constitution.
8. Conclusion
There being no further business,
Fuess extended thanks to allparticipants and to the old Council
and wished good luck to the newCouncil.
22

He also recorded thanks to the
local Organising Committee at the
University of Tallinn for hosting an
impressive Conference at a great
venue.
Raud said that it had been an
honour to host the EAJS Conference and that the experience had
confirmed his conviction of theimportance of fostering a network.
All staff and members of theorga­nisingcommittee
hadmuch enjoyed welcoming EAJS
members to Tallinn over the last
four days, which had passed byvery fast, and hoped to see manyof them again soon.

Constitutional Changes

Constitutional Change
At the General Meeting on August27, 2011, the attending members
have decided for a change in theconstitution. Adjustments weremade in the following points:
Amendments:• to maintain our legal status
and established practice as a
non-profit organisation• and to ensure a steady growthand deal with larger figures ofmembership.
Objectives of our association:• generalisation of our goals
and objectives, to prevent the
EAJS from violation of theconstitution,• and to gain more flexibility inpromoting Japanese Studies
in Europe.
Membership fees:• to change membership fees
without amending the constitution, the new constitution
does not mention the specificamount members have to pay
as membership fees.
Council Structure:• clarification and modificationof the council structure andleaner terms of council me­­­mb­e­­rship.
Voting rules:• specification of rules, including
the possibilities of electronic
exchange and communication• and terms of votes for thecouncil election.
Change of financial year:• from Japanese FY to calendar
year.
Other important issues:••

we have decided to change
the seat of the association to
Berlin, the seat of the current
treasurer.
In order for the EAJS
to be able to run more­in­dep­endently in the future,
we have also decided to raise
membership fees from 60€ to
90€ for personal members.

The new version of the Tallinn
constitution draft is to be found at:www.eajs.eu/index.php?id=278
In order to become effective, theconstitutional changes still need tobe legally approved by the Berlin
registry court.
23

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

7th EAJS PhD Workshop, Käsmu, Estonia
August 21-24, 2011

Reports on the 7th
EAJS PhD Workshop@Käsmu, Estonia
August 21-24, 2011
Report by the Academic
Organiser
As part of its activities to promote
young scholars and to build andexpand the increasing communityof Japan scholars in Europe, the
EAJS regularly organises PhD
workshops. The goal of the workshops is to facilitate networking
and communication among early
career scholars (i.e. doctoral
students) in Japanese Studies orfrom humanities or social science
disciplines, but with a distinct focus
on Japan. For many participants,
the workshops are a rare opportunity to discuss their work withsenior scholars outside of theirhome department, as there aremany universities where JapaneseStudies departments are rather
small and where opportunities forstudents’ travel to international
conferences are limited.
24

EAJS
PhD
workshops
areintended to offer an opportunity
for open discussions and for interdisciplinary cooperation among
doctoral candidates from various
European countries. In the courseof the workshop and in the context
of the related social activities,
participants will form networks
and establish contacts that often
continue beyond the time of theworkshop. Workshop alumni often
meet again at the EAJS conferences or other conferences andworkshops in the field of JapaneseStudies. By doing so, EAJS aims
to contribute to the creation of aEuropean community of Japanscholars.
Similar to the previous workshops,
where the calls for papers were
met with an increasing number ofapplications, the number of applications for participation in the 7th
EAJS PhD workshop reached
a new record of 73 applications
for a total of 16 slots for participants. The high number does not
only underline the popularity of
EAJS PhD workshops, but also
shows how important this opportunity for scholarly discussion and7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu

networking has become for young
European Japan scholars.

participant with specialised expertise beyond the workshop.

The selection process was therefore a very difficult task that theorganiser and the members of the
EAJS council took very seriously.
In the selection of participants,
we ensured that all major areas ofEuropean Japanese Studies wererepresented, from linguistics andlanguage to religion, literature,
history, sociology, anthropology
and political science. We also tried
to get a good balance of participants by countries and institutions
as well as gender. Moreover, we
took care in ensuring that theparticipants’ projects were suchthat they could speak to eachother and also gain benefit for theirown projects by discussing otherparticipants’ work.

The program of the workshop was
rather intense: all participants wereasked to submit a brief abstract of
their dissertation project, a longer
research paper and a progress
report of their dissertations prior to
the workshop, and all participants
were also asked to read all otherpapers before coming to Estonia.
It was wonderful to see that all
participants clearly came to theworkshop very well prepared andthat discussions were fruitful andvery active from the start.

We were also able to win three
supervisors
whose
researchand expertise was such that all
participants could benefit fromcomments and suggestions. Moreover, as the workshop took placeright before the EAJS ­C­­o­nf­erencein Tallinn, we managed to ensurethat one participant with a research
topic related to ghosts and representations of evil in medieval
Japan could participate in aspe­cialised workshop organisedby Nichibunken prior to the main
conference, thus also providing the

The workshop was divided into
seven sessions that included
short presentations of two or threedissertation projects (about 10
minutes) and were then followedby comments from one or two
designated discussants. Afterwards, the floor was open forgeneral discussion. In between
sections, there was ample room
for individual discussions andcomments as well. All papers wereassigned to one or two senioradvisors who actively engaged
with issues related to the natureof the projects and the researchqu­estion, methodology, sources
etc. As organiser, I am very
grateful to Reiko Abe-Auestadt,
Harald Fuess, and Urs Matthias
Zachmann for their commitment
25

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

to invest quite considerable time
and work to engage with the
projects and to provide comments.
Moreover, Rein Raud came to theworkshop to provide comments
and insights for the papers related
to medieval Japan.
All together, we had about 40-45
minutes of discussion time per
project. In a final round of discussion at the end of the workshop,
we discussed publication strategies and ways to find the rightjournal to publish one’s research.
From that discussion, there alsorose the wish by participants tohave a workshop on strategies
not only for doctoral candidates
for publishing in peer-reviewed
jo­urnals.
The workshop took place rightbefore the 2011 EAJS Conferencein Tallinn. We decided to locate
the workshop not in Tallinn itself,
but to have it in the pristine environment of the village of Käsmu
on the Baltic Sea, about 2 hours
from Tallinn. The choice of location was a wonderful one: weused a conference facility in the
Käsmu Maritime Museum, a small
art project right by the sea andsurrounded by a large garden.
The facility had a bright and sunnyconference room with all necessary technical equipment, andcoffee breaks and meals were
26

served in the garden or in a dining
area made of an old fishing boatright on the beach. The environment enabled participants to usetime between sessions for a walkby the sea to free up their spirits
or to engage into more intense
discussions of the projects. It also
allowed all participants to enjoy
Estonian hospitality which certainly
ensured a very open and friendly
climate throughout the workshopthat also reflected positively on theworkshop. All participants stayed
in guesthouses in Käsmu, just a
short walk to the workshop venue.
As organiser, I leave it to theparticipants and their reports togive you an impression of thework and discussions during thewor­kshop. For myself as or­ganiser,
I have to say that I am very
grateful to have had the opportunity to organise the PhD workshop.
I received very positive responses
from participants after their return.
Therefore, I would like to thank
the
Japan
Foundation,
theToshiba International Foundation, and the EAJS for generously
providing funds for travel and­a­cc­­o­mm­ odation as well as forfood during the workshop. I would
also like to cordially thank the
local ­o­­rga­nising team from Tallinn
university, especially Kerli Kangroand Sirli Peda, as well as the7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu

staff from the EAJS office, Birgit
Schwotzer and Dietmar Segl, who
all devoted considerable time andeffort to help us make this workshop a success.
Verena Blechinger-Talcott
Institute of East Asian Studies
Japanese Studies
Freie Universität Berlin+++

Reports by the 7th EAJS
PhD Workshop Par­ticipantsFirst I would like to thank theJapan Foundation and the Toshiba
International Foundation for sponsoring the 7th EAJS PhD Workshop. I also would like to extend
my gratitude to the organiser, Prof.
Verena Blechinger-Talcott, and thesupervisors Prof. Reiko AbeAuestad, Prof. Harald Fuess and Dr.
Urs-Matthias Zachmann.
This year’s workshop took place inKäsmu, a small coastal village inNortheastern Estonia. The working
space for our group’s participantsfrom seven countries was a room
awash with light in the local Maritime Museum. Throughout thesessions, grouped into panelswith assigned commentators anddiscussion, I had the chance tolisten to dissertation fields fromliterary over historical to religious
studies and beyond – a truly
multidisciplinary experience. Not
only did the richness of today’sEu­ropean
Japanese
Studiesbecame apparent, but points oflinkage and overlap to my own
field as well. The atmosphere wasrelaxed and intellectually stimulating, with debates carried on into
the night at the guesthouse or thetiny bar we found for our second
evening.
I am especially thankful for thesecond day’s input and advice
on writing and publishing by our
senior advisors as well as thepossibility to attend the EAJS
conferencein
Tallinnafterwards together with many of thecolleagues I had met in Käsmu
for the first time. Writing thisreport from the UK where I am
currently based at SOAS as an
ERASMUS student, I am happy tohave already met some of the UK
colleagues again here in London.
A book we are all bound to write,
but a book is never written (or atleast: shall never be written) alone.
Thus, I want to strongly encourage
PhD students to apply for andtake part in the next workshop for
doctoral candidates.
27

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

I am grateful for the unique time,
unforgettable
experienceandthe insights I gained in Käsmu,Estonia.
Birgit D. Binder
University of Heidelberg+++
The 7th EAJS PhD Workshop in
Käsmu was a unique exp­erience interms of both academic ­int­era­ction
and human relations. I was­positively impressed by the way it
was organised, because it was so
different from many other workshops where people are stiff andtense, and where ­participants havea very limited discussion time.
I extremely enjoyed the friendly
atmosphere and the stimulating
conversations with my peers
and the supervisors. It was an­excellent opportunity to interact
with researchers specialised indifferent branches of JapaneseStudies all over the world. Due tothe participants’ different academic
backgrounds, I was able to lookat my research from a different,interdisciplinary perspective. I
could identify the strong and weak
points of my work, focusing onsome aspects that I had previously
neglected and reconsidering somestructural issues in my researchlayout.
28

I appreciated the workshop format
because there was plenty of time
to discuss after each ­pr­ese­­ntation
and, in addition to it; we continued
to talk even during our meals.
All the participants showed avery cooperative ­attitude, giving
feedbacktoimproveeachother’s works. Among the factors­contributing to the success of thisworkshop, I would mention also
the beautiful location, a small
village on the Baltic Sea, in apeaceful environment where we
could focus on our debates andcreate a ‘small academic community’.
I would definitively recommend
this experience to all the PhD
candidates, even to those whoare experiencing some ­difficulties,
because this workshop can be
an opportunity to share themwith other scholars and look atthem from a different ­viewpoint. I
would like to thank all the scholars
who shared this ­experience
with me and all the supervisors, Prof. Harald Fuess, Prof.
Verena Blechinger-Talcott, Prof.
Matthias Zachmann and especially Prof. Reiko Abe-Auestad,whose insights were particularly­illuminating.
Last but not least, I would liketo express my gratitude to theJapan Foundation and the Toshiba

7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu

International Foundation, which
supported this wonderful workshop
and made it possible.
Luciana Cardi“L’Orientale” University of Naples+++
The 7th EAJS Workshop for
doctoral students held in Käsmu(Estonia) was a very intenseand enriching two-day event.
I am very thankful I had the­opportunity to participate, especially in the view of the completion of my doctoral course in a
few months. The workshop was aunique ­opportunity to present myresearch project on women andfaith-based volunteering in Japan
to expert academics from different
disciplines, and other doctoral
students researching on Japan.
The questions I was asked byfellow doctoral students, as wellas the feedback and great advice
I received from the supervisors
were extremely helpful to reshape
the overall structure of my dissertation, and outline its conclusion.
In my opinion, three elements
have made this workshop especially enriching. First, the formatof the workshop so that everyone
could present her or his workin front of all participants was agreat chance to test my ability

and discuss my research projectso that it could be intelligible tothose not dealing with Japanesereligion and faith-based volunteering. Moreover, it was surely
the best way to receive the largest
number of comments and questions from fellow PhD students
who are researching in different
topics and are at different level of
their PhD study. The type and levelof questions I received provided
me with a critical response of mydrafted ­diss­ertation: they helped
me to redefine what difference
religion makes in volunteering
as compared to secular civilsociety, as well as the role of faithbased volunteering as a gateway
for participatory ­democracy. I
am particularly grateful to my
EAJS supervisor, Prof. Verena
Blechinger-Talcott, who carefullycommented and advised on myresearch topic after the presentation, as well as during a relaxing
walk in the village. Her external
supervision with expertise on civilsociety helped me to define andrefine my findings. Moreover, shegave me a very helpful piece ofadvice for my conclusion I am
really indebted.
Second, the workshop helped
establishing connections bothwith young researchers working
in related or different fields, andwith academic scholars who may
29

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

give further suggestions on future
research directions. From thisperspective, the workshop was
surely a source of interesting andchallenging ideas for present andfuture research.
Last, from a logistic point ofview, the village of Käsmu infront of the Baltic Sea made thestay a unique experience. The­traditional Estonian house where
we stayed, the museum where
the workshop took place, and theold boat along the seaside where
we had lunch are but a few of the­unfor­gettable wonderful memories
I have brought back with me. I amvery grateful to the organisers of
Tallinn University for suggesting
this lo­cation for our workshop,
and I hope to visit Käsmu andTallinn again and enjoy the unique­atmosphere of those places.
I would like to end with my heartfelt thanks to Toshiba Foundation
and Japan Foundation for sponsoring the EAJS PhD Workshop,
and EAJS organisers for givingme the opportunity to have thisconstructive experience. A special
thanks goes to the organisers at
Tallinn University, and to Prof.
Verena Blechinger-Talcott andProf. Harald Fuess for their efforts
and for granting me with this great
opportunity.
30

Paola Cavaliere
The University of Sheffield+++
I would first like to thank the­organisers for giving me the opportunity to participate in the 7th EAJS
PhD Workshop in Käsmu, Estonia,
as well as to both the Toshiba
International Foundation and theJapan Foundation for financing it
and thus making it possible. It was
indeed a great opportunity as well
as a wonderful experience for me,
being at the stage of my research,where I needed to reconsider myprevious ideas and had to decideon the direction to follow in the
future.
Doing this alone is of course amuch harder or even impossible
task, and it is here that academically gatherings such as thisconference perform their mostvital role. It was indeed vital forme, being just on the way backto Japan to continue and possibly
conclude my dissertation, to reorganise my ideas and theses, topresent them to other researchersof Japan and to discuss themat the forum as well as at coffee
breaks and dinners and otherinformal occasions. It was also
a great opportunity to meet withother PhD candidates from acrossEuropean academic institutions

7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu

and thus to create further connections and friendships with interesting people of similar interests.
I would like to express my gratitude on this occasion to theorganisers from Tallinn University
and to the supervisors that took
it on themselves to spend threedays with us in a remote Estonian
village discussing academic topics
and giving us valuable advice. My
gratitude thus goes to Dr. Verena
Blechinger-Talcott, to Dr. Harald
Fuess, Dr. Reiko Abe-Auestad
and last but not least to Dr. Urs
Matthias Zachmann, for giving me
critical evaluation of my research
project and making me reconsider
some of my, sometimes perhaps
over-confident ideas as to how tocontinue my research in the future.
Finally I would like to thank all myfellow participants for being a greatcompany over those three daysand I hope we will continue to stay
in touch in this academic world ofJapanese studies in Europe.
Luka Culiberg
University of Ljubljana+++
The EAJS Workshop ­experience
was a unique occasion for thedevelopment of my dissertation. I am really thankful for being

selected for this useful event, inwhich I was able to make newacquaintances and friends working
on Japanese Studies. Due to theabsence of a proper JapaneseStudies department in my university, this program was a special
time for me in order to compareand contrast the information of
my research with other fields andprojects. Such a rich multidisciplinary context, which I lack in myuniversity back to Spain, fostered
the development of my thesis andcorrected it in different senses.
From now, I will bear in mind thedifferent aspects that are related tothe theme of my dissertation andI will try to create it in a nexus ofconcerns related to contemporary
cultural studies.
Together with this multidisciplinary approach, the concentration of the seminar in three days
allowed the creation of an exclusive network of PhD candidates
that can be the basis of useful andenriching relations in the future.
The common attribute of theseparticipants was their youth, which
involve the enthusiastic energyof the beginnings. The affinities
among us were easily created.
Moreover, the privilege of being
assisted by professors specialized in Japanese Studies provided
me with ideas and bibliography
31

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012that ­otherwise I would have neverconsidered.
My attendance to the workshop
and the conference were alsomeaningful in order to realise
about my inexperience in thesekinds of events. It was my first timein such a conference, and I could
learn how a PhD candidate musttake profit of programs like theseand foster his knowledge thanks
to the exchange with the panel
discussants and the new acquaintances. The EAJS Conference has
been a valuable time for realizing
the difficulties of my research andencouraging me for going ahead.
Benito Elías García Valero
University of Alicante+++
It was a great privilege for me tobe selected to participate in the 7th
EAJS PhD Workshop 2011.
It was a very precious opportunity
to get feedback on my research
project from so many participants from various perspectives.
It was an interdisciplinary workshop and a wide range of subject
fields covered by the participants
included
literature,
linguistics,
sociology, politics, and economics,
and I was happily surprised at how
much I gained from listening to the32

presentations of other participants,
even those in different subject
fields from mine. Regardless of
the research subject, I found someinteresting common themes thatmany of us were interested in,such as Japanese national identity as well as reconstruction ofJapanese traditions and history inmodern and contemporary times.
Thanks to that, everyone wasengaged in exchanging ideas on
the presentations throughout theentire workshop. I enjoyed thelively discussion and I was alsoable to gain many new perspectives for my own research projectin the process. All the professors
who participated as a discussantswere also very helpful in giving us
thoughtful advice for our projects,
which I am very thankful about aswell.
I believe for us young researchers,
it is very important to get to meetother researchers with similar
research interests. This workshop was a perfect occasion forthis and I was able to exchange
contacts with many like-minded
PhD students all over Europe that
I hope to keep in touch with in the
future.
I am therefore very grateful to
the EAJS and the Toshiba Foundation as well as all the professors, organisers and student

7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu­ articipants at the workshop forpmaking this workshop so worthwhile. I hope that many other PhD
students in the field of Japanesestudies will be able to enjoy such agreat opportunity in times ahead.
Naoko Hosokawa
University of Oxford+++
First and foremost I must express
my immense gratitude to the­organisers for giving me the chance
to attend the 2011 EAJS PhD­Workshop in Estonia. It was a highly
valuable and enjoyable workshop,
an opportunity which was too good
to miss out on.
The workshop brought a numberof talented PhD students from a
range of countries and academic
disciplines together, offering theparticipants a diverse group withwhich to bounce ideas off and shareresearch experiences. The quality of
feedback from fellow PhD students
and the participating Professors has
meant that I have gained immenselyfrom this experience.
In particular, the combination of amulti-disciplinary group which at thesame time shares a Japan focus,
allowed me to benefit from opinions,approaches and insights that differ

from those I would expect at myhome department.
The other major plus of the workshop was that it has provided aplatform from which young aspiring
scholars connected to Japanesestudies can build a strong networkand basis for future collaborative,
multi-disciplinary research. Thiswas certainly not “just another workshop”, and I am truly grateful to all
those involved.
Steven Ivings
London School of Economics+++
The EAJS PhD Workshop 2011 at
Käsmu was a unique ­experienceand great opportunity to meetother young scholars in the field of­Japanese Studies and to discuss
all the interesting projects they are
working on. I would like to thank the
EAJS and the organisers for doing
such a great job by making thisworkshop possible and giving me
the chance to have such a nice timein Estonia.
At first I was not sure how a workshop with over a dozen PhD
students would be a useful environment to discuss my and others’
research projects in any detail.

33

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

But as soon as the presentations
and discussions on the respective
projects started, my early judgmentwith reservations was being castaside. Not only where the talks
very interesting and ­sophisticated,
as well was the critique by bothstudents and supervisors. We
had a lot of interesting and helpful
discussions which were being held
not only as the panels went on,
but also at any given moment at
coffee breaks or at dinner between
sessions. Even in the case of very
different methodical approaches
on the respective PhD projects,
everyone was offering a lot of
helpful input and critique. I think
the panels helped me a lot toreflect on my own PhD project.
The remoteness of the Town
Käsmu also played a quite­important role in the success of
the workshop as well. Discussions
that were started in the daytime
continued into the late night andturned out to be very interesting
and challenging. The ideas weshared, the networks we created
and the friendships we made were
not the least important aspects of
the whole workshop.
Finally, I would like to express
my gratitude to Prof. Reiko AbeAuestad, Prof. Verena BlechingerTalcott, Prof. Harald Fuess andProf. Matthias Zachmann for being
34

there as supervisors and giving a
lot of helpful critique and hints.
Till Knaudt
Heidelberg University+++
The 7th EAJS PhD workshop heldin Käsmu, Estonia was a uniqueexperience to me which I appreciate very much. This is the firstsuch workshop that I participatedin, and of course before it, I wasa little bit afraid if I will present
myself and my university in a goodway, mostly because I am at the
beginning of my PhD work.
I had a lot of questions in myhead about my research, with noanswers found and even no idea
how to find the answers. But I wasreally surprised how the friendly
atmosphere of the workshop bothwith the other fellows and with theacademic advisors relaxed us andmade us frankly speak about thedifficulties and problems that we
encounter during our work. The
academic advisors were very wellselected according to the topics
of research of the participants,
and we received very useful andpractical advice and orientation.
­Moreover, it was not only one-toone conversation with the advisors, but after each presentation
there was a lively discussion, and7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu

all the other participants expressed
their highly professional opinions and constructive criticism.
The selection of the participants
was really very good because mycolleagues showed rich knowledge
on each sphere of the Japanesestudies. We had fruitful debatesand exchange of ideas till late atnight and I really hope the network
we were given the chance tocreate will develop in the future
and we will have more chances
during the years to come to meetagain.
If I should tell the future candidates only one sentence about theworkshop it will be: “Useful, madeaccording to the best academic
practices, well organised – this is achance to miss.”
I would like once again to express
my gratitude to the organisers fromEAJS, personally to Prof. Verena
Blechinger-Talcott, Prof. Reiko
Abe-Auestad, Prof. Harald Fuess,
Dr. Urs Matthias Zachmann,
Toshiba International Foundationand the hosts from Tallinn University for the wonderful opportunity,
hard work and perfect organisationof the workshop and I hope we will
be given the chance again to show
the outcome of our PhD research.
Eleonora Koleva
Sofia University, Bulgaria+++
Thanks to the EAJS, participating sponsors and mentoring
academics and, last but not least,
fellow PhD colleagues, the two-day
workshop was an experience not
only intellectually insightful, butalso tremendously fun.
The eclecticism of academici­nterests bought together inthe quaint meeting room of an­Estonianmaritime
museumresulted in many lively ­discussions.
The sort of healthy skepticism
that arises in an inter-disciplinary
setting was particularly useful as
it prompted me to re-evaluate
my research thesis from different
angles.
More importantly, the workshop
was a unique opportunity to meetand befriend future scholars withthe same area specialisation inwhat rather quickly became akind-hearted and close-knit group.
Aside from the obvious academic
benefits of gatherings such as
this, it was the enthusiasm and theease at which everybody engaged
with each other that made theworkshop a truly memorable one.
I am extremely grateful for having
been allowed the pleasure oftaking part in the event and am
35

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

jealously excited for those who will
get to attend the next workshop.
Ayako Komine
University of Oxford+++
I really enjoyed the 7th EAJSWorkshop for doctoral students
that took place at lovely village
near Tallinn, Käsmu. It was anamazing opportunity to learn about
contemporary Japanese studies,
to exchange ideas and a time toclarify some of my ideas. Last but
not least I was able to get to know
other young scholars of Japanesestudies from all around Europe.
Meeting fellow doctoral candidates
from universities all around theEurope who are doing researchon many different topics startingwith religion, history, literatureand ending with social problems concerning Japan throughthe ages was very inspiring andprecious experience.
However, I must admit that what
I liked the most was to learn
again that people may find my
topic interesting. It gave me faithand strength to carry on with myresearch. I also found other people
topics very interesting and I do
hope they all manage to finish theirprojects.
36

I think that it is very important tomeet people with different backgrounds, as it always gives allof us a new angle and fresh lookon the common problems we all
may face, no matter discipline.
Moreover, meeting and befriending
people from all around Europe
helps us all to build an international network of Japanese studies
scholars. I am still in touch withmost of people I met during theworkshop and I hope that this wasjust the beginning of a long-lasting
friendship.
I would like to thank from thebottom of my heart EAJS, University of Tallinn and the organiser– Verena Blechinger-Talcott –for giving me the opportunity totake part in the workshop, andto all fellow participants for sucha delightful and intellectually­challenging time.
Barbara Micyk
SOAS, University of London+++
I was more than happy after I
had received the informationthat I could participate at the 7th
EAJS Workshop for Doctoral
Candidates and, as I expected, I
was given a great opportunity to
improve my dissertational project.
It was not only the more than

7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu

supporting organisers and councillors, the friendly and intellectually
demanding co-participants, butalso the quiet village of Käsmu
with its beautiful and inspiringlandscape.
In my presentation about the interrelation of sexual entertainers(asobime) and medieval Buddhist
monks I received some criticalcomments. Admittedly, it was
not what I had hoped for, but I
was provoked to think about myresearch-question, my sources,
and my methodology, which gaveme the unique opportunity toadjust the course which I havechosen, for which I am deeply
grateful. My thanks go especiallyto Professor Rein Raud from
Tallinn University, who gave me
important and insightful advice
with his vast knowledge of Japanese medieval literature. Further
discussions with the councillors
and my fellow Doctoral Candidates have proven to be evenmore enlightening (forgive me theBuddhist-term).
The further discussions were one
integral component of this workshop, since the room for individual
engagement in the official parts
was limited. At this point I haveto thank Professor Urs Matthias
Zachmann from Munich University,
who helped me find my focus, andone of my fellow candidates, Birgit
Binder, who helped me with his
challenging questions.
The PhD Workshop was an experience which has already had ahuge influence on my project. I
can only recommend every PhD
student in the field of JapaneseStudies finding the opportunity to
get involved with this institution. I
thanks go to all those people who
were involved with the organisation.
Kenji-Thomas Nishino
Bonn University+++
After having partaken in a similarworkshop in March 2009 at The
University of Sheffield and having
experienced the immense benefits of a PhD Workshop, I was
delighted to be chosen to once
again been given the opportunity
to present my thesis at a moreadvanced stage to a Europeangroup of fellow PhD candidates.
The diverse backgrounds andperspectives of the fellow workshop participants proved to be
extremely valuable for my project,and it was a great help for myproject to receive further criticalfeedback. What I find also very
rewarding was the chance not only37

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

to interact with a dedicated teamof supervisors who gave clear
and helpful suggestions for mywork, but also to learn more aboutother participants current projects.
Therefore, I feel that both theexchange on the interdisciplinary
research topics and the networking
between students and mentors is
an invaluable source of inspirationand motivation for each dissertation project.
I hope that the contacts will be kept
alive and I am very much looking
forward to further exchange withall the participants, some of whichhave become friends.
I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Blechinger-Talcott
and the EAJS team for the preparation, as well as the Toshiba
Foundation for the generous
funding.
Furthermore I would like tomention the unique setting of the
EAJS Workshop at the Käsmu’s
Maritime Museum, which was truly
a once in a lifetime experience.
Julia Obinger
LMU Munich, Zurich University+++
The 2011 EAJS PhD Workshop,
held in Käsmu, Estonia, was38

hard work, great fun and, notleast, tremendously useful for mydoctoral project. I consider myself
extremely fortunate to have been
selected to attend. Back home, I
am advising my fellow graduate
students to make sure that theytake the opportunity to attend
future workshops, should they get
the chance.
Personally, the workshop provided
a useful experience in communicating my research to a diverse
audience, as well as providing a
wealth of new ideas and avenues
to explore. The feedback of arange of different people, withdifferent specialisms and fromdifferent places, opened myeyes to a wider European tradition of scholarship on Japan thanperhaps I had been fully awareof, as well as to scholars pursuingsimilar themes and approaches indifferent fields.
In addition to my own work, it wasvery exciting to get to know otherpeople engaged in research on
Japan, and to hear about theirprojects. The setting was beautiful and proved to be perfect for areally intense series of discussions
which spilled out of the formal
sessions, to mealtimes and evendeep into the night. Making a newgroup of friends with shared interests was one of the highlights of

7th EAJS PhD Workshop in Käsmu

the workshop. I continued on to
the EAJS conference in Tallinn
immediately after the workshop,
which helped to cement these new
relationships.

workshop, as well as experience
Estonian food culture – a perfectcombination, in my opinion, and an
excellent way to start.

I am very glad I was invited toparticipate in this year’s EAJS PhD
Workshop. I enjoyed the intellectually stimulating discussions, theinteresting presentations and thegreat informal atmosphere.

The next morning, we walked fromour guesthouse to the nearby
maritime museum, where theworkshop would take place. It wasa wonderfully idiosyncratic place.
The rooms were full of old objects
used in ships – ropes, anchors,fishing nets, maps and so on – aswell as dozens of small paintingsof the sea, made by the museum
director. In the workshop room,a long wooden canoe-like boat
was laying under the tables wewere sitting at. The museum was
located next to the beach, wherea larger open wooden boat wasplaced. We were served lunch inthis boat, while enjoying unrivalledviews of the Gulf of Finland.

One of the reasons the workshop
was successful was, I believe,
the unique location where it wasorganised. Unlike the conference,
the workshop did not take placein Tallinn, but in Käsmu – a lovely
seaside village, located about twohours east of the capital. Before
we arrived there, on Sunday
evening, we were treated to a delicious Estonian dinner, in a traditional wooden restaurant. Thus
we had the chance to get to knoweach other a bit before the actual

There were only about fifteen PhD
candidates invited, so everybody
had the opportunity to present
their research. Each presentation
was followed by feedback fromone of the professors present, as
well as questions and comments
by the other participants. Someof the feedback was critical, andthere were several serious discussions; overall, however, the workshop proceeded in a friendly andrespectful atmosphere. Naturally,
every research project presented

My thanks go to the sponsors of
the workshop, to the advisors who
coordinated and led the discussions, and to the other participants, all of whom helped to makeit such a rewarding experience.
Ian Rapley
University of Oxford+++

39

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

was somehow related to Japan, butthere were significant differences
between the candidates in termsof theoretical and methodologicalorientations. While everybody fit
within that diffuse discipline called‘Japanese Studies’, a variety ofother disciplines was represented,
including literary theory, intellectual
history, economic history, religious
studies, sociology, political science,
gender studies and linguistics. As aresult, there was much cross-disciplinary interaction, which I foundboth enjoyable and intellectuallyinspiring.
The workshop lasted two full days.
I was one of the first who presented
their research, on Monday morning.
In my PhD research, I look at
different ways in which Shinto has
been defined and conceptualized
in the course of modern Japanese
history. In particular, I am interested
in recent associations of Shinto with
notions of nature and the environment, within academic discourse,
popular media texts and shrine
practices. In recent years, idealized
notions of ancient ‘Shinto’ worldviews and practices – supposedly‘animistic’ – have been combinedwith contemporary environmentalist rhetoric, contributing to thediscursive construction of Shinto
as a tradition of nature worship,
fundamentally oriented towards‘harmony with nature’ and environ40

mental awareness. This development constitutes the main topic of
my research.
I am grateful for the useful feedback
and suggestions I got during theworkshop. In addition, I am glad I
had the chance to meet some fellow
PhD candidates. At my university, I
am currently the only PhD candidate
doing research on a Japan-related
topic, so I very much enjoyedmeeting others who share the sameinterest. In addition to the official,academic program, the workshop
gave us the opportunity to spend acouple of evenings discussing ourideas on a more informal basis,and get to know each other better.
Before long, we had discovered
Käsmu’s part-time outdoor bar,
were enjoying Estonia pear cider,
playing quiz games and sharing ourmosquito repellent – surely a great
way to make friends. It would be
hard to imagine a better location
for a workshop. Many thanks to the
EAJS and the Estonian organisers
for the excellent organisation, to all
workshop participants for the usefulfeedback and interesting discussions, and to the Japan Foundation
and Toshiba Foundation for theirfinancial support. I look forward to
more such inspiring meetings in the
future.
Aike P. Rots
University of Oslo

8th EAJS PhD Workshop in Newcastle

8th EAJS PhD Workshop, Newcastle University,
Newcastle, UK
May 31 - June 2, 2012

Reports from the 8th
EAJS PhD Workshop@Newcastle
University,
Newcastle, UK
May 31–June 2, 2012
Report by the Academic
Organiser
As it has been noted in previous
reports, the EAJS PhD workshops
allow doctoral students in Japanese Studies from across Europe
to present their research to both
fellow PhD students and seniorscholars, to engage in critical
discussions on their research
projects and to get ad-hoc guidance from expert scholars in aparticular field.
The 8th EAJS PhD workshop took
place at the School of Modern
Languages at Newcastle University (UK) between May 31 andJune 2, 2012. This year we hadan extremely high number ofapplications, with 79 doctoral
students applying from a varietyof European countries. This figurebuilds upon the achievementsof the previous workshops – in
Cambridge, Paris, Vienna, Oxford,
Lecce, Cam-bridge and Tallinn –and confirms the success of the
EAJS PhD workshop formula itself.
The 79 applications went througha scrupulous process of selection
conducted by the project director
in tandem with senior colleagues
from each of the fields thatwere involved. Both for financial
constraints and for the coherenceof the workshop, it was necessary
to limit the number of presenting
participants to 16.
The choice was far from being
an easy task, as we received
many excellent proposals. As inprevious editions of the EAJS PhD
workshop, our choice rewarded
quality while maintaining a balance
between the disciplines, the countries/institutions and the genderof the participants. We also madesure that participants could relate
to each other in a constructive
and stimulating way and that we
could be able to provide them withcompetent supervisors.
The 16 participants who wereselected came from Spain, France,
41

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 201242

Germany, Slovenia and the UK
while the 8 Senior scholars werefrom the University of Cambridge(Dr Brigitte Steger), SOAS (Prof
Andrew Gerstle, Prof Stephen
Dodd and Dr Isolde Standish), theUniversity of Leeds (Prof CarolineRose), the National Museum of
Scotland (Dr Rosina Buckland)and Newcastle University (DrShiro Yoshioka, Dr Laura Moretti).
The fields in Japanese studies
which were covered in the 8th PhD
workshop were premodern literature, modern and contemporary
literature, film studies, international
relations, modern art and popular
culture.

engaged, respectful and constructive manner. At the end of eachday, each of the presenters had a
30-minute individual session with
their supervisor. Those participants
who did not present were engaged
in group discussions about methodological Reports by the 8th
EAJS PhD Workshop Organiser
issues and other recurrent questions regarding how to conduct
proper research. This format
allowed students to confront theirresearch with other fellow students
who study in different academic
environments and with seniorscholars other than their usual
supervisor.

The format of the workshop
followed the successful formula
inaugurated by EAJS in its seriesof PhD workshops. Each student
handed in a research project
outline (1500 words) and a longessay (3500 words) one month
before the workshop and eachparticipant, including both students
and supervisors, read all thematerials beforehand. During theworkshop each doctoral student
made a 15-minute presentation.
This was followed by a 10-minutediscussion with one of the otherdoctoral students in the same field
and by a 10-minute discussion withthe senior supervisor and all theother participants. All the discussions were conducted in a lively,

The commitment, hard work andinvestment that have been put
into this workshop on the part ofboth doctoral students and senior
supervisors have given highly
satisfactory
results.
Students
were given an opportunity toreflect upon the contents of theirresearch, the organisation of theirdissertation project, the application of specific methodologicaltools, skills in presenting theirresearch in a limited amount oftime and styles in conducting a
fruitful discussion on their researchwith peers and senior scholars.
We believe that both the doctoral
students and the senior scholars
were ­stimulated, gained useful8th EAJS PhD Workshop in Newcastle

insights and new perspectives by
the three days of the workshop.
Alongside the academic engagement, buffet-style lunches, a dinner
at a Japanese restaurant and one
at a traditional English ­restaurant –renown for being the oldest dining
hall in the country – provided an
informal and relaxed atmosphere
whereby the doctoral students
and the senior scholars could chatfreely and create the basis for
future cooperation together.
Travel, accommodation and foodexpenses of all participants were
paid for — with financial support by
the Toshiba Foundation, EAJS andthe School of Modern Languagesof Newcastle University, which we
acknowledge gratefully.
This workshop has created a new
and intellectually vibrant network
within the field of JapaneseStudies that connects younger
and more senior scholars acrossthe Country and Europe. Here aresome reactions from participantsat the end of the workshop (reportsof the participants will be publishedin the upcoming EAJS bulletin):‘It was a great opportunity forme, as a first-year PhD student,
to: 1) present my own work to awider audience of like-minded
and very interesting colleagues

and receive feed-back; 2)
expand my knowledge of othersub-fields within the field ofJapanese Studies, to get toknow many new topics in thefields; 3) expand the network ofmy professional contacts. The
feedback I’ve received has been
extremely helpful and I will now
try to reconsider some partsof my work according to theserecommendations.’‘This workshop really met my
expectations and for that I am
feeling very grateful. To be able
to listen to different fields ofJapanese Studies made us think
about our own approaches andresearch. To be able to discuss
our own work with actual specialists feels very valuable and,on another level, comforting,encouraging for our further
research.’‘I think the selection of people
was well done, the panels well
put together and the supervisors suitable for the papers, very
helpful and willing to engage withthe work. The participants werealso very open to discussion,
polite and interesting people.’‘An excellent group of supervisors. One of the things
that I found really useful wasobserving/
participatingin43

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

consideration of people’s PhD
projects: feasibility, methodology,
etc. This was a unique aspectof the workshop. While otherconference/seminarpresentations would focus on content, thisworkshop gave me, as a Reportsby the 8th EAJS PhD Workshop
Organiser 1st-year student, amuch better idea of what mightmake a good overall project. The
individual supervision was also
very useful for very specific andtargeted advice.’‘This was a wonderful opportunity to receive guidance, supervision and training to develop
as a PhD student. And I greatly
enjoyed meeting all the students
and supervisors.’‘I consider that this workshop
was really good to help my selfconfident feeling and to improve
my research.’
Laura Moretti
Project director
School of Modern Languages
Newcastle University,
Newcastle, UK+++

Reports by the 8th EAJS
PhD Workshop Participants
The 8th EAJS Workshop for
Doctoral Students at Newcastle
University was a unique opportunity to receive practical advice
and critical questions within arichmultidisciplinary
environment. Being at the first stage ofmy dissertation, I could learn verymuch from more experienced
colleagues who had already dealt
with methodological, structural andinvestigation issues and this helps
me to feel more confident in myresearch.
Particularly, I became aware of thestrongest/weakest points of myproject getting important feedback
that can really help me to progressin my thesis.
I also found the group sessions
very accurate and useful, providing
us with professional advice on
how to improve our communicative skills and job-searching techniques. Moreover, we had fruitfulexchanges of ideas at any given
moment at coffee breaks or atdinner enjoying a friendly atmosphere.
I would like to express my gratitude on this occasion to all participants, PhD students, supervisor

44

8th EAJS PhD Workshop in Newcastle

Professors and EAJS organisers
for the highly motivating group
discussions and enjoyable conversations. Special thanks go to Dr.
Laura Moretti for her expertise,organisation and kindness inmaking this event a wonderfulexperience, and Prof. IsoldeStandish for her constructive criticism and her generosity in sharing
her rich and valuable knowledge.
I hope that we will have morechances during the years to cometo meet again and to share thedevelopments in our individual
research and personal careers,building a stronger JapaneseStudies network in Europe.
Alejandra Armendariz
University Rey Juan Carlos(Madrid)
Japan Foundation Fellowship,
Meiji Gakuin Universtity (Tokyo)+++
The 8th EAJS PhD Workshop thattook place in Newcastle University
was a truly interesting and motivating experience. Newcastle is avery beautiful place we were able
to discover, in spite of the rain,through the walks and the places
we went all together in a very
friendly atmosphere.

It was, of course, very stimulatingin terms of research. I have beenable to hear from researchers
in many topics, from sociology
to history, popular culture, thatwere discussed with different
approaches and methodologies,
and it was always, of course,
an occasion to discover things I
didn’t know. But one of the most­important things is that there wasalways some kind of material,in the talk or in the questions,­however related or non-related thetalk was, that enabled me to lookback at my own practices – andI think this was the case for all ofus. It was all the more the casewith the feedback that was given
after the talk, or with the colloquial
discussions at a deeper level that
we had under the direction of theprofessors at the end of the day.
These discussions were also
important because they were aunique occasion to actually hear
about concrete aspects of doing
research, writing for a journal orother publications, doing talks,
searching for funding and forjobs – all matters that we usuallytend to forget because we are
too absorbed by the problems
we encounter in writing the thesis
itself.
These writing and research­problems were addressed in the45

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012individual supervision, and it wasvery fruitful to have some time withthe professor in our field to receive
more in-depth advice than public
feedback during the talk, whichwas (as always at such events)
very short. That helped a lot tolocalize the gaps and the missing
things in my research. I gained
through this experience a broader
view of what I want to write, and ofwhat I want to achieve through my
PhD.
My deepest thanks to Japan Foundation and Toshiba International
Foundation for the funding, to Dr
Laura Moretti for the organisation,and to the supervisors, Dr Rosina
Buckland, Prof Stephen Dodd,
Prof Andrew Gerstle, Prof Caroline Rose, Dr Isolde Standish, Dr
Brigitte Steger and Dr Shiro Yoshioka.
Marie-Noëlle Beauvieux
Université Jean Moulin Lyon III+++
I would like to acknowledge my
gratitude to the EAJS for raisingenough funding to make thisworkshop happen. The 8th PhD
Workshop hosted by the EAJS in
Newcastle, England, was my firstopportunity to present my work
to such a wide range of other
scholars, both PhD candidates
46

and experienced researchers,
and get detailed and professional­feedback.
The schedule was tough, but it was
enjoyable to focus on all sorts ofdifferent subjects, ­methodologies
and academic backgrounds in anenvironment that is very different
from the usual environment at
my faculty. Many contacts wererefreshed, as well as new ones
made, and it was very inspiring to
get in touch with people from allover Europe in such an extended
period of time. Indeed, the fact thatthe workshop lasted nearly fourdays ­contributed to getting in touchwith all other participants, which
would not have been possible in
one single weekend.
Besides the content related presentations and individual supervisions, also the group discussions
with an insight into possible career
opportunities were very helpful,since it is not always easy to ­bearin mind the necessities of certain
activities in order to build a career
while at the same time completingthe thesis. As important as working
on a high quality thesis is, getting
an idea of what lies ahead is
as important and, at least to myknowledge, more often than notneglected in most other contexts.
The idea of entering the toughcompetition for positions, research8th EAJS PhD Workshop in Newcastle

funding after having finished the
PhD thesis and also the rapidlychanging environment in the(academic) job market can havea pretty intimidating effect (which
also seemed to be the case duringsome of the group discussions),
and I am sure that there is only
one way to deal with the anxiety
deriving from this: Getting to know
about it sooner rather than later.
From this point of view, the workshop not only contributed to eachindividual project, but also delivered a broader perspective thatwent beyond the re-search- andcontent-centred focus, which iswhat most of the participants areprobably used to. A truly enriching
and constructive event.
Thomas Hüllein
University of Zurich+++
I was very delighted to be selected
for the 8th EAJS Workshop for
doctoral students and to begiven this precious opportunity topresent and discuss my thesis at
Newcastle University.
The exceptionally interdisciplinary workshop brought together
young re-searchers who presented
their projects in a wide range offields, including art, film, literature,
history, sociology and politicalsciences amongst others. Despite
the different backgrounds, allparticipants engaged in lively
discussions and found common
tropes or issues, such as thepitfalls of nihonjin-ron. I enjoyed
the many presentations andgained insights in a plethora ofperspectives, methods and theories, of which French philosophy
appeared to be a prominent threadbinding a number of the projects
together.
For my own research I received
encouraging comments during
and after my presentation, not theleast of which was the valuable
feedback from my individual supervisor, Dr Shiro Yoshioka, including
detailed hints for my project. I was
also made aware of how to clarify
difficult theoretical points of myresearch.
In sum, the workshop was awonderful occasion for meeting
fellow PhD candidates from allover Europe as well as seniorresearchers and resulted in a valuable networking experience, which
has already been augmented via
Internet technologies.
I am therefore very grateful to the
EAJS, the Japan Foundation andthe Toshiba International Foundation as well as Dr Laura Morettiand each involved scholar for47

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

making this work-shop possible.
I hope that the experiences fromthis workshop will crystallize inmany more similar opportunities
for researchers in the field of Japanese Studies.

like academic publishing or job
hunting. Pure academics aside,
the social aspect of the workshop
was not missing, and over dinneror a beer at the pub discussions
continued and branched out.

Björn-Ole Kamm
Heidelberg University, Cluster“Asia and Europe”

I would urge anyone to takethis rare chance to share one’s
research with people from sucha diverse set of fields, who are
all willing to engage with eachother’s work in depth and soenthusiastically provide feedback.
I would like to thank the EAJS
and Toshiba International Foundation for making this workshop
possible, Prof. Moretti and all thesupervisors at the workshop fororganising the event, and all theparticipants for helping to make it a
successful one.

+++
I believe the EAJS PhD Workshop
was an excellent training opportunity for aspiring academics. It
gave us a first taste of presenting
and discussing our research atacademic meetings in a friendly
andsupportive
environment.
People at different stages in their
PhDs participated, and could get
advice on the specific problems
they were facing at that point intheir research from ­supervisorsand peers. Not only did we get topractise our presentation skills infront of an international academic
audience of colleagues, we also
had to act as discussants forothers. Consequently we had
to put thought into how to best
give constructive feedback andcomment on a wide range of topics
from different disciplines, often
not our own. Workshop sessions
at the end of the day provided
useful information on all typesof soft skills and relevant topics
48

Angelika Koch
University of Cambridge+++
The 8th EAJS workshop in
Newcastle, UK, was a unique andstimulating experience for me,
and I am very grateful that I wasoffered the chance to participate.
First of all, I would like to thankthe Toshiba International Foundation and the Newcastle School for
Modern Languages for their sponsoring, and also the organiser, Dr8th EAJS PhD Workshop in Newcastle

Laura Moretti, and the supervisors,
Dr Rosina Buckland, Prof. Stephen
Dodd, Prof. Andrew Gerstle, Prof.
Caroline Rose, Dr Isolde Standish,Dr Brigitte Steger and Dr Shiro
Yoshioka for all their generous
efforts.
The feedback I received both in
the individual feedback session
and from the group was thoughtprovoking and definitely helped
give my research a more andbetter pronounced direction. I also
found the other presentations very
inspiring, maybe because of thevariety of academic disciplines
present. The participants’ work
covered the fields of health-care,politics, media studies, art, earlymodern sexuality, popular culture
and literature. Due to the various
disciplines and also the various
methodological approaches, thegroup
discussions
frequently
raised ideas or questions thatthe participants had not yet­considered, and there was a lively
exchange of opinions and ideas.
The participants and supervisors
were very likeable and it was a
nice and relaxed atmospherewith discussions carrying on into
the night after the workshop had
ended. It provided me with a great
opportunity to meet and get toknow other PhD students fromacross Europe, many of whom I

will likely meet again in the near
future.
In addition to the presentations
and individual feedback sessions,
there were sessions on how toformat academic papers, how topresent in a conference environment and how to find a job inacademia. Especially learning thatpublic speaking is still difficult evenfor the supervisors among us wasrather eye-opening and receiving
creative ideas on how to best
prepare for it has been very useful.
I really benefitted a lot from theexperience of this workshop andwould again like to express mythanks to all those involved.
Katharina Koppert
University of Tübingen+++
The EAJS PhD workshop in
Newcastle, UK, was a wonderfulexperience and I would like toexpress my gratitude for having
been chosen as a participant.
The workshop was a unique
opportunity to present the current
state of my research and toreceive feedback on the problems
I was facing. Attending the workshop shortly after the completionof my fieldwork phase in Japan
proved vital for developing a
49

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

clearer concept of my findings
and the way they contribute to thestudy of Japanese popular culture.
The insights gained during thesefour days have helped me in
restructuring my thesis in key
areas. The feedback I received
from PhD students of various
areas as well as experts of Japanese studies also gave me newideas for developing my ideas.
On the other hand, listening to
the presentations of the otherparticipants introduced me to awide range of interesting research
topics and has widened my knowledge of Japan.
I recommend participation in thisworkshop to every PhD student
working on Japan. You will not
only get precious feedback on yourown field, but will also meet a lotof friendly and helpful people thatwill help you build your research
network.
I thank the EAJS, the sponsorsof the workshop, the organiser Dr
Laura Moretti, the advisors who
coordinated and led the discussions, and the other participants,
for making this workshop such a
rewarding experience.
Verena Maser
University of Trier50+++
I would first like to thank the organisers for giving me the opportunity
to participate in the 8th EAJS
PhD Workshop held at Newcastle
University in England. I am
extremely grateful to have been
selected to attend.
The workshop brought together
PhD students and supervisorsfrom a range of countries andacademic disciplines, offering theparticipants a diverse group withwhich to share research experiences and test out ideas. The
format of the workshop allowed
students the chance to act as
discussants as well as plenty oftime to discuss each presentation with the group as a whole.
Conversations were lively andincluded a diverse range ofacademic perspectives. Furthermore, the group discussions after
the sessions offered the chance
to explore other topics that are
relevant to PhD students, such as
preparing oneself for an academic
career.
As I am at the beginning of my
PhD work, I had some hesitation
about presenting my research.
However, the atmosphere was
encouraging and supportive. The
thought-provoking feedback andquestions from both supervisors

8th EAJS PhD Workshop in Newcastle

and participants helped me towork through some of my difficulties and to find new direction in myre-search. All of the supervisors
showed a genuine interest in each
student’s project and continued to
informally offer helpful feedback
throughout the duration of theworkshop. I would especially liketo thank my EAJS supervisor, Dr
Brigitte Steger, who gave a useful
critique of my research thus far
and helped me to reconsider myproject.
I would highly encourage PhD
students researching on Japan to
apply for the next workshop. It isan excellent opportunity to interact
with researchers from aroundthe world in a stimulating andwelcoming environment.
My special thanks go to everyone
involved in the workshop, inparticular Dr Laura Moretti, themembers of the School of Modern
Languages at New-castle University, EAJS, and the Toshiba International Foundation for facilitatingsuch a wonderful program.
Finally, I would like to thank all myfellow participants for the advice,insight, and interesting conversation.
Jennifer McGuire
University of Oxford+++
Reading through the written projectsummaries and papers before the
8th EAJS PhD Workshop gave
a tantalizing taster of the rangeof projects to be explored: frommanga to prime ministers, care
workers to cinema. Coming froman art history department, it was
fascinating to see the breadth ofprojects, and also consider theconnections with my own researchon ceramic tableware used in the
court of the Meiji Emperor.
Being able to present my project
as a whole (and as a workin progress) to such a multi-­
disciplinary audience was anincredible opportunity that set
the EAJS Workshop apart fromthe typical conference. I wasvery grateful for the comments,
questions and suggestions that
followed.
These
highlighted­theoretical approaches I could
use and areas I should consider.
During the individual supervision,
Dr Rosina Buckland offered me
expert guidance on my project
as a whole, as well as specificsuggestions and advice that will beof great benefit to my research.
As I near the end of my first year of
PhD studies, receiving such fresh
perspectives and constructive
feedback on my research at this51

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

early stage is invaluable and I feelthat my project is already stronger
as a result.
Listening to the other EAJS Workshop participants’ presentations
and taking part in the ensuing
discussions
aroundcontent,
theoretical approaches, methodology and scope also helped me
to critically reflect upon my own
research aims and how I hope toachieve them. Equally important
was the opportunity to learn fromthe experiences of both established scholars and fellow PhD
students at different stages in theirresearch. Even with a packed
schedule, there was also plenty oftime for relaxed discussion overcoffee.
I owe a debt of gratitude to theorganisers who gave me thisopportunity and offer my sincere
thanks to Dr Moretti and Dr Buckland, the other academic advisors,
EAJS, Newcastle University andToshiba International Foundation. I would also like to thank myfellow participants for generously
sharing their projects and experiences. I heartily encourage other
PhD students pursuing Japanesestudies to apply for this unique andrewarding opportunity in the future.
Mary Redfern
University of East Anglia
52+++
The 8th EAJS Workshop for
Doctoral Candidates in Newcastle
was a crucial experience towards
the refinement of my PhD
research. Constructive critique of
my approach by the supervisor,
contributing professors and fellow
participants was of tremendous
help in refining my topic, method
and research questions. I am
grateful that I was selected tocontribute to this workshop andthat I was able to share so many
wonderful experiences with PhD
candidates from all over Europe.
Working on an art historicaltheme, it was a great opportunity for me to be able to consult
a peer supervisor of my segmentof research on this occasion.
Moreover, the diverse variety of
topics and ­problems addressed by
the participants in their research
made the range of difficulties andquestions even more thrilling and­encouraging for my research. I am
confident that the workshop has
led to great advances in conceptualizing my project.
Herewith, I would like to convey
emphatic thanks to the EAJS,Japan Foundation and the Toshiba
International Foundation for sponsoring the 8th EAJS Workshop
for Doctoral Candidates. I also

8th EAJS PhD Workshop in Newcastle

would like to express my gratitude
towards the organiser, Dr Laura
Moretti, my individual supervisor
Dr Rosina Buckland and the othersubject-specific supervisors andlastly my fellow participants for achallenging and effective workshop in Newcastle.
Sabine Schenk
LMU Munich+++First of all, I would like to thankall the organisers for their timeand effort put into bringing theworkshop into fruition, and all thesupervisors who devoted theirprivate time to our, the students’
benefit.
This workshop was an opportunity for me to situate my own
research within the wider spectrumof the various current themes in
the area of Japanese studies.
It was thought-provoking to see
how similar issues and theoreticaldeliberations underpinned andin-formed research dealing with
topics as diverse as shunga andmodern inter-national politics. In
this respect I found the format ofbringing together students fromdifferent academic specialisations
and environments very useful andstimulating.

Although the participants represented a great array of specialisations and nationalities, I felt thatthe workshop would have benefited from a greater involvementof Japanese students. I feel thatJapanese participants would havebeen able to offer unique contributions to our debates thanks tothe possibility of combining theirintimate knowledge of Japanesesociety with a scholarly gaze.
Overall, I found the workshop wellorganised and rigorous in terms ofcontent. I believe this was thanks
to the careful selection of theparticipants and the supervisors
who were able not only to advise
on individual projects, but werealso willing to offer their wider
expertise in the field and practicalexperiences regardless of specialisation.
Beata Switek
University College London

53

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

2nd EAJS Book Prize 2011
The Winners of the 2nd EAJSBook Prize were announced in
March 2011 by the EAJS Council.
The EAJS awards the prize to an
outstanding scientific publicationin the field of Japanese Studies.
This time, the EAJS jury decided
to honour three innovative works.
The 1st Prize includes a freeEAJS membership for three
years, as well as free participation in the upcoming 14th EAJS
Conference, held in Ljubljana in
2014.
The 2nd Prizes of the EAJSBook Award are a free EAJSMem­bership for three years foreach winner.

54

1st Prize:
Thomas LaMarre:
The Anime Machine. A Media
Theory of Animation.
Minneapolis: The University of
Minnesota Press. 2009
The EAJS Council believes that
this brilliant and compelling work
significantly enhances our understanding of Japanese popular
culture and brings its theory to a
new level. As a result, it is one of
the most eloquent and powerfulstudies of Japanese animation
published in the last years.

2nd EAJS Book Prize 2011

2nd Prize:

2nd Prize:

Christopher Gerteis:
Gender Struggles. Wage-Earning
Women
and
Male-DominatedUnions in Postwar Japan.

Mara Patessio:
Women and Public Life in Early
Meiji Japan. The Development of
the Feminist Movement.

Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press. 2011

Ann Arbor: University of Mi­chigan.
2011

With his book, he chooses a fresh
approach towards Japanese tradeunions by shedding new light onthem using a gender perspective.
This is creative and innovative. His
most interesting idea is to interpretthe wage negotiations of tradeunions in the 1950s – which have
hitherto been associated with good
performance, due to overall wage
increase – as having contributed tothe de facto increasing wage gap
between male and female workers.

The book constitutes a re­markable
contribution in the fields of Meiji
society and women’s history. It
gives an innovative perspectiveon the role played by women in
shaping Meiji culture and society.
The academic rigour, the interdisciplinary approach as well as theinnovative nature of this study are
outstanding.

55

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

TIFO Scholarship Reports
Final reports – Toshiba International Foundation Scholarship

In the footsteps of Shimaji
Mokurai (1838–1911)
The Shin Buddhist priest Shimaji
Mokurai was at the vanguard of
Buddhism’s struggle for survival
when the young Meiji government
used a newly constructed formof Shinto as a means to unify theJapanese people in the formation of a modern state. The way
Mokurai conducted his intellectual
battle is reminiscent of other Meiji
period thinkers. He introduced
concepts with which he had
become acquainted during a trip to
Europe in 1872 – such as ‘religious
freedom’ and ‘separation of churchand state’ – and, since they had
been developed in the ‘civilized’West, used them to legitimize
his discourse. However, Mokurai
developed
understandingsofthese concepts that were rooted
in Japan’s own religious traditions,and therefore greatly differed fromtheir European cognates.
Mokurai’s intellectual efforts todevelop a modern theory of religion certainly merit a place inJapan’s history of ideas. The
56

majority of studies on Mokurai
thus focus on the period 1872–
1875, during which time Mokurai
submitted a number of memorials to the Meiji government that
introduce Western conceptions of
the relationship between religion
and state, whilst applying them toJapan’s situation. Some studies
highlight the contexts within whichthese memorials were written,
beginning with Mokurai’s participation in a Buddhist mission toEurope in 1872–73, which took
place in the wake of the Iwakura
mission. It is during this trip that
Mokurai wrote his most famous(and most discussed) Critique of
the Three Doctrinal Standards.1
Other scholarship focuses on thedevelopment of Mokurai’s viewson Shinto from the early 1870s
onwards, taking into account someof his later writings as well.2
1
See for example Breen, John,
1998. ‘Earnest Desires: the Iwakura
Embassy and Japanese religious policy’,Japan Forum 10 (2): 151-165.
2
See for example Fujii Takeshi,
1988. ‘Meiji shoki ni okeru shinshū noshintōkan: Shimaji Mokurai to nanjō Jinkōno baai’. Tōkyō gakugei daigaku kiyō, dai
2 bumon, jinbun kagaku 39:147-156; Nose
Eisui, 1994. ‘Shimaji Mokurai no shintōkan’,
Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 43 (1):184188; Okazaki masaoki, 1996. ‘Kindai

TIFO Scholarship Reports

At present, only two monographs about Mokurai have been
published; one concerns his
ideas on education and the otheris a biographical account.3 Yet,other aspects of Mokurai’s life
and thought also deserve to beresearched further. To name afew: his Chōshū background andacquaintance with Meiji statesmen
from Chōshū (especially Kidō
Kōin); his active involvement insocial work; his publishing endeavours and establishment of associations; his views on Enlightenment(bunmei kaika); and his support ofJapan’s nationalist expansionism
in the late nineteenth century.
Using
existing
scholarshipas my point of departure, my
PhD research project (which
has the working title “An intellectual biography of Shimaji
Mokurai”)
concerns
theseunderstudied themes. As thefive volumes of the Collected
Works of Shimaji Mokurai testify,tennōsei kokka seiritsuki ni mita shūkyō
to seiji: kokka shintō no seiritsu to Shimaji
Mokurai’, Kokushigaku kenkyū 21:24-44;
Tonami Hiroyuki, 2008. ‘Shimaji Mokurai
no shintōron keisei – ‘kami = senzō’ ronno keisei katei wo chūshin ni’, Kokugakuin
daigaku kenkyū kaihatsu sentā kenkyū kiyō
2: 97-123.
3
Kawamura
Kakushō,
2004.
Shimaji Mokurai no kyōiku shisō kenkyū:
Meiji ishin to ibunka rikai. Kyōto: Hōzōkan;Murakami Mamoru, 2011. Shimaji Mokuraiden. Tōkyō: Minerva Shobō.

Mokurai was a prolific writer andmany of his essays – if not the
majority – have not yet been
the subject of a detailed study.4
However, the limited time-frameof my PhD study also necessitates
the (ongoing) process of refining
and narrowing my scope. One ofthe purposes of my research trip
to Japan with the Toshiba grant
was to facilitate direct contact
with Japanese scholars and gain
access to sources that are difficult
to obtain in Europe, with the ultimate aim of finding material thatmight help me further structure mythesis and pinpoint its main arguments.
I structured my research triparound places where Mokurai
spent a significant period of his
life: Kyoto, Yamaguchi, Tokyo andMorioka. In theory, I could conduct
my research entirely in libraries
and archives, without necessarily
visiting the places linked to thelife of this Meiji figure. However,
my visits proved to be extremely
useful and provided me with aconcrete image of the places,
happenings, and local atmospheres that I hitherto had only
experienced vicariously as ‘bookknowledge’. I realize that to have4
Futaba Kenkō and Fukushima
Kanryū, eds., 1973. Shimaji Mokurai
Zenshū, 5 v. + 1 suppl., Kyōto: Honganji
Shuppan Kyōkai; Nihon Buk-kyō Fukyūkai(hatsubai).

57

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

been able to do so is a luxury, andI am profoundly grateful for the
Toshiba grant that gave me thisopportunity.
Kyoto was my base of research,
not the least because of the presence of the Nishi Honganji – theShin (True Pure Land) Buddhist
temple Mokurai belonged to – andthe affiliated Ryūkoku University.
The Ryūkoku University libraries inparticular helped me amass manyof the materials I was looking for,including both journal articles andrare books. At Ryūkoku, I was
also introduced to Professor Fujiwara Masanobu, the author ofa number of articles I had previously read. This was only the firstof many fortuitous meetings tofollow. Before my departure, I had
established contact with Professor
Isomae Jun’ichi from Nichibunken,
who has written on the relationof modernity and secularisation(among other things); a theme
closely related to my research.
During my stay in Kyoto, I attended
a conference at Nichibunken
that was organized by Professor
Isomae, and subsequently met up
with him to discuss my research
project. He very kindly introduced
me to a network of young scholars
with whom he works.
Moreover, he advised me tocontact certain scholars at ōtani
University, which resulted in yet
another five useful connections.
58

While it would take up too muchspace to detail each and every
scholarly contact from my trip, I
wish to mention my meeting withProfessor Horiguchi Ryōichi of
Kinki University. Not only did I
enjoy our animated discussion of
Shimaji Mokurai, but to my great
surprise he also offered to sendme two boxes of books directly
related to my research (including
the Collected Works of Shimaji
Mokurai), since he no longer
required them, having moved on
to a different subject. In short,with a minimum of contacts at theoutset, I was able to enjoy a snowball effect that gradually led to theformation of a broad network ofcontacts, thanks to the kind help
and support of the various individuals I met.
In Yamaguchi, I planned to visit
the Senshōji (the temple where
Mokurai was born), as well as
the Myōseiji (the temple he wasadopted into to become its headpriest). I obtained the contact
addresses through the Boardof Education (kyōiku iinkai) of
Yamaguchi Prefecture, as wellas through a priest-scholar I had
met in Kyoto. The temples werelocated in the deep mountains,and due to a lack of bus services I ended up taking a taxi fromthe nearest station. The little­inconveniences I experienced
in reaching these locations lent

TIFO Scholarship Reports

perspective to the routine journeys
by foot undertaken by the Japanese of the Meiji period. The headpriests of both temples offered
me a warm welcome. I had heardthat the temple of Mokurai’s birth
possesses a number of Mokurai’s
documents that have not been
made public as of yet. Upon
inquiring, the head priest told methat the temple does, indeed,own a number of letters Mokurai
wrote to his older brother, who had
succeeded their father as the headpriest of the Senshōji. I was also
informed that Professor Kodama
Shiki, a retired priest-scholarof Ryūkoku University living in
Yamaguchi Prefecture, had juststarted a project to type out theletters. Following our conversation,
the head priest of the Senshōjiarranged for me to meet him thatevening. Having read a book byProfessor Kodama, it had actually
been my wish to meet him, but I
had given up on the idea due to alack of contact details.5
This encounter was yet anotherunexpected bonus. Thanks to
all the contacts I established,
I was able to meet most of theauthors of the secondary works
that I have read so far, as well as
5
Kodama Shiki, 1976. Kinsei
Shinshū no tenkai katei – nishi nihon
wo chūshin to shite. Tōkyō: Yoshikawa
Kōbunkan.

scholars who are currently working
on related topics but have not
yet published their results, thus
enabling me to map out a largepart of the scholarly activity in myfield that is taking place in Japan.
The Myōseiji – the temple where
Mokurai was installed to succeed
as head priest – is located in Tokuji
Shimaji village, which Mokurai
eponymously adopted as his
family name. The current headpriest of the temple told me about
the history of the village aroundthe time Mokurai was head priest.
Mokurai seems to have loved
the place and enjoyed returning
there later in his life, even when
he had already become the headpriest of the Gankyōji in Morioka.
The villagers of Tokuji Shimaji
built a small dwelling (uden sōdō)
for Mokurai to stay whenever hevisited their village. Near the udensōdō they put a large stone withan inscription starting with jifu
Mokurai (loving, affectionate father
Mokurai), testifying to the villagers’
affection for the priest. The current
head priest of the temple kindly
drove me to the place, which
can only be reached by car, andshowed me around. The hut andthe stone are still there and havebeen maintained by Shin Buddhist
adherents living in the surroundingarea, but recently with renewedélan on account of the 100th anniversary of Mokurai’s death (2010–59

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 201211), which was accompanied
by a number of ceremonies andevents at the different locations I
mentioned above.
My last stop in Yamaguchi was
Hagi, where Mokurai often used
to go during the summer for theango. Here, in the Seikōji temple,
he set up a school for literary andmartial arts with some of his fellow
priest-scholars as part of theirefforts to reform and modernize
the Shin Buddhist institution in
Chōshū in the late Tokugawa
period. I wanted to find out
whether any documents relating
to the time when Mokurai taught
at the Seikōji were preserved in
the temple. Unfortunately, thecurrent head priest explainedthat the temple completely burnt
down in 1980, destroying all of the
documents that may have beenpreserved, and could not provide
any further information about thatpart of the temple’s history.
Of particular interest in Hagi isthe relationship between thehistorical figures Yoshida Shōin(1830–1859), Murata Seifū (1783–
1855) and the Shin Buddhist
priest Gesshō (1817–1858), allof whom played an active rôle in
the politics of the Chōshū domain
one generation before Shimaji
Mokurai. I had the opportunity
to meet both the curator of the
Shiseisho (which exhibits writings by Yoshida Shōin) and the60

curator of the Hagi Museum. Bothconfirmed that Gesshō’s ideas
had a substantial influence on
Yoshida Shōin’s thinking and, byextension, on the many disciplesof Shōin’s school (Shōka Sonjuku)
who not only played an importantpart in bringing about the Meiji
Restoration but who also participated in the formation of the Meiji
government and policies of thetime. Through his close friendship and shared interests withthe priest-scholar ōzu Tetsunen(1834–1902), a direct disciple ofGesshō, Mokurai was also related– albeit indirectly – to this school ofthought.
I would like to add an anecdote
about my visit to the Shōka
Sonjuku and the Shōka Jinja,
the Shinto shrine dedicatedto Yoshida Shōin. As I walked
through the precincts, a group ofsoldiers arrived and headed forthe shrine. They first attended a
Shinto ceremony, then listened
to a lecture from a Shinto priest
inside the Shōka Sonjuku (theschool’s sliding doors were open
for the general public to lookinside since entry is otherwise
restricted) before finally visiting
the Shiseisho, where the Shinto
priest showed them around.
When I asked what was goingon, I was told that they were military cadets from the ­Self-Defence
Force. The next day I brought up

TIFO Scholarship Reports

the subject with the curator of theHagi Museum. He told me that hehas been ­increasingly asked togive talks about Yoshida Shōin to
students and young employees.
Since Yoshida Shōin is considereda symbol of the ‘spirit’ (seishin)Japan needs in times of crisis(such as today), he provides agood example to young people
and helps inspire them to nurturek­okorozashi (will, resolution). The
experience at the Shōka Sonjuku
demonstrated to me that the ideaof linking Shinto ceremonial, themilitary, and the teaching of acertain ‘spirit’ (as developed from
the Meiji period onwards) has far
from disappeared. It confirmed myidea that contemporary researchon the historical development of
the relationship between politics,
religion, and the military – one of
the themes of my research – ismore relevant than ever.
After my travels in Western Japan,
I continued up north, spending
some time in Tokyo and finallyarriving in Morioka, my last destination. In Tokyo, two days of workat the National Diet Library allowed
me to successfully complete mysearch for the articles I was hoping
to obtain during my stay. I was
also invited to a lunch meeting by
the Toshiba International Foundation, during which I had thepleasure of meeting its President,
Mr. Na­mekawa Fu­mihiko and Mrs.

Ohbayashi Masae, a representative of the Foundation.
I visited Kokugakuin University
to meet Dr. Tonami Hiroyuki, as
I had heard that he was planningon publishing a booklet on Shimaji
Mokurai. While this does not seemto be the case, he confirmedthat Shimaji Mokurai is (and willremain) the primary focus of his
research. The Collected Worksof Shimaji Mokurai unfortunately
do not include all of Mokurai’s
existing writings. That is to say, it
is a generally known fact among
specialists on Shimaji Mokuraithat the Gankyōji in Morioka owns
many documents that have notbeen made public. While somescholars have given up theirresearch on Mokurai due to the
Gankyōji’s tenacity in keeping
its archives closed, Dr. Tonami
advised me to continue with anattitude of doing all that is possible
with the materials presently available, while patiently waiting forthe day when full access will be
granted to all existing archives –advice that I have taken to heart.
Not only are scholars refusedaccess to the Gankyōji’s archives,
but many of the people I met
warned me that requests for an
encounter with the temple’s current
head priest, Shimaji Kōrin, areusually refused, and they wished
me best of luck. The purported
obstinance of the Gankyōji trig61

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 201262

gered my curiosity, giving me all
the more reason to visit this temple
where Mokurai served as headpriest during the later years of his
life, and to try and meet the headpriest. After repeated refusals I
was finally granted a meeting.
Once we started our discussions
the head priest turned out tobe very generous in sharing his
knowledge of anecdotes of Shimaji
Mokurai’s time in Morioka. He also
went into the archives more thanonce, returning with documents hewished to show me. Of particularinterest is his mention of letters
by Saigō Takamori (1828–1877),
Yoshida Shōin, and Sakuma
Shōzan (1811–1864) that are
addressed to Shimaji Mokurai. Fullaccess to Mokurai’s correspondence with such famous figures ofthe late Tokugawa and early Meiji
periods would undoubtedly sheda new light on Mokurai’s positionin the historical landscape of the
Meiji period, and it is to be hopedthat these documents will be
released sooner rather than later.
In the Iwate Prefectural Library andthe Morioka Memorial Museum ofGreat Predecessors, I was granted
access to the rare books room andthe curators’ room respectively.

including an essay by Mokurai on
bushidō that I had heard about, but
had not yet been able to locate.
Although I tried to get in touch witha number of Japanese scholars
prior to my trip, it did not prove aneasy task and the lack of contacts
was one of my main concerns.
However, the few contacts that I
had proved sufficient for establishing contact with an amazing
constellation of scholars, priests,
curators and people with generalinterest in my field. This is one of
the main outcomes of my field
trip, and an invaluable asset for
further research. The meetingsand discussions with specialists
in Japan have strengthened myinterest in Shimaji Mokurai andhave provided me with new andprecious insights, thus giving awelcome boost to my PhD project.
I therefore would like to express
my heartfelt thanks once again
to the Toshiba Foundation forenabling me to undertake a periodof research in Japan at this stageof my PhD.

Both institutions hold original documents and calligraphies in thehand of Mokurai, and I ended up
finding additional source materials,+++

Mick Deneckere
Selwyn College
University of Cambridge

TIFO Scholarship Reports

Global Consciousness in
Early Modern Japan
Starting points
The thesis questions the dominant paradigm in Western historiography that Tokugawa Japan’sinteraction with the world waslimited and restricted, and therefore Japan’s integration into world
economy and society could have
only begun with the ”black ships”
from the United States in 1853
and the “opening of Japan” oneyear later. It is based on the understanding that the history of societies is a history of global entanglements. These entanglements
produce cultural adaption but
also accentuation of distinctions.
Because of European colonialism
in the 18/19th century this dialectic
aspect of trans-cultural interactions
became a global phenomenon.
Since the 18th century Russian
ships pushed into the Northern
Pacific. In 1771 letters by a
Hungarian soldier of fortune, whoescaped his Russian imprisonment on Kamchatka and landed
at Japan, marked the starting
point for the so-called “coastal
defence literature” among Japanese intellectuals. In 1792 and1805 Russian emissaries landed in
Matsumae respectively Nagasaki,
returning Japanese castaways ofwhom some had spent years in
Russia teaching Japanese, andurged Japanese officials to open
their ports for trade. In 1806/07
Russian ships raided Japanesesettlements on the Kuril Islands.
Already in 1799, the bakufu­incorporated Ezo (Hokkaidō) into
their direct authority and formed
coastal defences, border posts,and ­representations of stateboundary on Ezo; even before the“Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels” in1825 and the First Opium War in
1839-42.
Therefore, the thesis investigates
the discourses the early engagements with Russian actors started
among Japanese intellectuals. Did
early 19th century intellectuals’
consciousness evolve into a moreglobal understanding of the world
and developed a new sense of
distinction, i.e. a sense of a Japanese nation, because of Russian
encounters?
To answer this question the thesis
focuses on five forms of representation of the global and thenational respectively, the “self”
and the “other”: (1) the formationof borderlands among Russia andTokugawa Japan in the Northern
Pacific in late 18th century, (2)the representation of the “other”
via Japanese castaways, (3)the representation of the “self”
via Japanese maps of Ezo and63

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

proper Japan, (4) the imagining ofa national history by the Nativist
Studies (kokugaku) provoked by
the Russian engagements, and(5) the formation of state institutions by Edo at the Northernboundary. Sources by intellectuals,
like Hirasawa Kyokuzan, Honda
Toshiaki, Mogami Tokunai, Mamiya
Rinzo, Hayashi Shihei, Hirata
Atsutane, and Kondo Juzo, will
be analysed regarding a change
in their ­understanding of the epistemological categories “global”,“Japan”, and “national”. The­methodological approach is thediscourse analysis. The research
stay from January to March 2012at the Institute of Social Sciences(ISS), Tōkyō University, supported
by TIFO provided an excellentbase for successful research.

•••

Aims and activities

Results

The aim of my research stay
was to revise and to develop theresearch outline by:

A first review of the Japanese
historiography
confirmedmyhypothesis. In contrast to theAmerican and European historiography on early modern Japan,
theJapanese
historiography
comprises the role of RussianJapanese
engagementsforthe development of intellectual
discourse in late 18th and early 19th
century much more. Most Japanese literature on the “openingof Japan” starts with the Russian

•

64

•

libraries, Oriental Library, andNational Diet Library.
Verifying the research hypothesis by checking the Japanese­historiography on RussianJapanese relations and on
intellectual history as well as
by viewing historical sources.
Meeting with distinguishedscholars in Japanese history
to help me to improve myresearch question and tomaster the vast literature on
Russian-Japanese relations,
Edo intellectual history, andEzo representations.
Presenting research results tocolleagues and the public in
Japan.
Further improving my Japanese language skills with aJapanese language class.

Getting familiar with the vast
Japanese research literatureof my topic. Since it was myfirst independent research
stay in Japan, one very basic
task was getting familiar withthe ­institutions relevant to mywork, like the Tōkyō University

TIFO Scholarship Reports

embassy in 1792. Concerning
Japanese intellectual history the
majority of the literature incorporates the Russian engagements
since 1800. Most agree that thestarting points of a new discourse
were the letters to the Dutch in
Dejima by the Hungarian adventurer Benyowski in 1771. Becauseof these letters intellectuals like
Kudo Heisuke and Hayashi Shihei
started the “coastal defence literature”.
However, the majority of Japanese
literature lacks a global perspective. The changes in intellectual
discourse in late Tokugawa Japanare usually not analysed as partof research on globalization andcolonialism. Therefore my aim
is to develop my thesis from theperspectives of global history. To
put it in a nutshell, this perspective of history analyses the effects
of global entanglements andfocuses rather on the boundariesof ­societies than the center. Most
Japanese literature stills focuses
purely on a Japanese perspective. But more recent works start
to incorporate a transnational
Russian-Japaneseperspective.
An embedment of the history of
Russian-Japanese relations andthe change of early modern intellectual discourse into a history of
globalization is generally still being
neglected.

Nakabayashi Masaki and Iokibe
Kaoru (both Tōkyō University)
provided me with in depth discussions on the historiography of intellectual discourse in Japan. Sven
Saaler and Bettina Gramlich-Oka(both Sophia University) provided
an overview of Japanese historiography on Ezo and the Northern
Pacific. All talks helped me greatly
to gain an overview of Japanese
research.
Even though it turned out
un­necessary to make extensive
use of archives at this stageof research – as I was primarily concerned with getting an­overview on the vast historiography on the subject – Tōkyō
University provided me withextensive source materials on late
18th and early 19th century intellectual discourse. A first review ofthe historical sources lead to therealisation, that further training in
kanbun is ­beneficial.
At the end of the research stay I
was able to present preliminary
results at a talk at the History &Humanities Study Group, German
Institute of Japanese Studies in
Tōkyō (DIJ). Especially Alexander
Bukh (Tsukuba University) challenged my research outline with
new questions and interesting
comments. At the Japanese
History Group, Institute of Social
Sciences, Tōkyō University, by
65

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

Nakamura Naofumi I was allowed
to present further ideas andreceivedinteresting
feedbackby Mitani Hiroshi and MichaelBu­rtscher. I will present further
qualified results at the Conferenceof German Japanese Studies in
Zurich in August 2012.
Furthermore, I was able to takeadvantage of the stay for otherresearch-related
purposes.
I gathered materials for a
German speaking article on the­construction of race in Meiji Japanand improved an existing article on
globality and Japanese fascism.
I plan to submit both articles topeer-reviewed journals in 2012.
I would like to express my gratitude to the people who supported
me in my research, in particular
to my PhD advisor at Freie
Universität
Berlin,Professor
Verena Blechinger-Talcott, whois constantly providing advice
and the much needed incentive, to Professor Suehiro Akira,Director of the Institute of Social
Science, Tōkyō University, whokindly accepted me as a Visiting
Research Fellow, to Professor
Nakabayashi Masaki, who acted
as my advisor at ISS, as wellas to Professor Iokibe Kaoru(ISS), Professor Sven Saaler andProfessor Bettina Gramlich-Oka(both Sophia University), who
66

patiently listened to my ideas andkept me on the right track; last
but not least to Ms. Ōbayashi
Masae, who welcomed me on
behalf of TIFO, and to all the othercolleagues at Freie Universität,
the ISS, TIFO and the EAJS whocontributed to the success of myresearch.
Thanks to the TIFO grant, I feel I
am now in an excellent position
to focus my hypotheses and tofinish my dissertation successfully through archival work in thecourse of a second stay at theGerman Institute for JapaneseStudies (DIJ) from October 2012 toFebruary 2013.
Julian PlenefischFreie Universität Berlin+++

TIFO Scholarship Reports(De)regulated Flexibility– Recent Developments
andOutcomesofJapanese Labour Policy
andLabourMarketReforms –The starting point of myresearch project was to propose
an evaluation of the impact
on Japanese labour marketof the liberalization of labour
dispatching and private employment placing made possible
through the amendments of the
Haken Rōdōsha Hō (Workers’
dispatching law, first enacted in1985) and the Shokugyō Antei
Hō (Employment security law,
first enacted in 1947).
The research was carried on
mainly at the Japan Institute forLabour Training and Policy withthe valuable support of its International Affairs Department andbuilt essentially on:••a literature review on Japanese industrial relations,with a particular focus
on non-regular forms of
employment;
an analysis of the specificregulations
relatedtoJapan’s deregulation policy;•

literatureandavailable
data review on the reforms’
outcomes and interviews
with legal scholars.1

Research results
As pointed out by manyobservers, Japanese labour
market has had traditionallya dual nature. The so-calledshūshin koyō seido (­life-time
employment system) has fora long time been considered
the hallmark of the Japanesesystem of employment relations. The practice – according
to which a worker is hired soonafter ­graduation and is expected
to remain within the same firm
until the age of ­retirement2 –developed around 1920 when
the Japanese economy boomedin the aftermath of WWI although
it became embedded in the1
Among the others, see Goka
Gazumichi, Koyō no Danryokuka to
Rōdōsha Haken – Shokugyō Shōkai Jigyō[Deregulation of Employment, Labour
Dispatching and Private Employment
Agencies], Tokyo, Ōtsuki shoten, 1999;
and Tsuneki Atsushi – Matsunaka
Manabu, ‘Labour Relations and Labour
Law in Japan’, Pacific Rim Law & Policy
Journal association, vol. 20, n. 3, 2011,
pp. 529-561.
2
Odagiri
Hiroyuki,
Growththrough
Competition,
Competition
through Growth, Clarendon Press, 1992,
ch. 3

67

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012J­ apanese system of employment
relations as an institutionalized
custom only with the onset of thefast economic growth in the late
1950s3.
Nonetheless, the rise in nonregular forms of ­employment ispart of a long standing trend,
whose origins can be traced backto 1970s – soon after the two
oil shocks – and that somewhat
strengthened during the 1990s
economic crisis, subsequent to theburst of the bubble economy.4
The system of employment relations – based on the equilibrium
between regular and non-regular
employees – seemed to be quite
functional to the economic growthof the country. On the one hand,the shūshin koyō seido alloweda high degree of the so-called
functional or internal flexibility(i.e. the employers’ possibility
to move employees from one
task or department to another).
On the other, the share of nonregular
employees(namely,3
Schaede Ulrike, Choose andFocus, Ithaca, Cornell University Press,
2008, ch. 9.
4
KeizerB.
Arjan,‘The
Dynamics between Regular and NonRegular Employment: Labour Market
Institutionalization in Japan and theNetherlands’, Japan Institute for Labour
Policy and Training (reports by visiting
professors),
http://www.jil.go.jp/profile/
documents/Keizer.pdf.

68

part-time workers and fixed-term­subcontractors) was used asa buffer and stabilizer to keep
the economy well balanced inperiods of economic recession
and, as a consequence, employment for permanent employees.5
However, starting with the burstof the ‘bubble economy’ and the­subsequent economic crisis, themodel started to falter and, fromthe mid-1990s, substantial steps
towards deregulation – namely inthe area of labour market regulations – begun to be taken.6 Behindthe deregulation drive, there
was the thought that the inactive external labour market wasimpeding the flow of workers fromdeclining industries to emerging
new businesses and slowed therestructuring of the economy. At
the same time, it was worried that
global competition and the highappreciation of the yen might
induce many Japanese companies
to shift their production to othercountries with cheaper labor cost.
To cope with these economic problems, the “Deregulation Promotion
5
Bredgaar Thomas – Larsen
Flemming, ‘Comparing Flexicurity in Japanand Denmark’, Japan Institute for Labour
Policy and Training (reports by visiting
researchers),
http://www.jil.go.jp/profile/
documents/Denmark_final.pdf.
6
Araki
Takashi,“Changing
Japanese Labor Law in Light of Deregulation.Drives: A Comparative Analysis,”
36 Japan Labor Bulletin, no. 5, 1997.

TIFO Scholarship Reports

Program” ratified by the Cabinet
on March 31, 1995 expressly
listed employment and labour relations as one area of deregulation
targets.
The reforms,
aimed at:••therefore,

werethe activation of the externallabour market through theliberalization of the labour
supply business;the diversification of the labour
force through a relaxationof the norms on non-regularforms of employment (labour
dispatching in particular).7

From this point of view, of capital
importance were the 1999 andsubsequent amendments to theaforementioned Haken Rōdōsha
Hō and the Shokugyō Antei Hōwhich brought about drastic modification of the Japanese labour
market regulations.8
The latter was first enacted in 1947
with the purpose of ‘provide every
person with an opportunity toobtain a job conformed to his/herability and meet the labour needsof industry through the provision
7
Ibid.
8
Araki Takashi, ‘1999 Revisionsof Employment Security Law and Worker
Dispatching Law: Drastic Reforms ofJapanese Labor Market Regulations’, 38Japan Labor Bulletin, vol. 9, 1999.

of [public] employment placementbusinesses’ (art. 2, 1947/141).
The
law
actually
prohibited
private employment placement­businesses, with the exception of
29 permissible occupations (‘positive list system’) designated by the
Enforcement Ordinance of the law
and with a permit from the former
Labour Minister (Art. 32, Para. 1).
The list of the permitted occupations expanded slowly throughout
the post-war history until thefundamental liberalization of thesystem in 1999 (Imai, 2004). Now,even though private ­employment
placement agencies still need toobtain a permit from the Kōsei
Rōdōshō (Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare), the occupational restrictions have beenabolished except for designatedcategories of occupations (Art. 32,
Para. 11).
The 1999 saw also the revision of the Haken Rōdōsha Hō.
Labour dispatch is a peculiar formof work arrangement based ona triangular relationship which
involves the ‘supply’ of workers
from a dispatching agency to aclient company in order to meetsome particular business needs.
Due to the dissociation it realizes
between the formal and actual
employer, workers’ dispatch hasoften been considered to undermine workers’ protection and,69

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012as a consequence, has always
been strictly ­regulated.9 Japanwas no exception to this ruleand, until 1985, haken rōdō was­actually totally prohibited. During
the 1970s, however, Japanesefirms developed some forms ofillegal dispatching which attracted
attention from the government
agency. In 1978 the Gyōsei Kanri
Chō (Administrative ­Management
Agency) conducted an audit
that resulted in a statement inwhich, together with pointing thegrowing misuses of practices as
subcontracting, it also highlighted
the positive sides of the useof rōdōsha haken in the labour
market, e.g. labour mobility.10
Based on the statement, theformer Ministry of Labour started
the legislative process to legalise
the system which lead to theenactment of the Haken Rōdōsha
Hō in 1985. As the aforementioned
Employment security law, also
the Workers’ dispatching law was
based on a positive list system, i.e.
it allowed the business for only 16
highly professional occupations.
However, the Haken Rōdōsha
Hō as well was gradually relaxed
9
Roccella Massimo, Manuale didiritto del lavoro, Giappichelli editore, 2011,
ch. 4.
10
Imai Jun, ‘The Rise of Temporary
Employment in Japan – Legalisation andExpansion of Non-Regular Employment
Forms’, Duisburg Working Papers on East
Asian Studies, n. 62/2004.

70

with a substantial liberalization of
dispatching business except forsome job categories.11
The law distinguishes two types ofdispatching work arrangements:
specifiedworkerdispatching(tokutei haken rōdōsha) in which
the worker is hired on a permanent
basis by the dispatching company
and general worker dispatching(ippan haken rōdōsha) in which
workers register with a company
which will conclude a contract onlyat the moment of dispatching.12 It
is important to notice that, in origin,agency work in Japan was meant
to target highly skilled workers
only, which is the reason why at
the time of the enactment of thelaw the business was termed‘worker dispatch’ instead of themore common ‘temporary work’– in other words, the law did not
require this kind of work arrangement to be necessarily temporary
in nature.13 The 1999 and 2003
revisions of the law, however,altered somewhat this situation.
The 1999 reform, adding an upper
limit on the duration of dispatching
and the 2003 reform lifting the11
Araki Takashi, ‘1999…’, op. cit.
12
Imai, Ibid.
13
Hamaguchi Keichirō – Ogino
Noboru, Non-regular work: trends, labour
policy and industrial relations. The case ofJapan, International Labour Office, Working
Paper n. 29, 2011.

TIFO Scholarship Reports

ban on rōdōsha haken in the­ anufacturing sector – the risk,mtherefore, is for labour dispatching
to become a form of precarious
and cheap labour.14
What has been the impact theselaws have had on the Japaneselabour market?
As a result of the revision of
Employment
securitylaw,
shokugyō shōkai jigyō (feecharging placement businesses)
have now become a main actor in
the field of private labour supply
industry, expanding their activities especially in the area of theso-called jinzai business with aparticular growing importance ofoutsourcing and outplacement
services requested by Japaneseenterprises as alternatives to the
traditional shukkō and tenseki
labour relocation practices.15
As for haken rōdō, though it has
been pointed out that it ­represents
still a small percentage of theJapanese workforce, it is also
the one which is expanding thefastest16, a fact which may raise
more than one issue for the future.
Haken rōdōsha find themselves in
14
Araki, Ibid.
15
Imai, Ibid.
16
Imai, Ibid.; Ishiguro Kuniko,‘Japanese Employment in Transformation– The Growing Number of NonRegular Workers’, Electronic Journal ofContemporary Japanese Studies, art. 10,
December 2008.

a quite unstable situation, given
the particular nature of the job
arrangement (being agency worka tripartite labour relationship)
and the fact that the law, as far as
balanced treatment is considered,requires the employer (i.e. thedispatching agency) only to give‘due consideration’ to the welfareof the employees, which, however,most shokugyō shōkai jigyō havebeen unwilling to do.17
When, in the early 1990s, theJapanesegovernment
wasconfronted with the issue to­deregulate, the shingikai of the
Ministry of Health, Labour andWelfare begun to analyse labour
market policies in the USA andEurope.18 Following a pattern that
had proved safe in the past,19 it
opted out for a Japanese ‘thirdway’ to avoid the high social
inequalities due to high ­flexibilities(American model) and, at thesame time, the European labour
market sclerosis due to high labour
protection.20
17
Imai, Ibid.
18
Mizumachi Yuichiro, ‘Why are
there Many Expendable Workers in Japan?
Issues and Mechanisms Underlying the
Non-Regular Worker Problem’ in Changing
Employment in Japan, Social Science
Japan, vol. 41, 2009, pp. 7-10.
19
Haley John O., The Spirit Of
Japanese Law, University of Georgia, 1998.
20
Mizumachi, Ibid.

71

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

It is quite clear now that thereforms – which were meant toincrease labour mobility, throughthe ­activation of the externallabour market, and to help solve
the problem of mismatches –missed their aims. Japaneselabour market is still dual, ­probably
even more so since the deregulation process was carried on
without due consideration to theissue of equal treatment for nonregular workers. As a matter offact, mobility has increased but
only in the non-regular sectorof the workforce and – also dueto the absence of measures topromote uptrend mobility to regular
status – the precarity risk remains
very high.21
Activities
My stay in Japan with the Toshiba
grant also allowed me to carryout many others research-related
activities. For instance, I was able
to make contact and speak to
many scholars whose advice andinputs greatly benefited my own
research. Moreover, I was given
the possibility to give a presentation at the Rōdōhō Kenkyūkai
21
SeifertHartmunt,‘Atypical
Employment in Japan and Germany’, Japan
Institute for Labour Policy and Training(reports by visiting researchers), http://www.
jil.go.jp/profile/documents/Seifert.pdf.

72of Kobe University where I was
invited by professor Ouchi Shin’ya,
associate professor of Labour Law
at the named university. Finally,
I could take the opportunity toattend seminars as well as aworkshop on Japanese Law andthe Economy organized by the­Ritsumeikan School of Law.
Acknowledgements
I am profoundly grateful to the
Toshiba International Foundation and the EAJS for giving me
the opportunity of these threemonth-stay in Tokyo which wasmost valuable for my research.
I would like to express a special
word of thanks to Ms. Ōbayashi,
my institutional referent at Toshiba
International Foundation, and to
Ms. Schwotzer of EAJS who werealways extremely kind and available.
I would also wish to thankprofessor Ouchi Shin’ya of Kobe
University to whom I am extremelyindebted for introducing me to
the JILPT and inviting me to givea presentation to the Rōdōhō
Kenkyūkai of Kobe University,
as well as for being so helpful
throughout my stay in Japan.
I would also like to express mysincere gratitude to professor
Yamaguchi, president of the JILPT,

Forthcoming Eventsand all the staff of the International Affairs Department for theprovided opportunity and support,with a special word of thanks toAmase-san, Nomura-san, Amanosan and Seto-san.

Finally, I wish to thank professor
Imai of Tohoku University for his
willingness in meeting me anddiscussing some of the issues I
came across during my research.
Fabiana Marinaro
Università Ca’Foscari Venezia

Forthcoming Events
9th EAJS PhD Workshop
Goethe University
March 07-09, 2013
Frankfurt, Germany
Call for papers
The European Association forJapanese Studies (EAJS) invites
doctoral students in all humanities
and social sciences to apply for the
9th EAJS Workshop for doctoral
students. The EAJS PhD workshop is sponsored by the Toshiba
International Foundation (TIFO)
and the Japan Foundation (JF).
EAJS will cover the costs of travel(up to € 500) and accommodation
for the duration of the workshop
for a group of about 16 doctoral
students and 5 senior scholars

who act as advisors. The European Japan Advanced Research
Network (EJARN) supports theworkshop by nominating senioradvisors.
The EAJS Workshops for doctoral
students aim to create a European multidisciplinary networkof advanced graduate students
and senior scholars in JapaneseStudies. The informal environmentof the workshop provides a unique
opportunity for participants to work
together intensively to enhance
individual projects and engage
in concentrated ­discussions ofcommon themes and methods.
Throughpresentations
andfocused sessions, students giveand receive critical feedback on
dissertation projects, fieldwork
plans and preliminary results.

73

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

Students will be asked to read thework of their peers and prepare
for workshop presentations linking
their own work to the broader international Japanese Studies field.
Students will also get a one-to-one
supervision with a senior scholar in
their respective field.

Project
director:
Prof.
Dr.
Cornelia Storz
Venue:
Frankfurt
University,
Germany
Time: March 07-09, 2013

Eligibility

Please be aware that EAJS uses
an online system to manage
submissions for its 9th EAJSWorkshop for doctoral students.

Graduate students working on adissertation topic related to Japan,
regardless of citizenship, who areenrolled at universities in Europe,and students of European nationality who are enrolled in graduate
programmes outside Europe are
eligible. Students travelling to theworkshop from outside Europe
should expect no more than 500
Euro to be paid towards theirtransportation
costs.
Doctoralstudents from European universities who do not have major centresof Japanese Studies are especiallyencouraged to apply. Applications are particularly welcome
from graduate students in theearly fieldwork phase throughthe middle stages of dissertation
writing. All applicants are expected
to have studied the Japanese
language and to use materials
written in Japanese as sources fortheir dissertations. Applicants are
expected to provide evidence ofJapanese language ability in theirapplications.
74

Application
Process

andSelection

The call for papers was announced
through the EAJS-L mailing list
and on the EAJS website. The
selection process was finalised in
December 2012.
The EAJS received over 50 applications.
List of final candidates selected:
Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus
Free University of Berlin, Germany
Eivind Lande
Norwegian University of ScienceandTechnology,
Trondheim,
NorwayTine Paul Rachel Walravens
Ghent University, Belgium
Mick Deneckere
University of Cambridge, UK
Takahiro Yamamoto
London School of Economics andPolitical Science, UKForthcoming Events

Fumiko Takahashi
University of Oxford, UK
Silke Werth
University of California, USA
Peter Muehleder
University of Vienna, Austria
Tohru Seraku
University of Oxford, UK
Nils Axel Emanuel Svahn
Lund University, Sweden
Oana Druta
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nadine Vogel
Free University of Berlin, Germany
Alexandru Paul Luta
Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Japan
Balazs Vaszkun
University of Budapest, Hungary
Jens Eilker
Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Munich, Germany
Fabiana Marinaro
University of Manchester, UK

The 10th EAJS PhD Workshop
2014 will take place in Ljubljana,prior to the conference.
Call for applications is in 2013 andwill be announced via EAJS-L.

1st EAJS Publication
Workshop 2013
August 27-30, 2013
University of Bucharest,
Romania
The EAJS is planning to host theirfirst Publication Workshop forpre- and post-doctoral scholars
from 27th to 30th August 2013 at
the Centre for Japanese Studies,
University of Bucharest, Romania.
The workshop is intended as
an introduction into the publication process in peer-reviewed
English-language journals. During
the workshop, editors from peerreviewed journals will introduce
the various stages of the peer
review process. At the same time,
selected participants will provide
publication-readymanuscripts
and will receive feedback fromeditors and senior scholars in thefield with experience in reviewing
manuscripts for peer reviewed
journals, thus simulating thereview process. The workshop will
also provide guidance about how
to write letters to the editor, how
to respond to reviews and how toaddress reviewers’ suggestions.
The EAJS has applied for externalfunding for this workshop.
Further details will be published on
the EAJS website: www.eajs.eu
75

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012EAJS in Japan 2013
Conference
September (27, ) 28-29
Kyoto University Faculty of
Letters, Japan
Call for Papers
The European Association forJapanese Studies (EAJS) has
been organizing an academic
conference at a centre of Japanese Studies in Europe every
three years since the 1970s. At
its last gathering in Tallinn its
conference attracted 700 scholars
from all around the world. Asannounced at the last membership
meeting, the EAJS is intending
as a new activity to organise asmaller conference in Japan within
the triennial European conference
schedule. As the inaugural conference for this EAJS Japan Conference we have selected the Facultyof Letters at Kyoto University as
our local conference host andorganiser.
We are accepting submissionsof papers and panels in all fields
of Japanese Studies from established scholars and doctoral
students.
Although the conference is thematically open, we do espe­cially76

encourage submissions related
to Japanese – European interactions in any form.
Like the regular conference themain language of academic
communication will be English
but presentations in Japanese
may also be accepted, if an
English summary is provided.
The con­ference will be divided inseveral two-hour sessions withpresentations
usually
lasting
20 minutes. As the usual EAJS
conference rule that all presentersneed to be paid-up members of
EAJS will also apply.
We will not follow the usual section
format of our regular conferencesand encourage individual papers
instead of panel proposals.
Please note that presenters andpar­­ti­­cipants will need to organise
their own travel to and accommodation arrangements in Kyoto
during the conference. There will
be suggestions through a travelbureau website.
The day before the main conference at Kyoto University, there
will be a pre-conference meetingon Friday, September 27 at theInternational Center of JapaneseStudies (Nichibunken) to which all
conference participants are invited.

Forthcoming Events

Conference Dates:
Saturday 28 toSeptember 2013

Sunday29

The EAJS conference rule applies
that only paid-up EAJS members
can present papers.

Papers/Panels
Submission
Deadline:
15 February 2013 (Results by 15
April)The Call for Abstract Proposals
will be announced in January
2013 and submitted over the
EAJS website:
http://www.eajs.eu
Regular Conference Registration Deadline:
30 April 2013 (Website available
from January)
Pre-conference Meeting:Nichibunken in Kyoto
Thursday 27 September 2013,

Programme Website:
to be announced
Conference Registration Fees
(to help cover the administrative
costs of Kyoto University):
Regular Conference Registration Fee for EAJS Members:
3000 yen (6000 yen including
lunches)
Late or On-site Conference Registration Fee: 6000 yen
77

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

List of convenors for the 14th EAJS
Conference in 2014 in Ljubljana, Slovenia
The next EAJS Conference takes place in summer 2014 in Ljubljana. Hereis the list of convenors for the sections. More information, as well as theCall for Papers for the 14th EAJS Conference will be announced in summer
2013 on the EAJS website and in the 2013 EAJS Bulletin.
Section 1: Urban & Environmental Studies

urban@eajs.eu

Richard Ronald, Amsterdam, N­etherlands, R.Ronald@uva.nl
Maren Godzik, Tokyo, Japan, godzik@dijtokyo.org+++
Section 2: Language and Linguistics

linguistics@eajs.eu

Sven Osterkamp, Bochum, Germany, sven.osterkamp@rub.de
Tomasz Majtczak, Krakow, Poland, tomasz.majtczak@uj.edu.pl+++
Section 3: Literature		
Subsection: Modern Literature

modern_literature@eajs.eu

Ina Hein, Vienna, Austria, ina.hein@univie.ac.at
Simone Müller, Zurich, Switzerland, simone.mueller@oas.uzh.ch
Subsection: Premodern Literature

premodern_literature@eajs.eu

Michael Watson, Yokohama, Japan, watson@k.meijigakuin.ac.jp
Joshua Mostow, Vancouver, Canada, jmostow@mail.ubc.ca
78Forthcoming Events

Section 4: Visual and Performing Arts
Subsection: Visual Artsvisual_arts@eajs.eu

Ewa Machotka, Leiden, Netherlands, e.machotka@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Amaury García Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico, amaury@colmex.mx
Subsection: Performing Arts			

performing_arts@eajs.eu

Peter Eckersal, Melbourne, Australia, eckersal@unimelb.au.edu
Andreas Regelsberger, Trier, Germany, regelsb@uni-trier.de+++
Section 5: Anthropology, Sociology & Media Studies
Subsection: Anthropology and Sociology

anthropology@eajs.eu

Barbara Holthus, barbaraholthus@gmail.com
Wolfram Manzenreiter; wolfram-manzenreiter@univie.ac.at
Subsection: Media Studies

media_studies@eajs.eu

Griseldis Kirsch, London, UK; griseldis.kirsch@googlemail.com
Blai Guarné Cabello, Barcelona, Spain; Blai.Guarne@uab.cat+++
Section 6: Economics, Business & Political Economy

economics@eajs.eu

Sebastien Lechevalier, Paris, France; sebastien.lechevalier@ehess.fr
David Chiavacci, Zurich, Switzerland; david.chiavacci@uzh.ch+++
79

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

Section 7: History 				history@eajs.eu

Hans Martin Krämer, Bochum, Germany; mk2@gmx.de
Ellen van Goethem, Fukuoka, Japan; evgoethem@gmail.com+++
Section 8: Religion and Philosophy
Subsection: Religion and Religious Thought

religion@eajs.eu

Erica Baffeli, Otago, New Zealand; erica.baffeli@otago.ac.nz
Anna Andreeva, Heidelberg, Germany, andreeva@asia-europe.uniheidelberg.de
Subsection: Intellectual History and Philosophy

philosophy@eajs.eu

Raji Steineck, Zurich, Switzerland; steineck@oas.uzh.ch
Wim Boot, Leiden, Netherlands; bootgoto@planet.nl+++
Section 9: Politics and International Relations

politics@eajs.eu
Ian Neary, Oxford, UK; ian.neary@nissan.ox.ac.uk
Paul O’Shea, Stockholm, Sweden; paul.m.oshea@gmail.com+++
Section 10: Translating and Teaching Japanesetranslation@eajs.eu

Noriko Iwasaki, London, UK; ni3@soas.ac.uk
Anca Focseneanu, Bucharest, Romania; ancafocseneanu@yahoo.com

80Information from our members

Information from our members
Christopher Hood:
Dealing With Disaster in Japan:
Responses to the Flight JL123
Crash. Routledge 2011.
ISBN 978-0-415-45662-3
Just as the sinking of the Titanic isembedded in the public consciousness in the English-speaking
world, so the crash of JAL flight
JL123 is part of the Japanesecollective memory. The 1985
crash involved the largest loss oflife for any single air crash in theworld. 520 people, many of whom
had been returning to their ancestral home for the Obon religious
festival, were killed; there were
only four survivors.
This book tells the story of thecrash, discusses the many controversial issues surrounding it, andconsiders why it has come tohave such importance for many
Japanese. It shows how the Japanese responded to the disaster:
trying to comprehend how afaulty repair may have caused thecrash, and the fact that rescue
services took such a long time
to reach the remote crash site;
how the bereaved dealt with their
loss; how the media in Japan andin the wider world reported thedisaster; and how the disaster isremembered and commemorated.
The book highlights the media
coverage of anniversary eventsand the Japanese books and films
about the crash; the very particularmemorialisation process in Japan,
alongside Japanese attitudes todeath and religion; it points out inwhat ways this crash both reflects
typical Japanese behaviour and inwhat ways the crash is unique.
+++Mitsuhiro Tokunaga:
Shiroyama Saburō Sunao na
senshi-tachi ron. A critique ofObedient Warriors. A novel by
Shiroyama Saburō. Sōbunsha
Shuppan, 2012.
ISBN 978-4-88164-608-3
EiichiSugiura(1927-2007),
who wrote under the pen nameSaburo Shrioyama, was born inNagoya City. After graduatingfrom Hit­otsubashi University inTokyo, he taught economics at
Aichi Gakugei University until
1963. In 1959, Shiroyama received
the Naoki Award for his novel
Sohkaiya Kinjyo. After retiringfrom the university, he became afull-time author. Shiroyama was
81

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012not only an authority in the field of
economic novels but also wrote
many historical novels.
Shiroyama treated the issue of
education in Obedient Warriors([...] September 1978). Obedient
Warriors focuses primarily on
the Matsuzawa family, but also
includes other important characters such as Furukawa, Oishi,
and people working in the Establishment, such as those at the
Ministry. The novel faithfully
depicts the atmosphere in Japanin the 1970s, a period during
which higher education acquired
renewed importance following theenergy crisis.
In this paper, I analyse the novel
from the viewpoint of the impact ofelite planned education on family
relationships and identities. Moreover, I provide a brief summary ofeach of the novel‘s twelve chapters.
+++

82

Geilhorn, Barbara/ Grossmann,
Eike/ Miura, Hiroko/ Eckersall,Peter (eds):
Enacting
Culture.
Japanese
Theater in Historical and Modern
Contexts. München, iudicium (DIJ
Vol. 51), 2012.
ISBN 978-3-86205-039-0
The Japanese theatre scene
is characterised by the vibrantcoexistence of diverse forms oftheatre. Alongside well-knownclassical theatre traditions, astunningly modern scene exists,
with an immeasurable numberof small theatres. By focusing
on the ­historical and contemporary contexts of how theatre
culture is enacted, this collection
explorescomplementaryand ­interdisciplinary aspects ofJapan’s performing arts. In an
important and unique contribution,
this volume, includes essays byJ­apanese and Western scholars
written in a mix of English andJapanese. Abstracts of eachc­ontribution translated into the
opposite language allow readers
withoutknowledgeofbothlanguages access to the mainideas of the essays.

Items Received

Items Received
Between July 2011 and December
2012, the EAJS Office received thefollowing items.
The books are available for review,
and we, as well as the authors,
would very much appreciate if
you happen to be interested inreviewing their works in the nextbulletin.
Please contact the EAJS Office inBerlin for any further information.

Books:
Hiramatsu, Ryūen:
Kurokami to Bijō no Nihon-shi.
A Japanese history of raven-black
hair and the beautiful woman.
Suiyōsha, 2012. ISBN: 978-488065-302-0.
Kato, Mikio:
The First Fifty-Five Years of theInternational House of Japan.
Genesis, Evolution, Challenges,
and Renewal. International Houseof Japan, 2012. ISBN: 978-4903452-23-4.

Tokunaga, Mitsuhiro:
Shiroyama Saburō „Sunao na
senshi-tachi“ ron. A critique ofObedient Warriors. A novel by
Shiroyama Saburō. Sōbunsha
Shuppan, 2012.
Watanabe, Hiroshi:
A History of Japanese PoliticalThought, 1600-1901. International
House of Japan, 2012. ISBN:
978-4-903452-24-1.

Journals:
MINIKOMI – Informationen des
Akademischen
ArbeitskreisesJapan
No. 81, Decmber 2011
Bernhard Leitner: Durch den
Spiegel und was Nishida dort
fand. Zur politischen Dimension
des anderen im Werk Nishida
Kitarō – Ein Spiel in fünf Akten /Margaret Hirsch: Das „Harajuku
der Omas“ – Nostalgie als Faktor
der Inszenierung der Einkaufsstraße von Sugamo / Johannes
Wilhelm: Innenansichten zur
Seebebenkatastrophe in Tōhoku /Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt,
Yū Miri: „Viel wird man nur
begreifen, wenn man es langfristig
83

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

verfolgt“. Interview mit der Autorin
Yū Miri zur Atomkatastrophe vonFukushima.
Review of Asian ResearchInstitute - Osaka University of
Economics and Law
No. 55, 2011
CARREIRA MATSUZAKI Junko:Comparison regarding English
educationof2007
RevisedNational English Curriculum in the
Republic of Korea and new courseof study in Japan / BAI Rongxun:
District autonomous system ofminority group in China / YOON
Jungsoo et al.: Relation between astress and mental health related toa life of the international marriage
immigration females in Korea / LIN
Qian: Exploring the pettifogger‘s
mode of activity and its characteristic in Qing dynasty throughthe case of Yeoung / CHANG,
Linda Wenjiuan: A basic study of
Gyokulansou Japanese Day Care
Center in Taiwan Taipei.

Others:Japan Foundation: Japanisches
Kulturinstitut Köln, Program Sep/
Oct 2011
Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum
Berlin: jdzb echo: Ansprache84

von SKH Kronprinz Nar­uhito
von
Japan
anlässlichdesSy­mposiums
Deutsche-Japanische Zusammenarbeit im globalen
Kontext – Na­chhaltiger Umwelt-,
Ressourcen- und Katastrophenschutz. No. 96, September 2011.
Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum
Berlin: jdzb echo: Eindrücke aus
einem Land zwischen Trauma und
Aufbruch. No. 97, December 2011.
Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum
Berlin: jdzb echo: Ein Jahr nachdem
GroßenOstjapanischen
Erdbeben: Energiepolitik in Japanund Deutschland im Vergleich. No.
98, March 2012.
Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum
Berlin: jdzb echo: Für eine
weitere vertiefung der japanischdeutschen Beziehungen. No. 100,
September 2012
Maison Franco-Japonaise, MFJ:
Programs Dec 2011/Jan 2012;
Feb/March 2012; April/May 2012
Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum
Berlin: jdzb echo: Gemeinsam
unsere Zukunft gestalten. No. 101,
December 2012

Information from the OfficeInformation from the EAJS Office

EAJS Relocation
In 2012, the EAJS Office has
moved from Frankfurt to Berlin, theseat of the new treasurer, Prof Dr
Verena Blechinger-Talcott, while
relocation has been finished in
October 2012.
The EAJS office is responsible
for all matters regarding the
EAJS, workshops, conferences,announcements and the bulletin.
The relocation is also the reason
why the 2012 EAJS bulletin has
not been published in its usual
timeslot. We deeply apologise forthe delay!
New EAJS Staff
Since October 2012, Katrin
Gen­genbach is the new officerepresentative and research fellow
at the Freie Universität Berlin.
She is responsible for conference
liaison, external communication,
finances and administration, as
well as web and layout.
Since June 2012, Dr Susanne
Brucksch is in charge of theorganisation of PhD Workshops.
She also works as research fellow
at the Japanese Institute at Freie
Universität Berlin.
Ronja Meising is student associate at the EAJS Office and FU
Berlin. Her responsibilities include
membership ad­ministration andcommunication.
For any inquiries, please feel free
to mail us any time:
office@eajs.eu
You can also reach us at ourin­dividual e-mail addresses:
gengenbach@eajs.eu
brucksch@eajs.eu
meising@eajs.eu
The EAJS Office wishes you a
Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year!
We promise to keep you up todate via the EAJS-L, website andbulletin for the many upcoming
EAJS events in 2013!

85

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

Members’ Information Sheet
Please use this sheet as a sample for mailing to the office in Berlin
any items you wish to publish in the Bulletin for the information ofother members:
Name: _______________________________________________
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86

Members’ Info Sheet

3. NEW ARTICLES OR CHAPTERS PUBLISHED[Author, “Article”, in: Journal (or book in format above), vol., no.,month, year; pages]__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. OTHER ITEMS____________________________________________________________________________________________________________87

EAJS Bulletin No. 83 | December 2012

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Please use this as a sample and return by mail or e-mail to:European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS)
c/o Freie Universitaet Berlin - Japanologie
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88eajs Bulletin No. 83 | November 2012ISSN 0308-5139