Ricky Chen: Recipient of The Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies Scholarship
The Center for Japanese Research would like to congratulate CJR Research Fellow Ruikun (Ricky) Chen for his acceptance and scholarship funding to the 10 month Inter-University Center for Japanese Language program. Ricky will be studying Japanese intensively in Yokohama from September 2023 to June 2024 and will receive a living stipend scholarship to cover his expenses during his time in Japan.
Read more about The Inter-University Center for Japanese Language program here.
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Abena Somiah: Recipient of the The Larry Bell LDC Graduate Award in Urban Studies and the IAR Research Travel Grant
The Center for Japanese Research would like to congratulate CJR Research Fellow Abena Somiah for being awarded The Larry Bell LDC Graduate Award in Urban Studies and the IAR Research Travel Grant.
The Larry Bell LDC Graduate Award in Urban Studies was developed to encourage Masters students from countries classified by the UN as the poorest and most vulnerable countries in the international community. The IAR Research Travel Grant is awarded to exceptional graduate students to support their pursuit of research and knowledge about the diverse issues related to Asia. The CJR would like to congratulate Abena for her achievements and wish her the best of luck in her research in Tokyo throughout the summer.
Read more about The Larry Bell LDC Graduate Award in Urban Studies here and the IAR Research Travel Grant here.
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UBC History Graduate Students Receive Support from the Japanese Canadian Students of 1942 Fund to Further Nikkei Research
Congratulations to CJR Research Fellows Nicole Yakashiro and Bailey Irene Midori Hoy on receiving The Japanese Canadian Students of 1942 Fund to further their research and expand the field of Japanese and Asian Canadian history with new perspectives on the past.
Nicole has previously written on the dispossession of Japanese Canadians in Vancouver’s Powell Street neighbourhood, and in Bradner, BC, once the “daffodil capital” of Canada. Building on this foundation, Nicole continues to examine the history of Japanese Canadian property possession and dispossession in the context of settler colonialism. Going into the fifth year of her PhD, Nicole looks forward to being able to tell more histories with the financial support from the 1942 Fund donors, many of whom belong to Asian Canadian communities.
For Bailey, receiving the 1942 Fund is made even more meaningful by familial ties. Bailey’s great-uncle Fred Yoshihide Sasaki, one of the honorary degree recipients, was a Commerce student at UBC before internment derailed his life in 1942. Hoy’s current research is about the relationships that Canadian Nikkei had with the kimono in the 1940s, and expands on her previous work on beauty pageants in internment camps and the kimono in the lives of Japanese Canadian women. Thanks to the 1942 Fund, she will be able to travel to and conduct research on several internment camp sites in the BC interior this summer.
Please read more about the award HERE.
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Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC) 2023 Call for Papers
The Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC) will be hosting their 2023 annual conference at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon from September 28th to October 1st, 2023. JSAC is currently open to accepting papers and panels for their conference, based on the theme of “Japan in Perilous Times”. Please send your name, the title of your paper or panel and an abstract (max 250 words) to political.studies@usask.ca by July 15, 2023. Please include the words JSAC Panel or JSAC Paper in the subject line.
The conference will also feature keynote speakers Dr. Masayuki Tadokoro, formerly of Keio University now at International University of Japan, on Japan’s place in the world with the provocative title “Is Japan still relevant today?”; Dr. Mokottunas Kitahara of the Centre for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at Hokkaido University will speak (via Zoom) on the beliefs and myths of the Ainu people; and Dr. Seung Hyok Lee of Tohoku Gakuin University will discuss Japan’s relations with North Korea.
Read more about the conference HERE.
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Japan to pay Tokyo families to move out of the city
Starting this month, the Japanese government is offering a new incentive to get families in densely populated Tokyo to move out to less populated areas: 1 million yen — about $7,600 — per child. The World’s Bianca Hillier speaks with people in one countryside village who say they could use the population boost. Professor Yves Tiberghien also provides insights to the population trends in Japan, citing how villages in Japan have been depopulating since the 1960s and that this was in part due to young people moving to the city for better paying jobs.
Please listen to the article HERE.
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Press Conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
On February 24, CJR Assistant, Uno Kakegawa, was invited by CJR Senior Fellow, Andrew Horvat, to attend a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo. The press conference was attended by Sergey Korsunsky, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, and Haitze Siemes, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the European Union to Japan. Held on the first anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion, the conference discussed how the Russia – Ukraine conflict is evolving and the stakes for Japan and its partners.
The recording of the press conference can be found here and students, academics and faculty are able to access live streaming and recordings of past and future press conferences on the FCCJ YouTube Channel.
The CJR is thankful for the wonderful opportunities for students both within Canada, Japan and beyond.
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Lunch with Ambassador Yamanouchi!
On February 16, Research Assistants Mana Murakami and Mei Terasawa from the Center for Japanese Research and the Konwakai Chair and were invited to attend a lunch with Ambassador Yamanouchi from the Embassy of Japan in Canada. The Center for Japanese Research would like to thank Ambassador Yamanouchi for taking the time to speak to current students and aspiring young diplomats.