On Wednesday 11 March, our fourth talk in our ‘Exploring the World of Japanese Studies’ series took place at The University of Manchester.

This time, to commemorate the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, the topic was Voices for a Better Japan: Insights from Anthropology, Religion, Sociology, and History. The focus was on what happens when disasters and crises occur and how individuals and communities respond to them, viewed from the lens of each academic discipline featured in the title of the talk.

Joining us were four speakers from The University of Manchester: Dr. Chika Watanabe, Prof. Erica Baffelli, Dr. Yuki Asahina and Dr. Aya Homei. The talk also featured a special introduction to Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester by Dr. Peter Cave.

Dr. Chika Watanabe began the evening’s talks with an anthropological viewpoint. She first provided background on the 2011 earthquake, and other major disasters in Japan, before delving into disaster preparedness education and how Japan developed methods for ‘playful’ preparedness, to ready children and young people for natural disasters by embedding training in every day life. She discussed how these methods have been adopted by other countries who also experience threats from natural disasters.

Next, Prof. Erica Baffelli spoke from a religious focus, on how Buddhist groups in Japan developed relationships with communities in areas of Japan that experienced disaster, and how they assisted in different recovery efforts and the impact of this on the local communities.

Dr. Yuki Asahina was next to speak, who looked at crises from a sociological standpoint. Dr. Asahina moved away from the idea of natural disasters, and instead spoke about the crisis of growth in the number of employees in non-regular work in Japan, and how this impacts society. He spoke about how there was a move towards strikes to try and address this issue, and the potential impact of an ageing society alongside the increase in people in non-regular employment.

Finally, Dr. Aya Homei talked via a historical lens. Dr. Homei’s focus was on ‘Facing and Redressing Japan’s History of ‘Eugenic Surgery’’. She gave an insightful talk on her ongoing research into the background of eugenic surgery in Japan, the available records and archives to do with people impacted by these policies, and how attempts are underway to compensate and redress this past. She ended by reflecting on the impact that Universities can have on redress work, and how Japanese Studies can be incredibly valuable as a way of offering insight into these kinds of issues.

After these incredibly varied and interesting talks, we had a Q&A session. We had many questions from online and in-person audience members.

To round off the evening, Dr. Peter Cave, Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, gave an ‘Introduction to Japanese Studies at Manchester’, to give the audience an idea of the type of research, courses, and study abroad opportunities that are available at The University of Manchester.

We are incredibly grateful to The University of Manchesterfor their kind support for this talk event, and to all of our fantastic speakers for their hard work and valuable contribution.

The Japan Foundation London’s talk series ‘Exploring the World of Japanese Studies’ aims to display the breadth and diversity within Japanese Studies, to inspire and motivate future researchers as well as to shine a light on the research being conducted at various universities around the UK.

Our next talk will be taking place in early summer, with details to follow - keep an eye on our What’s On page for more information!