The annual conference of the Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC) will be held at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) from October 24 to 27, 2024. 

This year’s theme, “A laboratory for a future Japan”, is inspired by that of Expo 2025, which will take place next year in Osaka, and where Expo 1970 was held after Expo 1967 in Montreal. These universal exhibitions, having attracted worldwide attention to Japan and Canada, left a legacy of various infrastructures, leading to a wider vision of the world and profound socio-cultural, economic and technological changes. 

If Expo 1970 introduced the rest of the world to the Japanese economic "miracle", Expo 2025 will take place in a completely different socio-economic context and is intended to introduce a new form of society as it relates to the national project of a Society 5.0 and to place the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals at the forefront of this event.

The post-pandemic world, however, is confronted with new forms of conflict, climate change and an intensification of economic and technological competition, within a geopolitical context where traditional wars endure and the international order weakening. Will Japan prove resilient when faced with these challenges? This multidisciplinary JSAC conference is open to panels and individual papers addressing Japan's past, present and future.

The conference will begin on the afternoon of Thursday, October 24 with its opening speech. The conference will take place all day on Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26 as well as the morning of Sunday, October 27.

This annual conference, which will be held at UQAM, represents an important milestone for the JSAC, founded in 1987. Although the JSAC annual conference is organized each year by a different university across Canada, this is the first time that it will take place in a French-speaking institution. JSAC meetings are truly multidisciplinary and known for their exceptionally collegial welcome. Members and participants come from a wide range of disciplines, united by a shared interest for Japan. We hope you will join us. 

Do not hesitate to share the call for papers with other academics and students.