A Pragmatic and Cultural Semiotic Approach to Japanese Advertising Discourse

Oana-Maria BIRLEA birlea.oana[@]hotmail.com Babes-Bolyai University   My research project is concerned with the pragmatics and cultural semiotics of Japanese advertising discourse constructed around the concept kawaii. Understanding cultural keywords grants permission to cultural insights of society and moreover, the results of discourse analysis with a focus on affect words provide the necessity to discover existing … Read more

The Social Invisibility of Radiation after Fukushima

Giulia DE TOGNI giulia.de.togni[@]ed.ac.uk University of Edinburgh     In 2016-2017, I carried out fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Japan with the populations displaced by the Fukushima disaster. In particular, I collaborated as a volunteer with NGOs that have organized recreative activities and health screenings for the nuclear evacuees living in temporary housing facilities … Read more

The Narrow Streets behind the Doors of Perception: Everyday Urban Spaces Studied through Multisensory Perception and Fragmented Discourses

Florian PURKARTHOFER florian.purkarthofer[@]univie.ac.at University of Vienna   The lingering scent of food served in small restaurants, the clattering sounds of commuter trains running along the tracks accompanied by a slight shaking of the uneven road – these and many more sensations are transmitted via streets and public spaces, as mode of mediation (Galloway, 2012, p. … Read more

“Kimochi ga wakaranai” Recovery Standing in the Way of Recovery in Tohoku

Anna VAINIO aevainio1[@]sheffield.ac.uk University of Sheffield    Between 2015 and 2016, I spent 13-months traveling up and down the coastline of Miyagi, talking to people in multiple locations to gauge their experiences of the recovery following the Triple Disaster of 3/11 and the imaginations and ideas they held for the future. I was carrying out … Read more

The Analyzation of the Language Revitalisation Techniques on the Ryūkyū Islands from a Multidisciplinary Perspective

Zsófia HIDVÉGI zsohidvegi[@]gmail.com Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary   I started my research in 2011, during a yearlong scholarship at Josai Kokusai University (Tōgane, Chiba). I was examining the language use and code switch of university students of Okinawan origin, and the language shift of the younger generations toward standard Japanese, especially if they were settled … Read more

Coronavirus update for Ghent EAJS/JAWS conference

The EAJS conference organisers have added a Covid-19 update to their Website. Since the 30th JAWS conference will be held alongside the EAJS conference in Ghent in August 2020, please keep an eye on their Website for more information. More information here: Ghent conference and coronavirus

Branding Japanese Food: from meibutsu to washoku

By Katarzyna J. Cwiertka with Yasuhara Miho Branding Japanese Food is the first book in English on the use of food for the purpose of place branding in Japan. At the centre of the narrative is the 2013 inscription of “Washoku, traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese, notably for the celebration of New Year” on UNESCO’s … Read more