By Wolfram Manzenreiter, Ralph Luetzeler and Sebastian Polak-Rottmann Japan’s New Ruralities presents a counterargument to the inevitable demise of rural society. Contrary to the dominant negative perceptions, this book highlights the spatial dimension of power differences behind uneven development in contemporary Japan. Most chapters are fieldwork-based case studies on topics such as corporate farming, local energy … Read more
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
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
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
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
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