Imagined Futures in Japan and Beyond

International workshop at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo
Organizer: Nicole M. Mueller, Senior Research Fellow

The workshop ‘Imagined Futures in Japan & Beyond’, co-organized and sponsored by the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) Tokyo and the German Centre for Research and Innovation (DWIH) Tokyo took place from October 9 to October 11, 2024.

It opened on Wednesday, October 9, with an excursion to Tokyo’s Museum of Emerging Science & Innovation (Miraikan), during which 16 participants experienced various aspects of Japan’s technological future first-hand through exhibits such as care and household robots. In the evening, the conference program officially started with Fritz Breithaupt’s and Hirotaka Osawa’s keynotes on the topic of ‘Why Futuristic Imaginations Matter’, followed by a reception buffet. As part of the DIJ Forum event series, they were open to the public.

The panel sessions on the two following days were only accessible to general audiences via online live stream. On Thursday, October 10, we first had two panel sessions on ‘Imaginations of Futuristic Japan’ and ‘Imagined Futures of the Augmented Self’. They were followed by a special session, titled ‘XR Spotlights from Japan’, featuring three distinguished practitioners from Japan’s corporate tech scene. The day was concluded by a networking dinner which provided ample opportunity to continue the discussions sparked in the course of the previous two workshop days.

On October 11, we had three panel sessions on ‘Imagined Societies in the Data & Information Age’, on ‘Imagined Futures of Our Lived Environment’, and on ‘Futures in the Making – Practices, Methods, Mechanisms’. The workshop concluded in the evening. In total, we welcomed 21 speakers and six panel chairs from six different countries at the DIJ, which enabled us to exchange a variety of perspectives on a broad spectrum of technological future visions, making this workshop a rewarding experience for all participants. A publication of the papers presented, including points addressed in our discussions, is in planning. (Report by Nicole M. Mueller)

Wednesday, Oct 09, 2024

6:00 – 7:30 PM Keynote Speeches/DIJ Forum

Future Narratives – Why They Matter
Fritz BREITHAUPT (Indiana University Bloomington, Experimental Humanities Lab)

Science Fiction Prototyping Trends in Japan
Hirotaka OSAWA (Keio University Tokyo, Keio SF Lab)

7:30 – 9:00 PM Reception

Thursday, Oct 10, 2024

10:00 – 10:30 AM Welcome & Introduction

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Panel 1: Imaginations of Futuristic Japan

Imagining Japanese Technofutures – The Role of Futurology and Science Fiction in Shaping the Information Society
Volker ELIS (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Progress as Decline: Future Imaginaries in Contemporary Japanese Literature
Kristina IWATA-WEICKGENANNT (Nagoya University)

The Future of Emotion as Zen: Meditation Apps, Android Bodhisattvas, and Mood-Regulating Tech in Japanese Wellness Spaces
Daniel WHITE (University of Cambridge, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence)

2:00 – 3:30 PM Panel 2: Imagined Futures of the Augmented Self

Hoshi Shin’ichi and Artificial Intelligence
Michaela OBERWINKLER (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)

Japan’s Dawn of a ‘New Extended Reality Era’ through the Lens of Future Imaginaries
Nicole M. MUELLER (German Institute for Japanese Studies, DIJ)

‘If it were real, I’d feel both fascinated and cautious.’ – Reflecting on Japanese citizens’ narratives about a prospective metaverse through a design-theoretical lens                                         
Michel HOHENDANNER (Technical University of Munich/DIJ Tokyo)
Chiara ULLSTEIN (Technical University of Munich)
Hirotaka OSAWA (Keio University Tokyo, Keio SF Lab)
Jens GROSSKLAGS (Technical University of Munich)
※ The Paper is presented in person by Michel HOHENDANNER and Hirotaka OSAWA

4:00 – 5:30 PM Panel 3 [Practitioners’ Perspectives]: XR Spotlights from Japan    

Japan’s Virtual Scene [preliminary title]
Shuntarō KUBOTA (CEO, MoguraVR)

XR Imaginaries in Japanese Advertising [preliminary title]
Shingo MEGURO (R&D Director, Hakuhodo DY Holdings Inc.)

Reality into the virtual world — VR, AR and more —
Kenji TANAKA (Founder & CEO, Foxtrot Inc.)

Friday, Oct 11, 2024

10:00 – 11:30 AM Panel 4: Imagined Societies in the Data & Information Age

Imagining a Cashless Future for Japan: Digital Payments, Data Monetization, and Customer Experience Christian OBERLÄNDER (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)

Imagining the future global pandemic and surveillance society
Takahiro YAMAMOTO (Singapore University of Technology and Design)

Mapping the Socio-technical Imaginaries of Dataveillance in Japan
Peter MANTELLO (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University)
Alin OLEANU (Käte Hamburger Kolleg, RWTH Germany & Shanghai International Studies University)

2:00 – 3:30 PM Panel 5: Imagined Futures of Our Lived Environment

Ecological narratives in the drawn visions of the future of the Tokyo metropolis
Corinne TIRY-ONO (Paris-Val de Seine National Graduate School of Architecture)

Fraught Narratives, Contrived Futures: Connection and the Unhoused across Tokyo
Paul CHRISTENSEN (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Indiana)

Fukushima Futures: The Politics of Nuclear Energy in Japan after 3/11
Kyle CLEVELAND (Temple University Tokyo)

4:00 – 5:30 PM Panel 6: Futures in the Making – Practices, Methods, Mechanisms 

Techno-nationalism and the Land of the Rising Robots. The Japanese government’s co-construction of policy and technoscience
Amanda BRØDSGAARD (University of Copenhagen)

“Let’s think together”: Scattered narratives in NHK’s #BeyondGender project
Anya DOI-BENSON (Doshisha University Kyoto)

Posting the Future in the Present: Imagination as Manifest Destiny
Jonathan E. ABEL  (Penn State University)

5:30 – 5:45 PM Closing Remarks