The accelerated interest in pets in Japan has not started with the pandemic but certainly has been intensified by it. In response to more than two years of physical distancing and “self-restraint”, many Japanese have turned to pets as “substitute” family members that helped to fill the void in human-human interaction. The growing popularity of pets in Japan, together with the accompanying normative, social, and legal changes regarding pet ownership within Japanese society are the focus of the presentation Furry Companions: Pets in Contemporary Japan by DIJ sociologist Barbara Holthus. Drawing on data from interviews, participant observation, publications by the Ministry of the Environment, the National Police Agency, and media, Barbara’s presentation will highlight the embeddedness and changing role of pets in Japanese society. Registration for this hybrid event on November 24 at the University of Vienna and online here

Several DIJ researchers and alumni will participate in this year’s annual conference of the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF) from November 18-20, 2022. On the 19th, Nora Kottmann will present her paper (Not) Alone: Being Single in a Marriage Centric ‘Hyper-Solo-Society’ in the panel on “Changing private Life”. In the Sociology section, Barbara Holthus will give a presentation on Furry Friends in Covid Japan. DIJ alumnus Felix Spremberg (Tübingen) will present a paper on Recent Changes in Japan’s Digitalization Policy in the same section. DIJ alumni Axel Klein (Populism and Japan) and Steffen Heinrich (Privatisation without growth: A unique challenge for Japanese welfare state reform?) will give presentations in the Politics section. The section meetings on Economics, History, Politics, Sociology, and Technology are (co-)convened by DIJ researchers and alumni. The theme of the 2022 annual conference is “Deviance and Norms in Times of Change in Japan”. It is organised by DIJ advisory board member David Chiavacci (University Zurich) and DIJ alumna Gabriele Vogt (LMU Munich). The complete programme is available online (conference and sections’ meetings).

Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that the virus and its political, economic, and public health implications have led to profound, if uneven, effects on human society. The restrictions imposed by political and public health responses to COVID have curbed social interactions, limited physical movement, and challenged the functions and experiences of the home as a space of comfort and site of intimacy. On November 5, the DIJ will host the international workshop The Intimate in and beyond Pandemic Times: Family, Personal Relationships and Singlehood to discuss multi-dimensional effects of the pandemic and its global and local influences on the intimate. Its speakers will introduce results of a large-scale survey conducted in January 2021 and address stay-at-home policies, teleworking, domestic violence, personal space, cohabitation among same-sex couples, and (solo)sociality. The workshop is organised by DIJ social scientist Nora Kottmann, Akiko Yoshida (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wisconsin and Scholar in Residence, DIJ Tokyo), and Laura Dales (University of Western Australia). Registration and details here

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Okinawa’s return to the mainland on 15 May 1972. In the special exhibition ‘Ryukyu/Okinawa: 50 years since the reversion of Okinawa’, the libraries of the International House of Japan, the Maison franco-japonaise, and the DIJ exhibit research books and articles on the history and culture of Ryukyu and Okinawa written in English, German, and French. The exhibition at the DIJ is open to the public from 4 October to 30 November. For more information on opening times and entry regulations, please contact our library. Details here