| About the event |
Pet-keeping practices in Japan display striking regional and urban–rural differences. Urban environments impose spatial regulations and restrictions (e.g. regarding transport, leashing, and defecation): While very small companion dogs are enjoying top popularity, some are solely kept indoors or are transported in strollers. In rural areas dogs are more commonly kept outdoors, and some “neighborhood cats” receive collective care. Cultural notions of “appropriate” pet care in life, dying and death in Japan differ from Western models: Political and legal protections of animals differ, as well as the fundamental understanding of what animal welfare means.
Drawing on statistical data, interviews, participant observation, as well as media discourse analysis, Barbara Holthus explores the multifaceted roles of pets in Japan. In this talk, she examines how pets mediate human well-being and loneliness and how they are integrated into human religious practices as well as the work of animal welfare organisations in Japan and the hurdles they face. Overall Barbara Holthus explores the interplay between social institutions, legal structures, and social norms within Japanese society and its related politics of pet owning.
| Language |
English
| Biography |
Barbara Holthus holds two Ph.D. degrees, in Japanese Studies from the Univerity of Trier, Germany, 2006, and in Sociology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2010. Before taking up the position of deputy director at the German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo in 2018, she was assistant professor at the Department of East Asian Studies / Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna. Her research is on marriage and the family, happiness and wellbeing, volunteering, gender, as well as demographic and social change. She was principal investigator of a German Science Foundation (DFG) funded research project on comparing parental well-being in Germany and Japan (2014-2017). Since 2021 she is researching human-animal relationships in Japan.
| Date & Time |
Wednesday 2025-11-19, 18:00-20:00
| Venue |
| For further information |
