ABOUT u:japan lectures
International Lectures in Japanese Studies @ University of Vienna - Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies
Idea & Scope
Idea & Scope
In April 2020, grounded by a general lockdown to prevent the first wave of the COVID-pandemic in Austria, a team of young researchers from the Japanese Studies division at the Department of East Asian Studies, was not willing to accept the cancellation of all guest lectures they have planned and were looking forward to. Hence, they started to look at different opportunities as online formats and digital ways to interact with peers and colleagues. Thankfully supported and encouraged by Prof. Wolfram Manzenreiter they utilized the technical options given at the time and combined them with enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity to see if an online guest lecture series would be feasible and also appreciated by students and peers alike. The basic idea of the Japanese studies online lectures at the University of Vienna, now known as u:japan lectures, was born.
u:japan lectures TEAM
- Wolfram Manzenreiter: patron and enabler of the u:japan lectures through his institutional and academic support as well as his positive style of leadership
- Bernhard Leitner: head of communications and the super host of the u:japan lectures, always there to help, eloquent in discussions and friendly in tone
- Florian Purkarthofer: tireless multi-talent in charge of graphics, webpage and hybrid settings at the u:japan lectures
- Christopher Kummer: online tech support and highly valued video editor of the u:japan lectures, working nightshifts to compile the finest recorded lectures, while pursuing other research projects (DÖW) during the day
- Ralf Windhab: tech experienced nice guy and email-list expert at the u:japan lectures.
- Elisabeth Semmler: handling social media and post production at the u:japan lectures and has already made her first animation film and presented it successfully at the TRICKY WOMEN film festival.
- Astrid Unger: database and informatics specialist with a soft spot for Japanese studies and cultural anthropology
The u:japan lecture team has been nominated and shortlisted for the univie awards 2022 - International Award for "outstanding achievements and special commitment of staff members in the area of international networking and cooperation within all fields of activity of the University of Vienna."
History & Development
Pre-Season
On the 18th of May 2020, after weeks of intensive technical preparation and numerous online meetings, the first lecture was delivered: Naoka Maika explored the background and transition of the image of radiation and nuclear energy in Japan in her lecture “Racing Atomic Utopia and Dystopia in Japan”. Due to the positive feedback, the wide international participation, vivid discussions and the sheer demand for academic activity, three more lectures followed the weeks after, given by Italian anthropologist Marianna Zanetta, Marc Yamada, an expert on contemporary Japanese film and French historian Arthur Mitteau.
During the quiet but still pandemically restricted summer of 2020 the concept was further developed towards a lasting legacy in our effort to revive scholarly discourse. For those who missed lectures, wanted to re-watch them or use them in class, a recorded lectures section has been implemented. In this phase Christopher Kummer, a promising MA student, set a new standard for postproduction of academic videos and enriched the team through his skills, ideas and enthusiasm for visual perfection.
Season 1 | Autumn-Winter 2020/21
The first full season of u:japan lectures (Autumn-Winter 2020/21) started in October 2020 and featured prominent names like William W. Kelly (Yale University), Daniel White (Cambridge University), Yoshiyuki Asahi (NINJAL) and many more. We heard about the Japanese gendered job market, homosocial desires in Abe Kazushige’s fiction, revisited the ethnographic primal scene of Suye Mura and explored medieval concepts of menstruation and time. One lecture focused on android perspectives on affect, another on creativity in rural Japan, and a third one on the role of Buddhist temples as storehouses in a literal and emotional sense. We learned about seed laws and taijinkyōfu – the fear of others – but also about the Japanese language in the age of post-standardization, and concluded our first season with an excursion into all-female worlds in Japanese speculative fiction.
At that time, other universities and institutions also started Japanese studies online lectures. The example of the Viennese endeavour has inspired and transcended through the academic sphere; proof of concept accomplished. However, the u:japan lectures evolved and introduced a format called LUNCH LECTURE that enabled Japanese presenters and audience to join at a more convenient timeslot and lead to even more international participation.
Season 2 | Spring 2021
In the second season (Spring 2021) innovative researcher such as Anne Aronsson (University of Zurich), Jasmin Rückert (HHU Düsseldorf) and Edward Mack (University of Washington) presented their latest findings. We heard about gender and fascism in Manchuria, love in times of COVID, robotic agency in elderly care, dōjinshi culture, local governance in Okinawa, the packaging revolution of postwar Japan, Japanese literature in Brazil and how science was used to govern the pre- and post-war population. We also learned about recent findings regarding the connection of values and well-being, private and public actors in Kyoto’s townscape councils, Zen Buddhism in prewar Japan as an enabling mechanism for terrorist acts, the role of “traditional” crafts in revitalizing rural areas and finally how everyday practices of waste sorting and disposal actualize the social order in Japan.
While nearly all lectures took place virtually and attracted visitors from different institutions and continents, our last lecture in season two was a special occasion which, due to low COVID case numbers and strict safety precautions, happened in a hybrid format with live and international online audience.
Season 3 | Fall-Winter 2021/22
The third season (Fall-Winter 2021/22) featured once again renowned professors like Adrian Favell (Leeds University) as well as promising PhD students such as Maren Haufs-Brusberg (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) and Christoph Schimkowsky (University of Sheffield). Also, the range of topics and perspectives broadened and stretched from labour market migration to contemporary literature and architecture to war memory museums. Due to the nearing end of the limited contract of Bernhard Leitner, Ralf Windhab inherited most of his responsibilities and became part of the team.
Season 4 | Spring 2022
The fourth season (Spring 2022) started in the worst days of the omicron wave, but was nevertheless dedicated to facilitate more hybrid lectures and progress the u:japan lectures to a post-pandemic format, by combining the best of online and offline lectures in a hybrid format. The list of presenters included Andrea de Antoni (Kyoto University), Miloš Debnár (Ryukoku University, Kyoto), Maiko Kodaka (SOAS, London) and many more, once again proving a fascinating selection of contemporary research in Japanese Studies.
u:japan lectures in Data
In four Seasons (plus one pre-season) we have organized 52 lectures, by researchers from 12 different countries reaching from the United States to New Zealand, and Europe to (of course) Japan, counting at least 2200 live participants.
Number of Lectures by Country (of Affiliation)
recorded u:japan lectures in Data
The recorded lectures section can be also viewed as success, registering more than 7.300 real views since the start of the recorded lecture section in June 2020 in total and more than 750 re-views of popular single lectures.
(hits and real views; 2020-06-11 ~ 2022-05-05)
(real views by episode and month; 2020-06-11 ~ 2022-05-05)
Legacy & Further Use
While the u:japan lectures are most valued by international participants for the vivid discussions and the intellectual discourse they enable, the u:japan lectures simultaneously serve as a portal for students at the University of Vienna to get into touch with the global scientific community in times of a pandemic. But, as we have learned in the past two and a half years, the recorded lectures are also intensively used as high-quality multimedia content by educators in Austria as well as internationally to enrich remote teaching for BA students.
In an attempt to use the experience and routine gathered through organising and hosting the u:japan lectures for the whole department, the sporadic series of u:eastasian lectures was established, featuring topics that concern the broader region of East Asia or at least two countries in the region.
Sadly, the future of the u:japan lectures is put in jeopardy due to limited contracts, unstable financial support and the insufficient staffing level at the Japanese Studies division, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna. We hope for the best, but even if we are forced to discontinue the series, the recorded lectures, the digital collection of contemporary research in Japanese Studies and the exchange of ideas with friends and colleagues we met on the way will remain.
List of u:japan lectures
| ID | Date | Lecture Title [Link to Record] | Name [Link to Poster] | Affiliation | cc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s00e01 | 2020-05-18 | Tracing Atomic Utopia and Dystopia in Japan | Nakao Maika | Nagasaki University | jp |
| s00e02 | 2020-06-04 | Shamanic practices in contemporary Japan: Local habits and national fascination | Marianna Zanetta | University of Turin | it |
| s00e03 | 2020-06-18 | Locating Heisei in Japanese Film: The Historical Imagination of the Lost Decades | Marc Yamada | Brigham Young University | us |
| s00e04 | 2020-06-25 | From Fenollosa to kokubungaku – aesthetics and the birth of the utsukushii Nihon | Arthur Mitteau | Paris EHESS’s Centre for Studies on Corea, China and Japan (CCJ) | fr |
| s01e01 | 2020-10-15 | Work "like a woman": The construction of femininity and the female body in the Japanese job hunting | Anna Lughezzani | University of Padova, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and University of Verona | it |
| s01e02 | 2020-10-22 | Abe Kazushige’s Male Homosocial Worlds: Duels and Complaints | Maria Roemer | University of Leeds | uk |
| s01e03 | 2020-10-29 | 85 years of Suye Mura: The life history of a Japanese village—and its anthropology | William Kelly | Yale University | us |
| s01e04 | 2020-11-05 | Menstruation und Konzeptionen von Weiblichkeit im japanischen Mittelalter | Daniela Tan | University of Zurich | ch |
| s01e05 | 2020-11-19 | Model Emotion: Android Perspectives on Affect in Japan | Daniel White | University of Cambridge | uk |
| s01e06 | 2020-11-26 | ‘Creativity’ in rural Japan: Sōzō nōson and its implications in regional revitalization policies | Shilla Lee | Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology | de |
| s01e07 | 2020-12-10 | Storehouses of value: materiality of belonging in Japanese Buddhist temples | Paulina Kolata | University of Manchester | uk |
| s01e08 | 2020-12-17 | Ceding Control: Politics, the Environment and Japan’s Food System | Nicole Freiner | Bryant University | us |
| s01e09 | 2021-01-07 | The fear of others – Taijinkyōfu: Emergence, development and demise of a psychiatric diagnosis | Sarah Terrail Lormel | INALCO (Paris) | fr |
| s01e10 | 2021-01-14 | Japanese in the Age of Post-Standardization: Language Trends in the 21st Century | Asahi Yoshiyuki | National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics | jp |
| s01e11 | 2021-01-28 | The Single-Gender Worlds of Suzuki Izumi, Kurahashi Yumiko and Shōno Yoriko – A Short History of Ambivalence Towards All-Female Worlds in Japanese Speculative Fiction | Stefan Würrer | International Christian University | jp |
| s02e01 | 2021-03-04 | Geschlecht und Faschismus in Darstellungen der japanischen Siedlungsaktivitäten in der Mandschurei | Jasmin Rückert | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf | de |
| s02e02 | 2021-03-11 | Love in the Time of COVID-19: The ‘New Normal’ in the TV Series #rimorabu (“Remote Love”) | Elisabeth Scherer & Nora Kottmann | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf & DIJ Tokyo | de |
| s02e03 | 2021-03-18 | Conceptualizing Robotic Agency: Social Robots in Elder Care in Contemporary Japan | Anne Aronsson | University of Zurich | ch |
| s02e04 | 2021-03-25 | Transcultural Potentials of dōjinshi Culture | Katharina Hülsmann | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf | de |
| s02e05 | 2021-04-15 | Local Governance in Okinawa: A Case Study from Oku | Gabriele Vogt | LMU Munich | de |
| s02e06 | 2021-04-22 | From Glass to Plastics: The Packaging Revolution of Postwar Japan | Katarzyna J. Cwiertka | Leiden University | nl |
| s02e07 | 2021-04-29 | Japanese Literary Nationalism and Brazil, 1908-1941 | Edward Mack | University of Washington | us |
| s02e08 | 2021-05-06 | Science for Governing Japan’s Population | Aya Homei | Manchester University | uk |
| s02e09 | 2021-05-20 | How independently oriented values induce positive outcomes in Japanese interdependent organizations | Uchida Yukiko | Kyoto University | jp |
| s02e10 | 2021-05-27 | From Private to Public and Back? The Townscape Councils of Kyoto | Christoph Brumann | Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology | de |
| s02e11 | 2021-06-10 | Zen and the Art of Ending Taishō Democracy | Brian Victoria | Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies | jp |
| s02e12 | 2021-06-17 | Revitalizing rural Japan through crafts | Cornelia Reiher | Free University Berlin | de |
| s02e13 | 2021-06-24 | A hug on trash day (ハグは資源ゴミの日): Actualising social order through household waste disposal practices | Brigitte Steger | University of Cambridge | uk |
| s03e01 | 2021-10-14 | Tatamis and Concrete – Antonin Raymond and the challenges of early modern architecture in interwar Japan | Yola Gloaguen | CRCAO | fr |
| s03e02 | 2021-10-21 | Frauen als groteske Monster – Weiblichkeit und Abjektion in den Werken Kirino Natsuos | Anna-Lena von Garnier | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf | de |
| s03e03 | 2021-10-28 | What Does the Individual Stand for? Victims, Survivors and Noble Spirits in Japanese Memorial Museums | Frauke Kempka & André Hertrich | ÖAW | at |
| s03e04 | 2021-11-04 | Das Ende des Intimen - Raumkonstruktionen in Murata Sayakas Satsujin Shussan | Ronald Saladin | Universität Trier | de |
| s03e05 | 2021-11-11 | Zuflucht in Shanghai - The Port of Last Resort | Paul Rosdy "ZUFLUCHT IN SHANGHAI" | Filmmaker | at |
| s03e06 | 2021-11-18 | Japankoreanische hibakusha als Irritation nationaler Narrative: Die Erzählung Saihate no futari („Zwei Menschen am Rande“, 1999) von Sagisawa Megumu | Maren Haufs-Brusberg | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf | de |
| s03e07 | 2021-11-25 | “Manner Posters” and the Management of Passenger Etiquette on Japanese Urban Railways | Christoph Schimkowsky | University of Sheffield | uk |
| s03e08 | 2021-12-02 | Help (Not) Wanted: Immigration Politics in Japan | Michael Strausz | Texas Christian University | us |
| s03e09 | 2021-12-09 | Community-based Renewable Energy Structures: A Case of Small Hydropower in a Japanese Rural Community | Junko Fukumoto | Fukuoka Prefectural University | jp |
| s03e11 | 2022-01-13 | ISLANDS FOR LIFE: Art Projects and Post-Growth Philosophies in Japan | Adrian Favell | University of Leeds | uk |
| s03e12 | 2022-01-20 | Tensions of Making and the Art of Breaking: Putting Salt Fields to Rest in 19th Century Japan | Aleksandra Kobiljski | EHESS | fr |
| s03e13 | 2022-01-27 | Transition from Painted to Painter: The Female Body of Okinawa and its Women Artists | Eriko Tomizawa-Kay | University of East Anglia | uk |
| s04e01 | 2022-03-10 | They Heard it Through the Grapevine: Rumour Spreading, Poisonous Knowledge and the Political Ecology of Hauntings in Contemporary Japan | Andrea de Antoni | Kyoto University | jp |
| s04e02 | 2022-03-17 | Urban Migrants in Rural Japan: Between Agency and Anomie in a Post-growth Society | Susanne Klien | Hokkaido University | jp |
| s04e03 | 2022-03-24 | Ukrainian Diaspora in Occupied Manchuria: Articulating the Needs for the Independent State (1932-1945) | Olga Khomenko | Kyiv Mohyla Business School (KMBS),The National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy Ukraine | ua |
| s04e04 | 2022-03-31 | History of Early Bilateral Relations between Japan and Hungary (1869-1913) | Tóth Gergely | independent researcher | hu |
| s04e05 | 2022-04-07 | Let's make it an inconvenient place here: Opposing over-tourism in Kyoto’s Gion before and during the pandemic | Miloš Debnár | Ryukoku University | jp |
| s04e07 | 2022-05-05 | Oshi-katsu, Supporting activity: Recognition and Intimacy as Commodities from the Anthropological Study of Japanese josei-muke Adult Video Fan Communities | Maiko Kodaka | SOAS, London | uk |
| s04e08 | 2022-05-12 | International students and their organisations in Japan during the pandemic and beyond | Polina Ivanova | Ritsumeikan University | jp |
| s04e09 | 2022-05-19 | East Asian Reactions to Russia's War in Ukraine: Governmental and Civil Society Responses | Alfred Gerstl et al. | University of Vienna | at |
| s04e10 | 2022-06-02 | Japanesia, the Ryūkyū Arc, and Shimao Toshio’s Cultural Resistance Against the Colonial Politics of the Past | Takahashi Shin | Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington | nz |
| s04e12 | 2022-06-23 | Millennials’ Senses of Inequality: Class, Gender, and Legitimation of Differences in Tokyo | Yuki Asahina | Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul | kr |
| s04e13 | 2022-06-30 | Neighborhood Tokyo: Creative Urban Milieus as Places of Innovation and Polarization | Heide Imai | Senshu University | jp |
| s05e01 | 2022-10-06 | Where a Nuclear Meltdown and Sexwork Intersect: Discovering the stories in the film “Boys for Sale” | Ian Thomas Ash | Filmmaker | jp |
| s05e02 | 2022-10-13 | Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan | Chris McMorran | Singapur National University | sg |
| s05e03 | 2022-10-20 | Japanische Gartenkunst: Ästhetik und Gestaltung | Takuhiro Yamada | Gartenbaumeister, Japan | jp |
| s05e04 | 2022-10-27 | Depopulation, property,and land issues: Addressing the akiya mondai in regional Japan | Niccolò Lollini | University of Oxford | uk |
| s05e05 | 2022-11-03 | 高森町の自助・共助・公助について - Selbsthilfe, Kooperation und staatliche Hilfe in Takamori-machi | Tsuru Tomoyuki | Takamori-machi | jp |
| s05e07 | 2022-11-17 | Shurijō in 2022: The Politics of Cultural Heritage on the 50th Anniversary of Okinawa’s Reversion | Tze M. Loo | University of Richmond | us |
| s05e08 | 2022-11-24 | Furry Companions: Pets in Contemporary Japan | Barbara Holthus | DIJ Tokyo | de |
| s05e09 | 2022-12-01 | Transpacific Visions: Connected Histories of the Pacific across North and South | Yasuko Hassall-Kobayashi | Ritsumeikan University | jp |
| s05e10 | 2022-12-15 | How to live with a nuclear disaster on one’s farmland: A longitudinal narrative approach to Fukushima Farmers’ life experiences | Anna Wiemann | LMU Munich | de |
| s05e11 | 2023-01-12 | Feldforschung zum Thema Pflegerobotik in Japan: Praxisbericht aus der Sicht einer Forschungsbibliothekarin | Cosima Wagner | Free University Berlin | de |
| s05e12 | 2023-01-19 | Nō from Anthropological Perspective - Zeami vs present, tradition vs practice - | Ivan Rumánek | Masaryk University | cz |
| s05e13 | 2023-01-26 | The role of institutional contexts for social inequalities in study abroad intent and participation – Evidence from Japan | Steve R. Entrich | Universität Potsdam | de |
| s06e01 | 2023-03-02 | キャンプ文学の構想：旧満洲、シベリアその他 - Ein kleines Konzept von Lager-Literatur: Mandschurei, Siberien usw. | 坪井秀人 Tsuboi Hideto | Waseda University | jp |
| s06e02 | 2023-03-09 | Die Yakuza im Aussterben: Neu(un)ordnung der japanischen Unterwelt | Wolfgang Herbert | Tokushima University | jp |
| s06e03 | 2023-03-16 | Jüdische Filmemacher im Shanghaier Exil während der japanischen Okkupation: Betrachtungen zum Dokumentarfilm Driven People/ Sokoku o owarete (1940) von Gertrud Wolffsohn | Roland Domenig | Meiji Gakuin University | jp |
| s06e04 | 2023-03-23 | It’s a (Gentle)Men’s World: Gendered Communities within Tenjin Matsuri | Carmen Sapunaru Tămaș | University of Hyogo | jp |
| s06e06 | 2023-04-20 | The EU Migrant Generation in Asia: Middle-Class Aspirations in Asian Global Cities | Helena Hof | University of Zurich | ch |
| s06e08 | 2023-05-04 | Yakuwarigo – real or fictionalized speech? How real Japanese influences role languages and how role languages are reflected in real Japanese | Patrycja Duc-Harada | Jagiellonian University in Cracow | pl |
| s06e09 | 2023-05-11 | Women and Martial Art in Japan | Kate Sylvester | The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH | se |
| s06e10 | 2023-05-25 | Climate Change: Trends, Policies, and Japan‘s Efforts in the Global Endeavours towards Net-Zero | Otaka Junichiro | Embassy of Japan in Austria | at |
| s06e12 | 2023-06-15 | Higuchi Ryuichi: "Über meinen Großvater und dessen Aktivitäten im Zusammenhang mit der jüdischen Emigration nach Osten" | Higuchi Ryuichi | Meiji Gakuin University | jp |
| s06e13 | 2023-06-22 | User Engagement Against Online Hate Speech: The #Netto-uyo BAN Matsuri since 2018 | Ayaka Löschke | FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg | de |
| s06e14 | 2023-06-29 | Zen in den Kampfkünsten, oder wie verhält sich Religion zum Krieg? | Wolfgang Herbert | Tokushima University | jp |
| s07e01 | 2023-10-12 | The Grand Festivals of Edo (tenka matsuri): Religion, Performance, and Politics in the Shogun's Capital during the Early Modern Period | Gerald Groemer | University of Yamanashi | jp |
| s07e02 | 2023-10-19 | Technik, Ethik, Pragmatik: Der Diskurs um autonome Waffen in Japan | Bernhard Seidl | University of Vienna | at |
| s07e03 | 2023-11-02 | Immigrant Integration in Japan: Barriers and Challenges | Hirohisa Takenoshita | Keio University | jp |
| s07e04 | 2023-11-08 | Geschlechter und Sexualitäten im modernen Japan | Sabine Frühstück | University of California, Santa Barbara | us |
| s07e05 | 2023-11-16 | Cross-dress boys and girlish avatars: wearing the outfits of 'shōjo' characters to become non-binary and refuse social and gender categories | Sharon Kinsella | University of Manchester | uk |
| s07e06 | 2023-11-23 | Women in the Workplace in Contemporary Japan: Matsuda Aoko's Works (b. 1979) | Daniela Moro | University of Turin | it |
| s07e07 | 2023-11-30 | The Intersection of Travel, Work and Migration: Challenges and Prospects for the case of Niseko, a ski resort in Hokkaido | Atsushi Takeda | Ritsumeikan University | jp |
| s07e08 | 2023-12-07 | Grieving One-self: Mortuary Care for Social Singles in Japan | Anne Allison | Duke University | us |
| s07e09 | 2024-01-11 | Scandal in Japan: Transgression, Performance, and Ritual | Igor Prusa | Ambis University | cz |
| s07e10 | 2024-01-18 | Meoto Iwa: The Shinto Rocks that Influenced Gustav Klimt’s Key Canvases | Svitlana Shiells | National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C | us |
| s07e11 | 2024-01-25 | Das „Sehen“ als Politikum: die japanische Souvenirphotographie aus den 1890er Jahren im Spannungsfeld der Blickregime | Mio Wakita-Elis | MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Wien | at |
| s08e01 | 2024-03-07 | Verlorene und erfundene Traditionen im japanischen Karate-dô | Wolfgang Herbert | Tokushima University | jp |
| s08e02 | 2024-03-14 | Living with ever-changing currents: Following an ama diving community over one decade | Timo Thelen | Kanazawa University | jp |
| s08e03 | 2024-03-21 | "I am too tired to have sex": A case study of sexless relationships in contemporary Japan | Alice Pacher | Meiji University | jp |
| s08e04 | 2024-04-11 | Die Rolle der japanischen Frauen im Laufe der Geschichte: Vom Altertum bis in die Gegenwart | Mizuuchi Akemi | Embassy of Japan in Austria | jp |
| s08e05 | 2024-04-18 | Strolling through stanzas: Reading Japanese poetry installations in the real and virtual cityscape | Sarah Puetzer | University of Oxford | uk |
| s08e06 | 2024-04-25 | Defending culture, defining politics: Conservatism and the ideological politics of rearmament in postwar Japan | Karin Narita | University of Sheffield | uk |
| s08e07 | 2024-05-02 | Strindberg and the New Woman in Japan: Reception of Western drama in the Taisho period | Martin Nordeborg | University of Gothenburg | se |
| s08e08 | 2024-05-16 | Finding their niche: Unheard stories of migrant women | Megha Wadhwa | Free University Berlin | de |
| s08e09 | 2024-05-23 | Mangastudien und „Populärkultur“: Eine Retrospektive | Jaqueline Berndt | Stockholm University | se |
| s08e10 | 2024-06-06 | Beauty and Money - Managing (Un)certainty in the Japanese Antique Art Trade | Harald Conrad | Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf | de |
| s08e11 | 2024-06-13 | Feminisms in Japan in transnational longterm perspective | Ilse Lenz | University of Bochum | de |
| s08e12 | 2024-06-20 | Tradition and Growth: American Conservative Adoption of Nihonjin- ron in the 1970s and 1980s | Jennifer Miller | Dartmouth College | us |
| s08e13 | 2024-06-27 | The Affective Power of Vulnerability – From Yoshitsune to yowai robotto | Elena Giannoulis | Free University Berlin | de |
| s09e01 | 2024-10-17 | Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance: Why Japan Struggles to Revive Nuclear Power | Florentine Koppenborg | Technical University of Munich | de |
| s09e02 | 2024-10-24 | Precarious stepping stones: Transnational Japanese Hostesses in London and their labour, career and gendered migration | Nanase Shirota | University of Cambridge | uk |
| s09e03 | 2024-10-31 | You‘ll never walk alone? The meaning of social relations and belonging for happiness in rural Japan | Wolfram Manzenreiter | University of Vienna | at |
| s09e04 | 2024-11-07 | Struggles over national memory and “shame”-based nationalism in Japan: Analysis of audience reception of the documentary film Shusenjo | Junki Nakahara | Stanford University | us |
| s09e05 | 2024-11-21 | Becoming Slime Mould? Unearthing Multispecies Intellectual History through Interdisciplinary Connections | Eiko Honda | Aarhus University | dk |
| s09e06 | 2024-11-28 | Anti-rape activism in Japan from the 1980s | Chiara Fusari | University of Zurich | ch |
| s09e07 | 2024-12-05 | Stay-ing without permanent settlement among Vietnamese IT professionals in Japan | Aimi Muranaka | University of Duisburg-Essen | de |
| s09e08 | 2024-12-12 | What are the origins of Japanese fascism? Exploring the postwar debates through political theory and film practice | Ferran de Vargas | University of Edinburgh | uk |
| s09e09 | 2025-01-09 | An Aging Democracy: How Young Japanese Engage with Politics | Gabriele Vogt | LMU Munich | de |
| s09e10 | 2025-01-16 | Die Handelspolitik Japans im Zeitenwandel | Hanns-Günther Hilpert | Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin, Deutschland | de |
| s10e01 | 2025-03-13 | Domain Shinto in Early Modern Mito: Impacts on Village Populations and Rural Networks | Brigitte Pickl-Kolaczia | Austrian Academy of Sciences | at |
| s10e02 | 2025-03-20 | Japan’s Foreign Policy: UN Security Council Sanctions on North Korea and their Implications | Toku Satoko | Embassy of Japan in Austria | jp |
| s10e03 | 2025-03-27 | Jeder Klaps – ein Japs! - Japan auf österreichischen und deutschen Propagandabildpostkarten während des Ersten Weltkriegs | Sepp Linhart | University of Vienna | at |
| s10e04 | 2025-04-03 | Pacific Dementia: On the Polymorphous Epithet in Japan under Pax Americana | Hitomi Koyama | Leiden University | nl |
| s10e05 | 2025-04-10 | Childcare Provision and the Desire for Motherhood in the Era of a Shrinking Japan | Chigusa Yamaura | University of Oxford | uk |
| s10e06 | 2025-05-08 | Regional (Re)vitalisation in Peripheral Japan: Exploring the Impact of the Extension of the Tōhoku Shinkansen | Marco Reggiani | University of Strathclyde | uk |