Symposium on Youth Culture in Modern Japan Held in Canada

On 15-16 October, a symposium, titled “Borderlessness and Youth Culture in Modern Japan,” was held at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal. It was cosponsored by McGill University, Concordia University, University of Montreal, and JSPS. The symposium was endorsed by the Consulate General of Japan at Montreal as one of the events to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of its establishment.

The first day featured a lecture series on the symposium theme, which was open to interested members of the public. The second day’s session, also open to the public, took the form of panel discussions among the lecturers.

During the symposium, lectures were given on Japanese youth culture, accentuated by its manga and anime, and how that culture is being received by young people around the world. With lines of demarcation thinning among the world’s youth cultures, the lectures, aimed at North American researchers and citizens, attempted to enhance and spread knowledge related to the expanding borderlessness of youth culture, while the symposium provided a platform for discussion among researchers on subjects related to Japanese culture.

The event opened with remarks by Dr. Seishi Takeda, director of the JSPS San Francisco Office, and Dr. David Ownby, director of the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Montreal. Then, four sessions were held on the following themes: Youth in Contemporary Japan, Perspectives on the Youth Subculture of Japan, Film Studies, and Japanese Youth in the Borderless World. Each of the sessions featured unique presentations made all the more interesting by the liberal use of visual materials. Captivated, the attending members of the public were seen bending an ear and taking notes.

On the second day, discussions were held in which all the previous day’s lecturers exchanged views on the contents of their research presentations. In the intervals between the discussions, members of the public asked the panel questions, suffusing the hall with an animated atmosphere. The discussants probed each other with questions that delved into the details of their research, covering such topics as the relationship between capitalism and Japanese culture and literature and trends in Japan studies in North America. These exchanges of views were so energetic as to run up against the time limits.

― JSPS San Francisco Office