Welcome to the 2022 Centre for Japanese Studies e-Newsletter. This year for many has been one of reconnecting with friends, partners and colleagues, while also finding our way in the post-pandemic world. 2022 saw the return to in-person events – for CJS, this began with our spring reception following the Sasakawa Postgraduate Studentship workshop in late February, along with the Association for Asian Studies conference in Honolulu in March. International travel and borders have also continued to open up this year, allowing many of our CJS colleagues to travel out to Japan to continue their research, as well as visitors and speakers to travel to the UK for a range of events this year.
While we have welcomed this return to in-person events and meetings, maintaining online outputs has also been key. Our CJS Research Seminar series has continued online and also seen the introduction of several hybrid sessions, with audience members joining both in-person and through Zoom. These sessions continued to bring together a diverse range of specialists from across disciplines – a sentiment at the very core of the mission of the Centre for Japanese Studies.
This special issue reflects on the activities of CJS throughout the last year, including talks, conferences, and workshops, and looks forward some of our upcoming activities. It also features an interview with Paul Madden CMG, former British Ambassador to Japan and special advisor to CJS, following the recent publication of his book Sankyu Japan.
We always welcome feedback and are very happy to pass on Japan-related news of relevance to our readership – so do get in touch.
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