Japan Forum

Japan Forum is the official journal of the British Association for Japanese Studies. Its primary objectives are to publish original research in the field of Japanese Studies; and to make international scholarship available to both specialists and non-specialists.

Japan Forum is multidisciplinary; publishing contributions from across the arts and humanities and the social sciences including from: archaeology, language, literature, philosophy and culture; as well as history, economics, politics, international relations and law.

The current editorial team took over in 2021 and are chiefly based at University of East Anglia.  Through our connection with the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures we are wishing to increase submissions from the visual arts, but we also welcome submissions that cross disciplinary boundaries or that do not otherwise match the above subject areas. 

We award the annual Ian Nish Prize to early career submissions that demonstrates innovation through research. (For previous winners, including this year’s, please follow this link.)

All submissions are independently refereed.

Please follow this link to the journal’s website and the latest online issue.

Latest articles

  • Staying vigilant during times of crisis: What shapes COVID-19 pandemic sensitivities?
    by Paul J. Kramer Christoph Schimkowsky Paul Johann Kramer (M.A.) is a research associate and PhD student at the CRC 1369 ‘Cultures of Vigilance’ at LMU Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität) in the project ‘Vigilance in Japan’s neighbourhoods during the COVID-19 pandemic’. His current work focuses on democratic crisis management through the example of local communities in Japan’s non-legalistic governance during the pandemic. His analysis examines the interplay between resilience, governance, and vigilance. He previously published a peer-reviewed article on the pandemic experiences of international students in Japan.Christoph Schimkowsky was a Feodor Lynen Fellow at the Institute of Human Geography, Goethe University Frankfurt, from 2025 to 2026. From 2022 to 2024, he was a JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. He received his PhD in Sociological Studies from the University of Sheffield, where his thesis on Japanese ‘manner poster’ campaigns was awarded the Charles Alfred Fisher Prize by the School of East Asian Studies. His research examines public transport travel in Japan and Germany, focusing on passenger experience, everyday mobility practices, and the social organisation of public space. Christoph’s research has appeared in Mobilities, Japanese Studies, and Visual Communication, among others.
  • Hidden precarity: post-separation challenges among Japanese migrant women in Australia
    by Iori Hamada Hyein Cho Ellen Iori Hamada is from Japanese Studies, Languages, Cultures, Linguistics and Literature, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia. Email: iori.hamada@monash.eduHyein Cho Ellen is from Intercultural Studies, Language, Cultures, Linguistics and Literature, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Email: ellen.cho@monash.edu
  • Deconstructing katakana: script, norm and variation in contemporary Japanese sociolinguistic interaction
    by Blai Guarné Naoko Hosokawa Blai Guarné is an Associate Professor (with Full Professor accreditation) and Director of the East Asian Studies & Research Centre (CERAO) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, UAB). He has been a Japan Foundation Research Fellow (2025-26) at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) and has convened the Media Studies Section of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS). His research focuses on cultural nationalism, language ideology, and popular culture in a globalised Japan, and his publications include Escaping Japan: Reflections on Estrangement and Exile in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2018) and Persistently Post-war. Media and the Politics of Memory in Japan (Berghahn, 2019). Email: blai.guarne@uab.catNaoko Hosokawa is an Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Science. She holds a PhD in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford, an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MA in Political Science from Columbia University, and a BA in Policy Management from Keio University. She previously worked at the University of Tokyo, the University of Strasbourg, and the European University Institute as well as the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). Her recent publications include the monograph Loanwords and Japanese Identity: Inundating or Absorbed? (Routledge, 2023). Email: naoko.hosokawa@gmail.com
  • Visa status and crime patterns among foreign residents in Japan: quantitative correlation and qualitative insights from Vietnamese migrants
    by Hoang Thanh Danh Nguyen Hoang Thanh Danh Nguyen is a political scientist specialising in elections and migration in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Vietnam. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from Waseda University in 2020. His research integrates quantitative analysis, qualitative methods, and fieldwork to examine how authoritarian regimes maintain legitimacy, how citizens engage with political institutions, and how migration and labour policies shape receiving societies. In addition to teaching Southeast Asian Politics at Hosei University and Vietnamese Studies at Showa Women’s University, Danh also serves as the head instructor of the Vietnamese Interpretation and Translation Training Programme at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, where he also has participated in over 700 criminal investigations as a professional legal interpreter. His collaboration with the police and his extensive network within the Vietnamese community in Japan enables him to bring a unique and insightful perspective to his research on immigration. Email: kentravenger@gmail.com
  • Cross-cultural motherhood: how Chinese newcomer mothers manage school choice anxieties in Japan
    by Jiangcheng Wu Siran Huang Jiangcheng Wu is a Lecturer in the School of Japanese and International Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Kyoto University. His research interests include East Asian studies, media, social class, and cultural studies, with a particular focus on contemporary Japanese and Chinese society.Siran Huang is a student in the School of Japanese and International Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University. She is currently engaged in education-related study and work in Japan. Her research interests include motherhood, educational anxiety, and school choice, particularly maternal anxiety in cross-cultural settings.
  • ‘Look at me!’: Yonezu Tomoko and the politics of intersectionality in post-war Japan
    by Anna-Viktoria Vittinghoff Anna-Viktoria Vittinghoff. is a Lecturer in East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. E-mail: a.vittinghoff@sheffield.ac.uk
  • Who declares the early modern transition in Japan? Language and subject in a historiographical literature
    by Eiji Okawa Eiji Okawa is Assistant Professor of history at the University of the Fraser Valley situated on the unceded territories of the Stó:lō Indigenous peoples in what is now the province of British Columbia, Canada. His research interests include social and cultural history of medieval and early modern Japan, theory of history and historiography, and diaspora and transnationalism with a focus on Japanese migrants in Canada in early- to mid-twentieth century. Email: eiji.okawa@ufv.com
  • Rethinking the significance of the reform bureaucrats: ideological conflict and micropolitics in the making of state electricity control in 1930s Japan
    by Daniel Wollnik Daniel Wollnik is a researcher in modern Japanese history. He received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of East Asian Studies at Ruhr University Bochum. His research interests include the history of media, infrastructure, and politics in modern Japan.
  • Writing BCOF as diary, re-writing the occupation as memoir
    by Jonathan Bull Jonathan Bull is a Lecturer at the Graduate School of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University.
  • Volunteering in local Japanese classes – insights into a microcosm between personal initiatives, national language policies and the quest for professionalism
    by Bettina Gildenhard

Japan Forum Editorial Team

Chief Editor:

Hannah Osborne – University of East Anglia, UK (hannah.l.osborne@uea.ac.uk)

Managing Editor: 

Laurence Green – SOAS University of London, UK (japanforum@soas.ac.uk)

Editors:

Simon Kaner – University of East Anglia, UK (s.kaner@uea.ac.uk)

Rayna Denison – University of Bristol, UK (r.denison@bristol.ac.uk)

Ra Mason – University of East Anglia, UK (ra.mason@uea.ac.uk)

Sherzod Muminov – University of East Anglia, UK (s.muminov@uea.ac.uk)

Reviews Editors:

Eriko Tomizawa-Kay – University of East Anglia, UK (e.tomizawa-kay@uea.ac.uk)

Christopher Hayes – Teesside University, UK (c.hayes@tees.ac.uk)

You can follow us on Twitter at: Japan Forum (@JapanForum21)

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