Last month, our Japan Studies Program organized the 18th NAJS Conference here in Aarhus.

The conference featured a total of 29 papers on such diverse topics as architecture, drug smuggling, international relations, gender, economics and more. We had participants coming in from all over Europe, but also from as far away as Japan and Indonesia.

Unlike most academic conferences, the NAJS format emphasizes discussion rather than presentation, so our participants were able to receive a great deal of feedback on their papers.

We were also extremely fortunate to have to keynote speeches by renowned scholars. On day 1, Akio Takahara gave a talk on how Japan-China relations and how Japan is coping with the rise of China (available on YouTube). On day 2, Manami Hori gave a talk on Japan’s healthcare policies in dealing with its super-aging society.

The conference marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of NAJS. We are extremely grateful to The Toshiba International Foundation and The Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation for their generous support.