This is a partial list of eligible Japan-related events.
Please check often – This page is constantly updated!
Please ask your instructor if what you find online count for your Language Beyond the Classroom (Culture Pass)!
Please also visit our Virtual Culture Pass page and find Japan-related talks.
Recurring Events (in person)
Japanese Program Coffee Hour
Date: 9/15, 9/29, 10/13, 10/27, 11/10, 12/1, 12/8
Every other Friday
Time: 1:25pm-2:15pm
Place: EPC 205
Nihongo Social by Japanese Program
Date: 10/2, 10/18, 11/5
Time: 4:40pm~5:30pm
Place: SHA 210 (928 Comm. Ave.)
Language Beyond the Classroom (Culture Pass) Event
Recurring Events (online)
Let's Speak! Japanese, Global House
Whether you’re enrolled in language class, a member of Global House, or simply learning a language on your own, we welcome you to practice your conversational skills with us. ERC Language Link and BU Global House are now offering student-ledconversation hours in a variety of languages. These sessions are open to all BUstudents and speakers of all levels. Sign up for a judgement-free conversation session,and Let’s Speak together today!
Date: TBA
Time: TBA
Via Zoom & Sign-up
One-time Events (in person)
4/26 (We) 5:30pm~7:00pm The Gastropolitics of the 1853-54 Perry Mission to Japan
The Gastropolitics of the 1853-54 Perry Mission to Japan
Christine M.E. Guth
(Royal College of Art / Victoria and Albert Museum)
Wednesday April 26, 2023 from 5:30-7:00 pm
at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, 121 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215
4/8 (Sa) 2:00pm~4:00pm Let's Eat: Japan Make Onigiri Bento in Japanese by Global House Japanese
I am writing to inform you about an upcoming Japanese cooking event that will be held at Global House on Saturday, April 8th from 2pm to 4pm.
If you are interested in participating, please sign up for the event.
One-time Events (online)
10/2, 6:00pm-7:00m EST, Celebrating Hachiko: Author Talk with PamelaS. Turner by Japan Society of Boston
Location: Online
Date: 10/2 6:00pm-7:00pm EST
About the Event:
Hachiko is well known as the Japanese Akita dog who waited for his owner at Shibuya train station for almost 10 years after the owner’s passing. The Japan Society of Boston is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Hachiko’s birth with an author talk with Pamela S. Turner, writer of Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog, a children’s book that spread the story of his unwavering loyalty to many.
Pamela Turner will be discussing this book along with her other publications such as Samurai Rising, as well as other topics such as her own personal connection to Japan and her writing process. She will be joined in conversation by Professor Susan Napier, a local expert on Japanese culture and art.
This is a free, hour long talk with Q&A hosted on zoom.
A portion of donations received for this event will be given to Big East Akita Rescue. They are a nonprofit, hands-on, volunteer run Akita rescue group covering the Northeast to help unwanted, abused, and neglected Akitas in need. Please consider donating to help support their cause.
About The Speaker:
Pamela S. Turner has an abiding fascination with science, animals, evolution, and a special interest in Japanese history. She is the author of award-winning books for young readers, including Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog, Samurai Rising, a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award finalist, as well as Crow Smarts and The Frog Scientist, both winners of the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. When not writing, she practices kendo (Japanese sword fighting) and volunteers as a wildlife rehabilitator specializing in crows and ravens.
Before becoming a writer, Pamela was a legislative assistant for foreign affairs for a California congressman, and after receiving a Master’s in Public Health from UC Berkeley became an international health consultant. She and her husband, whom she met while studying abroad in Kenya, have lived all over the world, and have three children each born in a different country. She now divides her time between Oakland, California, Newberg, Oregon, and Tokyo, Japan.
About The Host:
Professor Susan Napier has taught at Tufts University since 2006 and is the author of five books on Japanese culture and anime, most recently Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art, focusing on the films of Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of the famed Studio Ghibli. Professor Napier’s research interests include gender issues, Green and Blue Humanities, history and theory of animation, Japanese animation (anime) and comics (manga), modern Japanese literature, and popular culture, especially science fiction and fantasy.
10/17, 6:00pm-7:00pm EDT, JET & TOMODACHI Panel: Insider Tips for Work, Study, and Life in Japan
Location: online
Date: 10/17, 6:00pm-7:00pm EDT
About the Event:
Join us for an exciting online open panel discussion as we delve into the intricacies of teaching, studying, working, volunteering, and living in Japan!
This event is designed specifically for young professionals and students to gain valuable insights about what it’s really like to live in Japan. Our panel guests will include five alumni from the JET Program, TOMODACHI Initiative, and study abroad programs.
They will share their first hand experiences and invaluable advice on various aspects of life in Japan, from navigating the job market to immersing oneself in local culture and making lasting connections.
If you are considering applying for the JET Program, TOMODACHI Initiative, study abroad, or independently moving to Japan, this program is for you! Or sign up just to hear about their fun and challenging experiences in Japan.
This is a free, hour long presentation with Q&A hosted on zoom.
TBA
Recorded Events
Matsuyama celebrating the 120th anniversary of Shiki's death day
For advanced-level students, Prof. Vincent is one of the panelists
Masaoka Shiki was a Japanese poet who was born in Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture.
The Shiki Museum hosted the special event which commemorating the 120th anniversary of his death.
Professor Vincent joined as a one of the panelist for this event.
Link:Video
Prof. Vincent Blog: Loofah Day
Yokai 101:Exploring the Thrill of Japanese Folklore
It’s August, and that means it’s Obon season and the perfect time to learn about Japanese folklore! Join us for a special program dedicated to yōkai, supernatural entities and spirits that appear in many Japanese tales. Yōkai play an important role in modern Japan, as they not only appear in folklore narratives told to children, but also feature in video games, manga, and anime. Yōkai have become increasingly popular in the U.S. with the spread of Japanese pop culture, like the video game series Yokai Watch.
Professor Michael Dylan Foster from UC Davis will be sharing his knowledge on the world of yōkai along with Matthew Meyer, a popular yōkai artist. This is a great opportunity to learn more about Japanese folklore, its traditional roots, and how both still play a role in Japan today!
世界でも数少ない日本研究のアメリカ人民俗学者 カリフォルニア大学デービス校のマイケル・ディラン・フォスター氏、そして、浮世絵調の自作イラストに英語の解説を付し日本の妖怪を世界に発信しているアーティスト、マット・マイヤー氏がアメリカでもじわじわと人気がでている日本の妖怪について語ります。
Speakers:
Michael Dylan Foster | Professor of Japanese & Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Davis
Michael Dylan Foster is Professor of Japanese and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Davis, where he teaches courses on Japanese folklore, heritage, tourism, and popular culture. He is the author of The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore (2015), Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai (2009), and numerous articles on Japanese folklore, literature, and media. He is also the co-editor of The Folkloresque: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World (2016) and UNESCO on the Ground: Local Perspectives on Intangible Cultural Heritage (2015). His current project explores discourses of tourism and heritage as they relate to local festivals in Japan, and he recently co-edited Matsuri and Religion: Complexity, Continuity, and Creativity in Japanese Festivals (2021).
Matthew Meyer | Illustrator & Folklorist
Matthew Meyer is an illustrator and folklorist based in Japan. He received a BFA in illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2005. His work is focused on Japanese folklore, particularly yokai studies. He is the author of The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (2012), The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits (2015), The Book of the Hakutaku (2018), and The Fox’s Wedding (2021). He is also the creator of yokai.com, an online illustrated database of Japanese ghosts and monsters. (Website/Patreon)
Link: Yokai 101
Japan's Changing Role in Asia: Opportunities and Challenges, hosted by Japan Society of Northern California
U.S.: February 8, 2021 @ 4:00 – 5:00 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
Hear two experts share their views on Japan’s evolving role in Asia and what that means for the U.S. Hiroyuki Akita, commentator of the Nikkei Shimbun and former Washington correspondent, is one of Japan’s top analysts on foreign policy and the US-Japan relationship. Professor Thomas Berger, professor of international relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, is one of America’s top experts on Japanese foreign policy.
Please visit: https://www.usajapan.org/event/japan-changing-role-in-asia-opportunities-and-challenges/
Translation Now Conference
Click here to view recordings from the event.
Click here to view the full conference page.
Translation Now celebrated the fortieth anniversary of the Seminar by bringing to Boston some of the most distinguished translators and scholars in the field today. The conference began with a keynote address by Rosanna Warren, who gave the Seminar its current shape and taught it until 2012. Professor Warren’s keynote was followed by a series of moderated conversations on key issues in literary translation.
Haiku as World Literature Symposium: Celebrating Masaoka Shiki's 150th Birthday
Click here for the full event page with video recording.
Haiku is perhaps the best travelled of all world literary genres. Since the seventeenth century, when Matsuo Bashō wrote his masterpiece, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, haiku poets have embarked on countless figural and literal journeys, and they have taken the genre with them. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, dense social networks of haiku poets crisscrossed the whole of Japan, and by the early twentieth century, haiku in its modern form had spread across the globe through the work of poets including Ezra Pound, Rabindrath Tagore, Frederico Garcia Lorca, and Yu Ping Bo. Today millions of people write haiku in Japanese and dozens of other languages.
This symposium marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the haiku poet Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902). Despite spending the last seven years of his life immobilized by tuberculosis, Shiki contributed more than any other poet to the genre’s emergence as a globe-trotting literary form. Scholars and poets working on haiku in Japanese, English, Persian, Chinese, and Spanish shared their work on Shiki and on the poetics of haiku in its global dimensions.
Tale of Genji Symposium
Click here to see more information about this event, including conference recordings.
BU faculty from WLL, Art History, English, and Romance Studies joined together on November 5th, 2016 for an interdisciplinary symposium celebrating a new translation of on the world’s first novel written by a woman: Lady Murasaki’s 11th century Tale of Genj.
Translation Seminar
Visit here to find Japan-related talks!
http://www.bu.edu/translation/translation-seminar/archive-2/
MFA Lecture Series
Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection. Harvard Art Museums.
Painting Edo — the largest exhibition ever presented at the Harvard Art Museums — offers a window onto the supremely rich visual culture of Japan’s early modern era. Selected from the unparalleled collection of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg, the more than 120 works in the exhibition connect visitors with a seminal moment in the history of Japan, as the country settled into an era of peace under the warrior government of the shoguns and opened its doors to greater engagement with the outside world. The dizzying array of artistic lineages and studios active during the Edo period (1615–1868) fueled an immense expansion of Japanese pictorial culture that reverberated not only at home, but subsequently in the history of painting in the West.
JFNY Literary Series