Paper short abstract:

For 2020, the Japanese government has set a goal of 40 million inbound tourists. To promote tourism, new global campaigns have launched almost every year since 2016, when the goal was set. What themes have they promoted? How do the campaigns differ? And are they guilty of a kind of self-Orientalism?

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, tourism to Japan has increased exponentially, with the government aiming for 40 million tourists in 2020, double what it had originally planned for after it met the initial goal of 20 million by 2016. 2020 is a big year for Japan as it hosts the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, just after having hosted the Rugby World Cup 2019, and soon to hold the World Masters Games in 2021. Japan has therefore been, and continues to be, subject of significant global media attention, but also a major destination to travellers, too. To help meet the goal of 40 million, the Japan National Tourism Organization has launched new global promotional campaigns almost every year since 2016, when this goal was set, and a special Tokyo campaign for 2020 was launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2019. This paper examines the images and narratives about Japan presented in these campaigns. It will look at where focuses have shifted over the past few years, and where they remain the same. In all these campaigns, there are refences to Japan's present, to the ultramodernity of Tokyo, and the nation's pop culture appeal, but also to its image as somewhere futuristic, full of robots and technology. At the same time, campaigns often heavily draw on the past and on traditions, making links between history and the present, suggesting a continuity that is framed in terms of uniqueness. While a certain degree of poetic licence is expected in marketing, to what extent are these campaigns promoting an idealised, self-Orientalised image of the country?

Paper short abstract:

This paper will present how Japanese divination practices have evolved, how fortune tellers are adapting to societal changes and technological advancements, their regional variations, their religious/spiritual dimensions, and how healing (iyashi) is promoted and administered.

Paper long abstract:

Divination (uranai) in Japan is a robust industry, and with the proliferation of online social media, a network of fortune tellers has blossomed. Inspirational words of encouragement and warm acknowledgment of common anxieties invite clients to further explore a more personalized paid divination session with a professional (certified) fortune teller. Japanese divination is not a new phenomenon and is, in fact, an established occupation and a social resource with deep historical, religious, and cultural roots. However, and perhaps surprisingly, scholarly reporting in English is still lacking. With that in mind, my interest in exploring fortune tellers in contemporary Japan is to investigate and report how Japanese divination practices have evolved over time, how Japanese fortune tellers are adapting to societal changes and technological advancements, their regional variations (urban, rural, northern and southern Japan, etc.), their religious/spiritual dimensions, and finally, how healing (iyashi or hīringu) is promoted and administered. Japanese fortune tellers today are effective in operating spiritual counseling services that integrate a blending of foreign and localized divination methods. Moreover, each fortune teller appears to be flexibly self-defining their unique identity as a modern “healer” by producing original (often handmade) divination tools and selecting distinctive combinations of oracle (orakuru) methods based on established methods like crystal energy cleansing, tarot card reading, palm reading, numerology, chakra strengthening, etc.

This presentation coincides with my dissertation and is a work-in-progress.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how young people with food allergies negotiate workplace expectations to eat and drink together and argues that their (in)ability to gain their colleagues understanding of their food constraints shapes both daily experiences and how they imagine their futures.

Paper long abstract:

Food and work are often closely linked in Japan. Expectations to join post-work drinking parties and/or to eat together during the day are often a reality for people at work (albeit currently mitigated by Covid-19). However, for those with multiple food allergies, such expectations can be difficult to navigate, especially when the negotiation occurs between individuals of different ages and positions. Drawing on fieldwork with young adults since 2017 this paper explores how young people with food allergies experience workplace expectations to eat and drink together and the different strategies they use to negotiate this. Their (in)ability to gain their colleagues understanding of their food constraints shapes not only their day-to-day experiences but also influences how they imagine their futures, with some being hopeful and others struggling to imagine a happy and successful life. I consequently argue that individuals with food allergies imagine their futures - at work and beyond - through the prism of their food constraints, putting food at the center of their future hopes and imaginings. This paper illustrates the important, but often overlooked, influence of food on workplace relationships and how it contributes to shaping imagined future possibilities.