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This paper examines how the missionaries who arrived in Japan in the sixteenth century quickly adapted to its natural environment. It also traces the evolution of their discourse, shifting from an emphasis on its harshness in the early decades to a gentler portrayal by the end of the century.

Paper long abstract

The Southern European missionaries who arrived in Japan in the middle of the sixteenth century adapted to Japanese society and way of life in many different manners: etiquette, dietary habits, church architecture, language, etc., in a process that has been termed “cultural accommodation.” However, the Europeans who settled in various “New Worlds” also had to adapt to new natural environments. While in some places, like tropical Africa, this adaptation proved almost impossible, in others, like Mesoamerica, the mildness of the climate facilitated European penetration. Japan occupied an intermediate position. Although the newcomers had to face more extreme weather and frequent natural disasters, the course of the seasons was not dissimilar to that of Europe. The absence of new pathogens also facilitated the settlement of the missionaries. Nevertheless, we can observe an evolution in the discourse on the Japanese environment that parallels, on one hand, the advances in missionary work, and on the other hand, the pacification of the country. In this way, the harshness of the Japanese environment is emphasized in the first decades of the mission, while by the end of the century, the missionaries seem to have “tamed” the nature in Japan. They feel more comfortable and convey a softer vision of its environment, a vision that aligns with a more assertive position after decades of missionary work and accumulation of knowledge.

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In the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, artists attempt to explore ways to present the motif of “3/11” beyond geographic confinement—beyond Japan. Given restricted access to the nuclear zone, how do artists respond to “3/11” without direct physical proximity to Fukushima?

Paper long abstract

In the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, artists attempt to explore ways to present the motif of “3/11” beyond geographic confinement—beyond Japan. Given restricted access to the nuclear zone, how do artists respond to “3/11” without direct physical proximity to Fukushima? How do overseas Japanese artists represent what took place back in their homeland? How do people outside Japan gain the access to experience and respond to “3/11”? To grapple with this representational dilemma of “here and there,” this paper looks at the performance art of the contemporary Japanese artist Ei Arakawa—Does This Soup Taste Ambivalent? (2014). In this conceptual project, he attempted to mediate a geographic gap between New York (where he works) and Fukushima (where he comes from). He also intended to reach a geographical balance between Fukushima and the international audience by bringing his family to Frieze London. In dialogue with Does This Soup Taste Ambivalent?, this paper brings comparative examples of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s installation Untitled (Free/Still) (2007) and the socially engaged art piece Conflict Kitchen (2010). This paper attempts to extend the metaphor of a geographic boundary to invisible yet crucial boundaries among people, and to further spatialize what Nicolas Bourriaud regards as relational aesthetics. Visual representations of “here and there” can thus be thematically translated into a rendering of boundaries between artists and spectators/participants, between social environment and human beings and between different ethnic groups. Moreover, this paper examines the instrumental role of food in performance art. With the same incorporation of food, these works take advantage of the taste to unite people from different backgrounds, and to provide a corporeal medium to raise concerns for nuclear radiation and safety. The remediation of food, in art practice and social media, further produces a micro-social and micro-political narrative to think of food safety, human safety, and community conflicts.

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This presentation compares how multilingual tourism texts construct “sacred nature” at two contrasting heritage sites: Okinoshima, a restricted ritual sanctuary, and Miyajima, an open tourist destination. An ecostylistic analysis shows how language shapes visitors’ environmental perceptions.

Paper long abstract

This presentation examines how multilingual tourism texts construct environmental and cultural meanings at two contrasting sacred landscapes in Japan: Okinoshima and Miyajima. While Okinoshima is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its strict access restrictions, ritual secrecy, and long-standing religious traditions, Miyajima (Itsukushima) represents a highly accessible and internationally popular heritage destination. By comparing these divergent cases within an ecostylistic framework, the study investigates how language mediates “sacred nature” and shapes visitor perceptions.

Based on fieldwork conducted in Munakata and Miyajima—including Japanese and English signage, pamphlets, explanatory boards, and digital materials—the analysis identifies distinct narrative and stylistic strategies. At Okinoshima, multilingual texts foreground its role as a site of ancient state rituals, maritime protection, and spiritual significance. Expressions such as “national rituals,” “sacred island,” and “majestic appearance” construct the island as a culturally charged and symbolically protected environment. The English versions often reorganize information, add explanatory detail, or simplify culturally specific concepts, thereby modulating how the site’s sacred and historical meanings are communicated.

In contrast, texts at Miyajima emphasize accessibility, scenic beauty, and responsible interaction with wildlife and landscape. The multilingual materials highlight environmental protection, coexistence with deer, crowd management, and the cultural significance of the torii and shrine complex. Compared with Okinoshima, Miyajima’s narratives are more visitor-oriented and practical, drawing on widely shared environmental values rather than esoteric ritual language.

By juxtaposing these two sites, the presentation demonstrates how tourism texts negotiate differing relationships between humans and nature: sacred detachment at Okinoshima and experiential engagement at Miyajima. The comparison shows how stylistic choices—such as evaluative vocabulary, omission, metaphor, and cross-lingual modulation—construct varied environmental imaginaries and guide visitor expectations.

The study contributes to environmental humanities, linguistic anthropology, and Japanese religious studies by revealing how multilingual textual mediation shapes the moral and ecological framing of sacred landscapes. It also provides broader implications for heritage communication in East Asia, where cultural preservation, tourism pressures, and environmental stewardship increasingly intersect.

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This paper evaluates the alignment between Japan’s international environmental commitments and domestic sustainability priorities toward 2050. The paper finds Japan advances green norms strategically while prioritizing energy security, industrial competitiveness, and Indo-Pacific influence.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how environmental challenges, particularly decarbonization commitments toward 2050, reshape Japan’s approach to regional and global governance. Framed through the lens of public diplomacy and multi-stakeholder environmental policymaking, the study evaluates Japan’s dual strategy of advancing international sustainability norms while addressing domestic resource and energy security imperatives. Through a comparative analysis of key literature, national policy frameworks, regional cooperation initiatives such as the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) and the Asia Energy Transition Initiative (AETI), and Japan-driven innovation pathways including hydrogen, LNG, offshore renewables, and perovskite solar technologies, the paper explores the strategic drivers behind Japan’s green mainstreaming and the coherence between its external commitments and internal sustainability priorities. Primary data from semi-structured interviews across public, private, and third-sector actors further illuminate institutional motivations, economic-environmental policy convergence, and areas of implementation tension. The findings demonstrate that Japan positions green governance as a tool for international leadership, industrial competitiveness, and diplomatic norm-setting, yet prioritizes technologies and policy designs that reinforce national security interests and state-business coordination. The paper concludes that Japan’s green governance model is neither purely activist-driven nor externally imposed, but strategically negotiated, domestically anchored, and outward-projected as a pillar of Indo-Pacific influence and green economic statecraft.

Keywords: Japan, green governance, environmental diplomacy, public diplomacy, decarbonization, energy security, Indo-Pacific, multi-stakeholder governance, hydrogen policy, perovskite solar innovation.

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Investigating affects of fear and grief in Ueda Sayuri’s Kemonotachi no umi (2022) through the lens of 'ecosickness' challenges notion of negative affects and demonstrates how these emotions can shape new posthuman identities and foster positive responses to environmental change.

Paper long abstract

Futurity, liquid landscapes, and the possibility of human extinction are at the heart of Ueda Sayuri’s Ōshan kuronikuru shirizū (Oceans’s Chronicles Series 2009-2022). In a future in which land has been submerged by the rising seas and life is only possible under water, the survival of the human is no longer a certainty. A new species of hominids and sea creatures become the last remnants of what once were the humans inhabitants of the world. In the last volume in the series, Kemonotachi no umi (The Sea of Beasts 2022), Ueda brings together four short episodes, previously unpublished, that once again explore how we think and ‘comprehend the enormity of species extinction’ (Weik von Mossner 2014). In these narratives, the voices of the nonhuman tell the history of a future in which humans are only a memory of the past. The nonhuman entanglements presented in the Ocean’s Chronicles Series are further problematized in this last volume by letting the posthuman existences narrate their own futures. The four stories represent a posthuman alternative to anthropocentrism and highlight the affective affordances inherent in a time of environmental change. By mapping the affective rhizomatic network of posthuman species inhabiting the sea, the four episodes in Kemonotachi no umi explore the affective conflicts resulting from the simultaneous connection to and dramatic separation from the human species of the posthuman sea folk. The characters are learning how to dwell with tragedy (Deyo 2018) as survivors in a time of cataclysmic environmental disasters and they also explore feelings of mourning and grief for a past and a species they did not know. Ultimately, this paper examines the collection's 'ecosickness' (Weik von Mossner 2014) and how feelings of nostalgia for the past and fear of the future can lead to positive affective responses to environmental changes. By dwelling on fear and nostalgia as affects that ‘do not function as predictably as we might think’ (Weik von Mossner 2014), the paper demonstrates how the characters are able to find the fluid stability of a new posthuman and nonanthropocentric existence in an unstable and constantly changing liquid world.

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This report examines the relationship between the concept of renovation and the urban landscape of 1990s Tokyo, focusing on the special feature “Tokyo Renovation” in magazine SD(October 1999 issue) and the 2001 publication of the book, Tokyo Renovation: 93 Stories of Building Conversion.

Paper long abstract

Generally speaking, renovation refers to the restoration, regeneration, or renewal of existing older buildings. Architect Taro Igarashi reflects in Renovation Studies (2003) that renovation techniques began to be adopted in Japan's architectural world only after the 1990s. Furthermore, according to Manjo Shimahara, Director of the Next HOME'S Research Institute, the seeds of renovation could be observed in Tokyo's street scene —specifically around the Ura-Harajuku area— from the mid to late 1990s. The concept of “renovation” gained wider recognition when the architecture magazine SD (October 1999 issue) featured a special section titled “Tokyo Renovation.” From the above, it is clear that the architectural technique and concept of renovation gained active acceptance among the Japanese public from the 1990s onward. On the other hand, why did this architectural technique and concept come into the spotlight in Tokyo specifically from the 1990s? An interesting point to note is the emergence of urban discourse centered on Tokyo in Japan from the 1980s onward, which began to discuss the cityscape. Moreover, it is impossible to overlook the fact that the leading proponents of such urban theories are also engaged in discussions about renovation. This report examines the relationship between the concept of renovation and the urban landscape of 1990s Tokyo, focusing primarily on the special feature “Tokyo Renovation” in the aforementioned architecture magazine SD and the 2001 publication of the book of the same name, Tokyo Renovation: 93 Stories of Building Conversion.

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More than fifteen years after Fukushima, environmental and health controversies persist. This paper examines how civil society organizations have become professionalized watchdogs in radiation governance, while their growing responsibilities paradoxically sustain neoliberal state retreat.

Paper long abstract

More than fifteen years have passed since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, yet major environmental and health issues remain unresolved. These include the ocean discharge of tritium contaminated water, the nationwide reuse of radioactive soil generated through decontamination work, and more than four hundred diagnosed cases of thyroid cancer among individuals who were children at the time of the accident. During this period, the Japanese state has pursued a neoliberal policy course that downplays contamination risks while shifting responsibilities for monitoring, care, and support onto individuals and civil society organizations in order to reduce public expenditure.

This dynamic reflects the structure of Japanese civil society conceptualized by Pekkanen (2006). While many local civil society organizations function as “cheap subcontractors” supporting the implementation of government policies, national level advocacy-oriented organizations that challenge state policies have remained weak in terms of resources and political opportunities. After Fukushima, advocacy-oriented organizations have continued to face severe financial constraints. Nevertheless, their activities have become increasingly professionalized and grounded in scientific knowledge, particularly in the field of radiation protection (Löschke 2025). This raises the question of how these organizations have sustained long term engagement with the enduring effects of the nuclear disaster despite limited resources and declining public attention.

Civil society organizations now operate as watchdogs in environmental and health governance. A central point of contention concerns the increase in pediatric thyroid cancer cases. Official committees attribute this rise to a so-called screening effect and deny any causal relationship with radiation exposure. In response, civil society actors have challenged this narrative by inviting independent scientific experts and producing counter evidence. They also contest the ocean discharge of contaminated water and the reuse of radioactive soil through scientific and legal interventions.

This presentation argues that while civil society organizations have become indispensable providers of legal, scientific, and psychological support, their role remains paradoxical. By compensating for state inaction, they risk reinforcing neoliberal governance by reducing pressure on the state to assume responsibility. The paper illustrates how civil society in post Fukushima Japan navigates both its expanded capacities and its structural limitations.

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This paper examines Terada Torahiko’s 1935 essay “Japanese People’s View of Nature,” focusing on seasonality and his concept of the Holistic Organism. It applies seasonal aesthetics to both an ecologically relational view of nature and a modern discourse of “Japaneseness” shaped by nationalism.

Paper long abstract

This study examines the discourse of a commonly imagined harmonious relationship between the Japanese and nature, focusing on the role of seasonal aesthetics in constructing this image of harmony. As a case study, it analyzes Terada Torahiko’s 1935 essay “Nihonjin no shizenkan” (Japanese People’s View of Nature). A physicist, haiku poet, and essayist, Terada surveys the Japanese archipelago’s geographical and geological conditions, its flora and fauna, and the ways in which Japanese people have interacted with nature in both everyday and spiritual contexts.

Central to the essay is Terada’s concept of the “Holistic Organism” (zenkiteki yukitai). Terada critically argues that, even though people in his time tend to put humans and nature into a binary, they should not be separated, as they are interdependent. He further proposes that the interaction between the Japanese people and the natural conditions of the archipelago constitutes an organic whole. While it resonates with some of his contemporary philosophical ideas and literary trends, the view of nature presented by Terada also shares some similarities with certain concepts of contemporary environmental ethics, such as deep ecology and bioregionalism.

Seasonality is crucial to Terada’s theory of the relationship between the Japanese and nature. Terada views Japanese literature and art as records of various phenomena in Holistic Organism, with tanka and haiku being the most significant. He emphasizes the seasonal lexicon in poetry as something that gives spatially and temporally concrete images to the Holistic Organism. This perspective on seasonality, representing the Japanese putative harmonious relationship with nature, resonates with the concept of “Japaneseness” in modern-era discourse that has been prevalent since the Meiji period (1868-1912) and onward.

By examining Terada’s treatment of seasonality, this paper argues that his theory simultaneously articulates an ecologically resonant view of nature and reproduces a sense of “Japaneseness” infused with nationalism, ubiquitous at the early stage of the modern nation-state. In doing so, it highlights the ambivalent role of seasonal aesthetics in modern Japanese thought, situated between environmental ethics and the symbolic identity of the modern nation-state, a role still commonly circulated to this day.

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The presentation shows how Japanese flood-control documents frame nature —especially rivers—as manageable hazards. This technocratic environmental discourse legitimises expert control and restricts citizens’ meaningful participation in river governance.

Paper long abstract

How environmental and climate-related issues appear in public discourse—through media coverage, administrative communication, or formal government agendas—shapes public understanding and legitimizes particular policy responses (Leipold et al., 2019). In the Japanese context, research has examined the evolution of climate-security discourse (Kameyama and Ono, 2021), the relationship between disasters and neoliberal governance (Okada, 2013), and the moral and behavioural expectations embedded in state disaster-preparedness policies (Kitagawa, 2016). However, little attention has been paid to how natural environments, especially rivers, are discursively constructed in government documents and how these constructions guide disaster-risk governance.

Drawing on the concept of cognitive frames (Lakoff, 2010) and scholarship on environmental discourse (Sina et al., 2019), this presentation investigates how rivers are represented in state documents dealing with disaster risk reduction. We conduct a critical discourse analysis of publicly available meeting minutes and reference materials for citizens, produced by the government-led Heavy Rain Inspection Committee, Flood Control Council, and the Flood Control Scientific Committee, following the devastating floods that struck southern Kumamoto Prefecture in July 2020. These meetings were convened to assess damage and to plan future flood-control measures for the Kawabegawa and Kumagawa. Our analysis reveals that “the river” is overwhelmingly framed as a source of danger requiring technical oversight and infrastructural intervention. Through this framing, the river becomes an object to be controlled, and authority is vested primarily in state institutions and engineering experts who are positioned as the legitimate actors capable of designing effective risk-reduction measures.

We conclude by discussing the broader implications of these technocratic constructions of rivers for collaboration between local government and citizens. Framing the river as a governable hazard aligns with long-standing state priorities for land and river development, yet it narrows the space for participatory policymaking. In the documents, citizens are cast as non-experts, expected to receive and accept official explanations rather than contribute to shaping river governance strategies, despite their legally prescribed engagement in the political process. This approach limits opportunities for inclusive dialogue and constrains the development of more community-centred approaches to disaster risk reduction.

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Animal mercy releases (hōjōe 放生) in Japan are rooted in Buddhist principles of compassion and the prohibition on killing. While intended to enhance animal welfare, these practices raise significant ethical and ecological issues, necessitating a thorough examination of their modern impacts.

Paper long abstract

Animal mercy releases, known as hōjōe 放生in Japanese, are rituals where animals are released during Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies. While often seen as compassionate and animal-friendly, their development raises important ethical and ecological concerns that require careful review of their current impact. The earliest known animal release rituals in Japan date to around 745 CE, nearly 200 years after Buddhism's introduction. Over time, these rituals merged with Shinto practices, making hōjōe a prominent example of how a Chinese Buddhist ritual was adapted into Japanese spirit-revering traditions (chinkonsai 鎮魂祭). Until the premodern era, hōjōe was closely tied to the Hachiman cult, spreading from Kyūshū's main shrine to Iwashimizu Shrine in Kyōto and across Japan. This changed when the Chinese text Jiesha fangsheng wen 戒殺放生文 (essay on non-killing and animal release) by monk Zhuhong 祩宏 (1535-1615), circulated in the early 16th century. It was then translated into Japanese vernacular by Jōdo Shin priest Asai Ryōi 浅井了意 (1612-1691). Subsequently, the ethic of avoiding killing and releasing animals gained popularity in Japan, influencing many Buddhist leaders and possibly inspiring the infamous “Laws of Compassion for Living Beings” (Shōruiawareminorei 生類憐みの令) enacted by the fifth Tokugawa shogun, Tsunayoshi 徳川綱吉 (1680-1709). During the late Edo period, animal release ceremonies shifted from their original form and evolved into the human-centred rituals we observe today. In these ceremonies, people can easily earn “karma” points for themselves and their ancestors without reflecting on their eating habits or how they treat animals. To acknowledge the ongoing popularity of these rituals, fish and birds became the primary animals released, as they were quickly caught and easy to set free. For decades, no attention was paid to the fact that many species, including some invasive ones, were chosen for these rituals due to their low procurement costs, which placed significant pressure on the local ecosystem. This paper aims to explore the history of the hōjōe ritual in Japan, its underlying ethical principles and its devastating ecological impact.

Keywords: Animals in Captivity, Release Ritual, Buddhism, Japan, China, Ecological impact, Animal Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Buddhist Ethics, Environmental Humanities.

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This paper examines the discourses around the proposal to develop a tropical research center in Iriomote between 1959 and 1972. It examines how imperial ideas about agricultural development and Cold War ambitions were projected onto the island, and why locals were enthusiastic about the proposal.

Paper long abstract

Between the late 1950s and early 1960s, Japanese policymakers and scientists envisioned transforming Iriomote—the largest island of the Yaeyama archipelago, south of Okinawa—into a living laboratory for tropical research. Spearheaded by Japanese politician Takaoka Daisuke, Iriomote was imagined as a “peace base,” a counterpart to the American military bases in Okinawa, designed both to foster relations with Okinawans to support eventual reversion and to advance Japan’s foreign policy ambitions in Southeast Asia. Japanese scientists enthusiastically supported this proposal, calling the island a “second Taiwan,” a comparable ecological zone suited to training a new generation of technical experts in tropical agriculture in the same manner as the former colony. Long suffering from underdevelopment, locals on Iriomote welcomed the attention, interpreting the vision to establish Iriomote as a “second Taiwan” not as a colonial project but as an economic proposal that would turn the island into an important center of trade between Japan and Southeast Asia. Although the proposal never materialized due to differing visions of development held by American Occupation officials, this paper argues that the discourses surrounding the Tropical Research Center embodied the imbrication of imperial memory and postwar development, as well as the colonial relationship between Okinawa and Japan. By tracing how policymakers, scientists, and local actors mobilized the island’s landscapes and Japan’s colonial legacies, this study reconsiders tropical research and agrarian development not as mere scientific enterprises but as vital sites for interrogating the entangled boundaries between empire, environment, and expertise in the twentieth-century Asia-Pacific.

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The presentation explores Yoko Tawada’s ecopoetics after 3.11. Focusing on The Emissary and the poem "Hamlet not See", I argue that the language crisis mirrors the crisis of the environment. Tawada renders radiation legible, shifting the literary imagination to meet the reality of the Anthropocene.

Paper long abstract

The triple catastrophe of March 11, 2011, in Japan marked a tectonic shift not only in the thematic concerns of Japanese writers but also in the hermeneutics of reading "after the disaster." Yoko Tawada stands as a pivotal figure who seeks to articulate the ineffable and challenge the anthropocentric failures that precipitated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, as well as the practices of exploitation driving ecological decay.

In Tawada’s works, language becomes a critical site of struggle: it must render the invisible reality of radiation and pollution into a legible vocabulary, while simultaneously preserving cultural heritage beyond the vanishing borders of a "motherland." For Tawada, linguistic production is inextricably linked to the "overseas"—a concept reflected in her title Überseezungen (a play on "overseas tongues" and "translation"). Consequently, the ecological crisis that isolates the Japanese archipelago is mirrored by a crisis of language, where the only viable path toward representation appears to come from an exophonic perspective.

The new reality of the Anthropocene poses radical questions regarding representability that can only be addressed through a reconfigured vocabulary and international collaboration.

This presentation investigates the symbolism of marine pollution and radioactive landscapes in several of Tawada’s post-disaster works, most notably the poem “Hamlet no See” and her dystopian novel The Emissary. By analyzing these texts, I argue that Tawada’s ecopoetics functions as a necessary expansion of the literary imagination in a world fundamentally altered by ecological collapse.