“(Un)Democratic Futures: Japan and the Global Trajectories towards an (Un)Equal World”

Annual Conference of the Association of Social Scientific Japan Studies 2025: 7.11.2025-9.11.2025, University of Vienna

Host Institution: University of Vienna

The aim of the conference is to foster a discussion on the future of democracy and equality among outstanding scholars from Japan and the German-speaking world. In the face of numerous crises, the future has seemingly become predetermined for many. Building on the roots of democracy as a hopeful and emancipatory project, the three-day conference seeks to encourage both hopeful perspectives and critical reflections on the present. Special attention will be given to bringing together experts from Japanese studies, political science and political theory to leverage the potential of area studies organizations as transnational bridges for intellectual exchange and community building.

The following guiding questions frame the organization and conceptualization of the conference:

– What (in)equalities are characteristic of our current political moment, and what democratic futures are emerging, feasible, or necessary?
– What new boundaries or urgencies for democratic practices arise due to the escalating planetary crisis?

For the latest information about the annual conference, please visit: https://vsjf2025.univie.ac.at.
For questions, please contact Andreas Eder-Ramsauer (andreas.eder-ramsauer@univie.ac.at).

As usual, the VSJF Gender Workshop will begin the afternoon before the conference, on November 6, 2025.

Program*

Friday
7.11.2025
12:00Registration
13:00-13:30Welcome
13:30-14:30Keynote Speech I: Prof. Dr. Uno Shigeki, Tokyo University: tba
14:30-15:00Coffee Break
15:00-16:30Panel 1: (Un-)Democratic Futures X Democratic Theory
Dr. Veith Selk, TU Darmstadt, “The Crisis of Democratic Theory”
Prof. Dr. Yamamoto Kei, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto: tba
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Vogt, LMU München: “Aging Democracies, Silent Youth: How Population Aging Impacts Political Participation in Japan and the Asia-Pacific” (with Yosuke Buchmeier)
Viktoria Huegel, Ph.D., Universität Wien: “An Appeal to Authority in Authoritarian Times”
16:30-17:00Coffee Break
17:00-18:30

Panel 2: Futures X Gender Politics
Prof. Suzuki Ayaka, University of Tsukuba: tba
Prof. Shimizu Akiko, Tokyo University: tba
Dr. Karsten Schubert, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: tba
Prof. Dr. Takeda Hiroko, Nagoya University: tba

19:00-21:00Welcome Dinner (“Heuriger 10er Marie”)
Saturday
8.11.2025
09:00-11:00VSJF Section Meetings
11:00-11:30Coffee Break
11:30-13:00

Panel 3: Futures X Economic Disparity


Prof. Dr. Simon Avenell, Australian National University: “Generationalism in Japan: Leave Them Kids (and Retirees) Alone!”
Dr. Shibata Saori, University of Sheffield:Hampered Digitalisation: Institutional Failure and New Instability in Japan” 
Dr. Gabriele Michalitsch, Universität Wien: tba
Prof. Dr. Hanno Jentzsch, Universität Wien: “Civic Self-Governance and the Erosion of Local Democracy in Japan’s Aging Rural Peripheries

13:00-14:30Lunch | Peer-Support Panel (DocSchool Section “Global Entanglements”) – Brownbag Lunch: “Career Paths between Area Studies and Disciplines”
– Dr. Chris Perkins, Edinburgh University (chief editor, Japan Forum)
– Andreas Eder-Ramsauer, University of Vienna
– tba.
14:30-16:00Keynote Speech II: Prof. Dr. H. L. T. Quan, Arizona State University: “Become Ungovernable: Democratic Living in the Time of Conversion”
16:00-16:30Coffee Break
16:30-18:00General Members’ Meeting of the VSJF
Sunday
9.11.2025
9:30-11:00Panel 4: Futures X Environmental Politics
Prof. Dr. Asuka Jusen, Tohoku University: “Unchanged Melody of the Undemocratic Energy/Climate Policy in Japan”
Dr. Florentine Koppenborg, Hochschule für Politik München: tba
Dr. Jan Groos, University Kiel: tba
Prof. Dr. Nakano Yoshihiro, Rikkyo University: “Politics of Suiten: Prolegomena to Cartographic Strategies for Relational Degrowth
11:00-11:30Coffee Break

11:30-13:00
Panel 5: Futures X Global Contestation
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Brand, Universität Wien: tba
Dr. Misato Matsuoka, Teikyo University: “Conservative Knowledge Production and the U.S.-Japan Alliance in the Era of Trump”
Prof. Dr. Michal Kolmaš, Metropolitan University Prague: tba
Dr. Karin Narita, Sheffield University: “An Outline of a Theory of Civilizationisms: Japanese Conservatism and Civilizational Geopolitics”
13:00-13:30Concluding Remarks

* The program might undergo minor changes as the conference date nears; please be aware.