05.11.2023 - 14:00

VSJF Conference Organized by QuaMaFA

Labor and (im)mobility in Japan and East and Southeast Asia: Transnational, regional and rural-urban perspectives

From November 3rd to 5th 2023, QuaMaFA (https://quamafa.de/ ) has organized the VSJF conference, with a cooperation of VSJF (German Association for Social Science Research on Japan) and the JDZB (Japanese-German Center Berlin). The conference theme was centred on Labor and (Im)mobility in Japan and East and Southeast Asia: Transnational, Regional and Rural-Urban Perspectives. Nearly 90 people participated in the conference, including one keynote and three roundtable participants from Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

The conference began with a keynote speech by Prof. Biao Xiang, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. His speech made participants considering about faith and trust in regards of human (cross-border) labour mobility. Following the keynote speech, the conference included four panels, covering topics from internal mobility in Japan to youth (im)mobility and intersectionality of migrants in/of Japan/East Asia. The conference concluded with a roundtable discussion by three panelists from East Asia, Professor Dong-Hoon Seol (Chonbuk National University, South Korea), Professor Hirohisa Takenoshita (Keio University, Japan), and Professor Yen-Fen Tseng (National Taiwan University, Taiwan). They discussed the current debates on labour and (im)mobility in Japan and East Asia, and the discussion underlined not only the importance of the topic but also the need of further comparative research within the region.

The conference is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and Toshiba International Foundation.