Nonetheless, the value of Japanese Studies endures. As demonstrated in my podcast, Beyond Japan, the field thrives on the rich diversity of scholars who work on the nation. We can hope that the strength of that diversity will overcome the adversity imposed by short-sighted uni administrators.

The conference is only triannual, and BAJS 2018 was my first time attending a conference as a bright-eyed undergrad. The mood was bittersweet: it was wonderful to return and present original work to a crowd of familiar faces, but cuts to JS courses at Cardiff U and Sheffield U weighed heavy.

My co-panellists brought perspectives on Japanese imperial heritage from across East Asia. Hyunjae Kim discussed how local interpretations challenge national discourse in Korea, while Changwei Huo shared how imperial Japanese shrines in former colonies had been repurposed by modern nations.

Usually when pushing for written works on a niche topic. It happened often enough that I decided it's better to search myself than searching fruitlessly for an imagined citation. Here's to the old ways!

This was ChatGPT 4.0, though. I hear 5 is more willing to admit when it doesn't know something.

After a year's fieldwork in Tokyo and Kyoto, observing the tension in public war memorial and narratives, it was a personally healing experience to see Japanese attendees bowing and praying at a British memorial. Acknowledging suffering on all sides remains essential for intercultural memorial.

I've tried ChatGPT as an alternative to Google Scholar to see how good a literature review it could do. I experienced several critical issues:
1) The response was out of date by >1 year
2) It highlighted well-known works, but ignored new developments
3) It made up citations of well-known authors

🤷

All good, thanks! Just finishing the third year of my PhD and nearly a quarter into my first thesis draft. Had some interesting insights into transnational nationalism on Google Maps reviews you might be interested in! Hope you're weathering the changes at UEA well?

- De Boeck et al. (2022) for how easily online anonymity can be deanonymised
- Van Dijck et al. (2025) Governing the Digital Society
- Ström (2020) for the disproportionate power in private hands of the Big Five and the financial motives behind seemingly 'neutral' platforms

Hope that helps!

As someone who regularly works in Japan, I can guarantee only a tiny fraction of archaeological texts are available in English, or even available online for remote translation! Second language courses should be broadly available for all postgrads to bridge this gap imo

I was there last autumn, just after they finally fixed their online systems. All working fine now!