Japan through the prism of a declining and aging population

The aim of this study day is to bring together researchers working on contemporary Japan to discuss the issue of Japan's declining birth rate and aging population.
Un homme japonais assis sur un banc
Photo de terrain © Mahé Butel‎

Research on contemporary Japan has developed extensively within French-speaking Japanese studies, around objects as varied as the city, education, the family, gender, minorities, law, work, the media, security, poverty and health. Yet - as the latest meetings organized around current Japanese terrains have convinced us - these objects are all affected, in one way or another, by the same factor, demography, characterized as we know by the dual phenomenon of denatality and aging population.

The aim of this study day is to enable the various researchers whose work focuses on contemporary Japan to come together around this theme. Participants will present the impact of the demographic question on their own research objects. The aim is not so much to deal with ageing or falling birth rates as such, but rather to show, using concrete cases, how demographic changes have an influence, on the organization of the city, modes of sociability, religious practices, the representation of the family, gender relations, the place or demands of minorities, the structuring of work or health issues, for example.

Distance participation: to obtain the zoom link, contact one of the organizers

Organizing committee:

Thursday, December 5

Université Paris-Cité 
5 rue Thomas Mann, 75013 Paris
Bâtiment des Grands Moulins - Salle 481c

Panel 1: Regards sur la dénatalité

Discussant: Jean-Michel Butel

9h-10h 
From the egg to the chicken: de-essentializing the concept of shôshi - kôreika, to explore phenomena of self-maintenance of denatality in 21st-century Japan - Rémi Scoccimarro (Université de Toulouse Le Mirail)

10h-10h45
Generational tension in Japanese society: An analysis of matrimonial population policy through the prism of age ratio - Koki Kai ( University of Paris 1 - CRIDUP and UPC - CERLIS)

Pause

11:00-11:45
Feminism and denatality: new issues? - Christine Lévy (CRCAO)

11:45-12:30
Literature as a response to natalist pressure in the context of denatality and an aging society - Aki Yoshida (INALCO - IFRAE)

Lunch

Panel 2: Associative and community life

Discussant: Anne-Lise Mithout

2pm-2:45pm
Practicing kendō with or to supervise children. Familialism and gendered assignments of mothers and kendō practitioners in Japan - Jean-Christophe Hélary (Takamatsu University)

14:45-15:30
"Be fruitful and multiply": evangelical birth policies and a sense of crisis in Japanese Pentecostalism - Hugo Trévisan (EHESS)

15:30-16:15
The effects of an aging population on religious practices: what disappears, what remains, what is rediscovered - Jean-Michel Butel (INALCO - IFRAE)

16:15-16:45 General discussion

17:00-19:00 Documentary screening 
Inalco auditorium, PLC, 65 rue des grands moulins, 75013 Paris


Living in Tatekawa 竪川に生きる

Of YAMAMOTO Yōko (2021, 100 min), VO subtitles in french.
In 2012, a year before the Tokyo city was awarded the 2020 Olympic Games, I met a man who lived in a park in northeast Tokyo and mobilized people against the expulsion of the group of people living there. I asked him, “Why don’t you ask for the RSA?” He explained that he collects cans for a living and said, “If you want to come see where we live.” The next day I went there and wanted to keep track of their lives in a film.

 

Friday, December 6

Inalco, Maison de la recherche 
2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris
Salle Silvestre de Sacy

Panel 3: Evolutions in the world of work

Discussant: César Castellvi 

9:00-9:45
Japanese companies facing demographic aging - Julien Martine (UPC - CRCAO)

9:45-10:30
The "seniorization" of the Japanese self-defense forces: state of play and containment policies - Eric Seizelet (CRCAO)

Pause

10:45-11:30
Foreign workers to combat labor shortages? Discourses and realities of Japanese migration policies from the 2010s to the present day - Oumrati Mohammed (INALCO / Sciences-Po)

11:30am-12:15pm
Labor shortages: an opportunity for disabled workers? - Anne-Lise Mithout (UPC - CRCAO)

Lunch

Panel 4: Urban infrastructures and spaces for socialization

Speaker: Naoko Tokumitsu

1:30pm-2:15pm
The influence of denatality on urban transport in Yokosuka - Léo Martial (Yokohama National University)

2:15pm-.15h
The capacity for disaster mitigation undermined in Japan's hyper-aged society - Jean-François Heimburger (Université de Haute-Alsace)

Pause

15h15-16h
Community care of senile dementia in Japan: definition(s) and roles of the dementia café (認知症カフェninchishō kafe) - Manon Grenet (INALCO- IFRAE)

16h-16h45
The Ibasho Cafés: Innovative third places for the social inclusion of the elderly in Japan - Hiromi Takahashi-Romanelli (Université de Rennes 2)

16:45-17:15 
General discussion and conclusions of the days.

 

Summary of presentations and updated information on the website:

https://terrainjapon.hypotheses.org/category/evenements