The first issue of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies was published in March of 1974 as a revival of the journal Contemporary Religions in Japan. David Reid of the International Institute for the Study of Religions saw the potential of the journal to play a leading role in advancing of postwar study of religion in Japan and changed the name to reflect the diversity of research published by the journal. The management of the journal was transferred to the Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture in 1981, where it remains today.

 

A symposium will be held on June 9–10 celebrating fifty years of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. All are invited to attend the events, reminisce on the journal’s past, and discuss the possibilities of its future. Please RSVP.

All presentations will be held in Building M, Room B1. See the Nanzan campus map for details.

 

Paul Swanson (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Emeritus)

“Fifty years of the JJRS”

 

Hayashi Makoto 林 淳 (Aichi Gakuin University, Visiting Professor; Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Roche Chair)

“The JJRS and the Study of Japanese Religions”

 

Panel Discussion: “On the Study of Japanese Religions”

Clark Chilson (University of Pittsburgh)

Hoshino Seiji 星野靖二 (Kokugakuin University)

Keller Kimbrough (University of Colorado)

Jacqueline Stone (Princeton University, Emeriti)

 

Emi Foulk Bushelle (Western Washington University)

“National Learning and the Buddhist Roots of Japanese Philology”

 

Orion Klautau (Tohoku University)

“Towards a History of the Public Study of Buddhism in Modern Japan”

 

Jolyon Thomas (University of Pennsylvania)

“Scholars of Religion as Educational Policy Actors and Religious Aspects of Education Policy in Postwar Japan”

 

Aike Rots (University of Oslo)

“Crossing Boundaries: Rethinking the Study of 'Japanese Religion' in the Asian Anthropocene”