Join us for the Japanese-English Reading Circle! Please note that we will be meeting virtually until further notice.
Mission: to promote language learning through reading and language exchange. We aim to keep positivity and motivation high while developing reading fluency, vocabulary, content discussion, and reading strategies in a fun, collaborative environment.
Meetings: will consist of icebreaker language games, discussions about book topics, questions about language, formation of reading goals, and reading strategy sharing/reflection
Who can join: Japanese learners of English or English-speaking learners of Japanese. Any proficiency level is okay, although it would help to have at least beginner level knowledge of the second language you are studying. You can also sign up for the Facebook group or Google group for reminders.
This year's competition for high school students from Western Pennsylvania and the tristate area studying Japanese language will be held virtually. Japanese language students of all levels and students who are involved in Japan-related cultural activities, are able to compete against other area students in speech or poster activities. Non-language students are eligible to compete in the poster contest. Each year over 80 students participate.
Students who compete in speech levels are required to write and memorize a speech on the chosen topic for the contest. Winners receive prizes and trophies! Please visit the contest page for more information.
2021 Themes:
Japanese language teachers or students studying Japanese in high school should contact the JASP office at 412-856-8608 or email Katsuko Shellhammer to learn more about the competition. The contest is held in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh.
Sponsorship opportunities are available - please contact Amy Boots for more information.
The U.S.-Japan relationship remains a cornerstone of peace and security in the Asia Pacific region, but the neighborhood was changing even before 2020. What will the relationship look like post-pandemic and with new political leadership in both Japan and the United States? Join us for a discussion on American and Japanese perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the relationship moving forward.
Speakers:
Toshihiro Nakayama is a Professor of American Politics and Foreign Policy at the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. He was a Special Correspondent for the Washington Post at the Far Eastern Bureau (1993-94), Special Assistant at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations in New York (1996-98), Senior Research Fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs (2004-06), Associate Professor at Tsuda College (2006-10), and Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University (2010-14). He was also a CNAPS Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2005-06). He received his M.A.(1993) and Ph.D.(2001) from Aoyama Gakuin University. He has written two books and numerous articles on American politics, foreign policy and international relations. He appears regularly on Japanese media and writes a monthly column for Japan News. He received the Nakasone Yasuhiro Award (Incentive Award) in 2014.
Abraham Denmark is Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a Senior Fellow at the Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Denmark’s research and policy expertise is in the politics and security of the Indo-Pacific, and in U.S. strategy toward the region. A Colorado native, Denmark holds an MA in International Security from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and received a BA in History with Honors from the University of Northern Colorado. He has also studied at Peking University.
Join the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh for a briefing and moderated panel discussion on the evolving Japan-US alliance and its impact on security and geostrategy in Asia.
Supported by a grant from NAJAS and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation
In partnership with:
Japanese video games have had a significant impact on the medium worldwide. Dr. Rachael Hutchinson considers how ‘Japan’ has been packaged for domestic and overseas consumers, and how Japanese designers have used the medium to express ideas about home and nation, nuclear energy, war and historical memory, social breakdown and bioethics. She explores how ideology and critique are conveyed through game narrative and character design as well as user interface, cabinet art, and peripherals. Ultimately, she argues that Japanese artists have expressed similar ideas in the video game medium as in older narrative forms such as literature and film.
Rachael Hutchinson is Associate Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Delaware. She received her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in 2000, and her research addresses representations of Japanese identity in a range of narrative texts – literature, film, manga and videogames. Her major publications are Japanese Culture Through Videogames (Routledge, 2019), Nagai Kafū’s Occidentalism: Defining the Japanese Self (author, SUNY Press 2011), Representing the Other in Modern Japanese Literature (co-editor, Routledge 2007) and Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan (editor, Routledge 2013). She has published essays in Japan Forum, Japanese Studies, Monumenta Nipponica and Games and Culture, and is currently working on an edited volume on the Japanese role-playing game (JRPG).
This lecture is co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh national coordinating site for the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA).
**Teachers wishing to receive Act 48 credit or certificate of completion (for teachers outside of PA) and the book for this lecture should enter their full mailing address at registration.**
The Japanese art of flower arrangement has its origins in the formal offering arrangements used in the altars of Buddhist temples, but became more prominent in daily life with the development of the architectural feature tokonoma, or alcove. Join us for a presentation on the relationship of ikebana to the practice of tea as well as to daily life from the 1600s to today. We will look at how ikebana was part of an expansion of artisan products and landscape design in the last four centuries, and how that has carried through to today’s use of flower arrangements in Japan. Some attention will also be given to the balance between control and lack of control in ikebana, for much like the art of landscape design, there is a interaction between the designer and the natural features of the plants and environment in these types of arts.
Dr. Jordan is the Director of the University of Pittsburgh national coordinating site for the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA) and the Japan Studies Coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas specializing in 19th Century Japanese art history. Dr. Jordan specializes in the history of Japanese art, particularly the paintings and woodblock prints of the 19th century.
TEL: 412-856-8608 E-MAIL: jasp@us-japan.orgAddress: 2735 Mosside Blvd, Suite 402 Monroeville, PA 15146
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