Japan is experiencing a growing influx of international migrants. These individuals establish new social connections in both their private and professional lives, which often involves learning Japanese. However, Japanese is just one resource within a broader, multilingual repertoire. This presentation explores the lived experiences of multilingual individuals in Japan, focusing on two spheres that typically require distinct sets of communicative competences: romantic relationships and workplaces. Drawing on data from narrative interviews, our speaker will demonstrate how multilinguals rationalize their interactional partners’ behavior and attribute intentional states to them to make sense of their experiences and their implications for perceptions of language competence. He will argue that competence should be understood as an intersubjective capability that emerges in interactions between individuals, across time and spaces, and institutional contexts, all while being intertwined with emotional expressions. Details and registration here

Die Jause geht weiter! In Frankreich ist das café philosophique eine Veranstaltung zum Philosophieren, an der jede Person teilnehmen kann. Auch in Japan gibt es bereits ähnliche Programme auf dem Land. The University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP) und das Deutsche Institut für Japanstudien (DIJ) organisieren nun gemeinsam ein philosophisches Café auch in Tokyo, allerdings mit einer kleinen Besonderheit: Wir möchten deutschsprachigen Personen die Möglichkeit des Austauschs bieten und daher das Café auf Deutsch abhalten. Das Organisationsteam (Yukiko Kuwayama, UTCP und Sebastian Polak-Rottmann, DIJ) freut sich, Sie einzuladen, gemeinsam in entspannter Atmosphäre über ein Thema zu diskutieren. Fachliche Vorkenntnisse benötigen Sie nicht. Das Diskussionsthema entscheiden wir gemeinsam vor Ort. Bei Interesse melden Sie sich bitte bis zum 28. März an. Weitere Informationen hier

Today, digital networks provide us with an abundance of information. We invest more than ever in education and science. Despite these achievements our mental, socio-economic and political conditions have not improved. They seem to be even deteriorating. Why? What is going wrong? What can we do better? What can the first information revolution 600 years ago teach us? Two leading Japanese scholars in the field of media and AI governance will discuss these questions with Yuval Noah Harari, the world-famous thinker and best-selling author, who explores the risks and opportunities of the information age in his new book Nexus. The event will be held in English with Japanese interpretation, admission is free. It is co-organised by the DIJ, Tokyo College, and Kawade Shobo Shinsha on the occasion of the publication of the Japanese version of Yuval Noah Harari’s book Nexus. Please note that this event is fully booked. Details here