Several DIJ researchers and alumni will participate in this year’s annual conference of the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF) from November 18-20, 2022. On the 19th, Nora Kottmann will present her paper (Not) Alone: Being Single in a Marriage Centric ‘Hyper-Solo-Society’ in the panel on “Changing private Life”. In the Sociology section, Barbara Holthus will give a presentation on Furry Friends in Covid Japan. DIJ alumnus Felix Spremberg (Tübingen) will present a paper on Recent Changes in Japan’s Digitalization Policy in the same section. DIJ alumni Axel Klein (Populism and Japan) and Steffen Heinrich (Privatisation without growth: A unique challenge for Japanese welfare state reform?) will give presentations in the Politics section. The section meetings on Economics, History, Politics, Sociology, and Technology are (co-)convened by DIJ researchers and alumni. The theme of the 2022 annual conference is “Deviance and Norms in Times of Change in Japan”. It is organised by DIJ advisory board member David Chiavacci (University Zurich) and DIJ alumna Gabriele Vogt (LMU Munich). The complete programme is available online (conference and sections’ meetings).