Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2026

After the last two years’ success of the Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures symposium, we are very excited to announce the third edition! Join us in the Fall for another few days of exciting research presentations. ☺️

📩 Link will be sent to registered attendees (check your spam folder!)

The symposium will be held online in order to accommodate participants in different time zones. This year again, we invited scholars, researchers, activists, and practitioners from around the world to participate in a multidisciplinary two-day exploration of the intersection between Japanese popular cultures and intersectional, trans-inclusive feminist studies. During this symposium, we will explore the convergence of gender, sexuality, race, queerness, disability and class. We aim to provide a platform for critical discussions about gender and Japanese animation, fashion, video games, literature and digital cultures. In doing so we hope to encourage new directions in feminist approaches to Japanese popular cultures and foster community among researchers from marginalized communities. 

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Schedule
(JST in purple, EDT in blue) 

Tues, September 15 - 8:45 AM JST

Monday, September 14 - 7:45 PM EDT

Welcome notes and housekeeping!

Tues, September 15 - 9:00 AM JST

Monday, September 14 - 8:00 PM EDT

Introductory session

Megan Catherine Rose and Aurélie Petit "Co-organizers address: Roadmapping the future of our field"

Tues, September 15 - 9:30 AM JST

Monday, September 14 - 8:30 PM EDT

Session 1

Kelly Li (University of Sydney) "Femininity and Masochistic Play in the “Bad” Endings of Otome Games"

Ashley Remminga and Liz Wong (University of Tasmania and University of Sydney) "Reincarnated As Another Sex: Exploring Trans-position Stories Through A Gender Diverse Lens"

Debra Occhi and Pratama Wirya Atmaja (Miyazaki International College and University of Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Jawa Timur) "Aesthetics, politics, and healing at the interface of humans and Asian mascot characters"

Tues, September 15 - 10:30 AM JST

Tues, September 15 - 9:30 PM EDT

Session 2

Michael Oseña (Independent scholar) "Beyond Yaoi Dungeon: Filipino Queer Readership of Japanese Boys’ Love Manga"

Leo Niel Jasper Sese (University of the Philippines Diliman) "Shounen and Dresses: Negotiating Masculinities and Femininities in Japanese Male Idol Culture"

Tues, September 15 - 11:15 AM JST

Tues, September 15 - 10:15 PM EDT

Workshop: "Allyship in Action: Responding to Sexual Harm" by Megan Catherine Rose (University of Tokyo)

Rescheduled for a later date

Tues, September 15 - 1:00 PM JST

Tues, September 15 - 12:00 AM EDT

Session 3

Koyel Manna (Independent scholar) "How We Hold Each Other: Alternative Intimacies and Asexual Resonances in Studio Ghibli"

Ananya Saha (Birla Institute of Technology) "Queering Ageing Feminine Selfhood: Companionship and Desire in Contemporary Geronto Manga"

Tues, September 15 - 1:45 PM JST

Tues, September 15 - 12:45 AM EDT

Fireside chat 1

Nemo Martin (Chuo University) Fireside chat moderated by Megan Catherine Rose

Tues, September 15 - 3:00 PM JST

Tues, September 15 - 2:00 AM EDT
Roundtable: "Women’s Voices from Akihabara and Harajuku" with Rai Kanada on Sakura Wars, and Haruka Kurebayashi and Rey Saionji on the Global Kawaii Association. Moderated by Megan Catherine Rose

Session is in Japanese with English interpretation

Tues, September 15 - 4:00 PM JST

Tues, September 15 - 3:00 AM EDT

Session 4

Baoying Wang (Renmin University of China) "The Moralization of Love: Biopolitical Labor from Female Fans of Japanese boy band in Mainland China"

Shirley / Yuqin Zhang (University of Manchester) "How love travels: the shared AI models among Japanese and Chinese girls"

Tues, September 15 - 5:00 PM JST

Tues, September 15 - 4:00 AM EDT

Session 5

Matthew Cooper (University of Leeds) "Dysphoria as Horror: Fragmentation and Alienation in Homunculus and To Strip the Flesh"

Lila Yang (City University of Hong Kong) "From Adult Content to Ideal Love: Japanese Lesbian Creators across Chinese Women-Centered Fan and Queer Online Spaces"

Tianyi Han (University of Strathclyde) "Queer Legibility in Motion: Transnational Mobility and a Chinese Lala in Japan"

Tues, September 15 - 10:00 PM JST

Tues, September 15 - 9:00 AM EDT

Session 6

Davy R. Howard (Independent scholar) "Nintendo Gayy Boys: Queer Masculinities and Emulating Nostalgia in Small Town Emo"

Serafina Paladino (University of California) "“Witness my True Ultimate Form!” Reading Queer-coded and Trans-coded Villains in Dragon Ball Z"

Elizabeth Hanisch (University of the Arts Berlin) "To(o) Cute to(o) Work: How Cuteness Mediates Adult Fatigue in Anti-Work Memes"

Wed, September 16 - 8:00 AM JST

Tues, September 15 - 7:00 PM EDT

Session 7

Andrew Campana (Cornell University) "“Abnormal Stacks by a Normal Housewife”: Miyashita Yukiko’s HyperCard Philosophy in 1990s Japan"

Kae Tran (Independent scholar) "In the End, It’s Not So Easy to Leave the Life: Layered Identities and Popular Practices in Japanese Fujoshi Spaces" 

Wed, September 16 - 8:45 AM JST

Tues, September 15 - 7:45 PM EDT

Fireside chat 2

Colleen's Manga Recs (Content creator) Fireside chat moderated by Aurélie Petit

Wed, September 16 - 9:45 AM JST

Tues, September 15 - 8:45 PM EDT

Lecture

Aurélie Petit (INRS Montreal) "Do female anime exist?" moderated by Kimberly Hassel (Duke University)

Wed, September 16 - 3:00 PM JST

Wed, September 16 - 2:00 AM EDT

Session 8

Ghaida Farisya (Universitas Garut) "Standard Kawaii Japanese Style: The Construction of Masculinity and the Disciplining of the Girls Body in JKT48 (An Autoethnographic Approach)"

Jiayu Wu (Independent scholar) "Beyond Desire: Host Club Culture, Female Consumption, and Neoliberal Subjectivity in Kabukichō"

Krishnendu R and Dr. Chinmay (University of Kerala and University of Kerala) "Visualising Queer Distress: Mental Health and Self-Representation in Contemporary Autobiographical Manga"

Azuka Ozumi (University of Torino) "Incomplete Women: Cisgender Authorship and the Tragic MtoF Narrative in Contemporary Japanese Media"

Thurs, September 17 - 7:00 AM JST

Wed, September 16 - 6:00 PM EDT

Session 9

Green Yuri Panel by Audrey Leonard (Universitas Indonesia), Ashley Remminga (University of Tasmania) and Erica L. Friedman (Yuricon) moderated by Megan Catherine Rose

Thurs, September 17 - 8:00 AM JST

Wed, September 16 - 7:00 PM EDT

Session 10

Aline Gomes de Albuquerque Correia (Universidade Estadual da Paraíba) "For Girls Only: A Case Study on the Representation of Female Otaku in the Manga Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi o Suru, Genshiken, Wotakoi, and Witch Watch"
Megan Catherine Rose (University of Tokyo) "Femme Possibilities: Lesbian Feminism, Otaku Culture, and Tokyo’s Nichōme, Akihabara, and Harajuku"

Thurs, September 17 - 8:45 AM JST

Wed, September 16 - 7:45 PM EDT

Workshop: "Femmefriends: Exploring Femmephobia" by Megan Catherine Rose

Thurs, September 17 - 9:30 AM JST

Wed, September 16 - 8:30 PM EDT

Session 11

Panel: “The Social and Emotional Impact of Anime: Research from the AWE+ (Anime Wellbeing Empathy and More) Network"

Brendan Ozawa-de Silva (Emory University), Chikako Ozawa-de Silva (Emory University), Yolanda Li (University of Chicago), Sahej Sandhu (Emory University), Julian Pimienta (Nagoya University)

Thurs, September 17 - 10:30 AM JST

Wed, September 16 - 9:30 PM EDT

Fireside chat 3

Rica Takashima Fireside chat moderated by Emerald King (University of Tasmania)
Session is in Japanese with English interpretation

Thurs, September 17 - 12:00 PM JST

Wed, September 16 - 11:00 PM EDT

Session 12

Lena Paulsen (University of Minnesota) "Shōjo Epistemologies: Gender, Sexuality, and Health in Early Twentieth Century Japanese Girls’ Culture"

Heidi Lee (Sophia University) "Defamiliarizing the Familiar: Female Representation and Character Identification in Japanese Science-Fiction Series of the 21st Century"

Kae Cho (Kobe University) "The Direction of Repetition: Medium-Specific Conditions and the Queer Body of Oscar in The Rose of Versailles"

Thurs, September 17 - 9:00 PM JST

Thurs, September 17 - 8:00 AM EDT

Session 13

Jingyuan Li (Duke University) "Reproduction After the Family: Reproductive Futurism and the Politics of “Normality” in Murata Sayaka’s Vanishing World"

María Camila Neira (Ritsumeikan University) "Beyond Tropes: Fan-made BL, Participatory Audiences and Queer Desire on「BLサンドいかがですか?」 (Would You Like a BL Sandwich?)"

Yan Lang (McGill University) "Heated Rivalry in Queer Times: Homonationalism and Fannish Politics of Utopia in Global BL Fandom"

Weifeng Tao (University of Oxford) "From Sanciyuan to Erciyuan: Fictosexuality, Female Agency and Queer Intimacy in Chinese ACGN Culture"

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We look forward to your participation in our symposium!

Symposium team (contact us at  popculturesjapan (at) gmail (dot) com)

Aurélie Petit
INRS Montreal, Canada

Megan Catherine Rose

This event is supported by the Media, Gender and Sexualities Group, University of Tokyo, Japan and Critical Asian and Middle Eastern Humanities (CAMEH) and the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Duke University, US.