We are pleased to invite you to the next Japanese Studies seminar.
Mr. Daisuke Nakayama (First Secretary at the Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands) will open the research seminar with a brief address.
Dr. Nanako Ota (Nichibunken, Kyoto) and Dr. Marek Jancovic (VU Amsterdam) will present their research, followed by informal Q&A/discussion and a borrel/drinks reception (see details below).
Dr. Nanako Ota will present on:
"Voyaging Voices: Tracing Japanese Historical Sound Recordings through Multi-Archival Research"
Japanese Studies has developed alongside the global expansion of Japanese popular culture and now appears to be at a point where new directions are needed. This presentation explores what forms of Japanese Studies are both necessary and feasible in today’s challenging context, using radio as a case study—a medium that has shaped Japanese popular culture over the past century since its birth in 1925. The presenter’s research focuses on identifying and analyzing largely overlooked materials on or related to Japanese broadcasting held overseas, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and The Netherlands. By gathering these dispersed voices and situating the Japanese case within broader global trends, the study seeks to illuminate a new trajectory of Japan’s radio history, as well as its place and significance within the wider history of global popular culture.
Dr. Marek Jancovic will present on:
"Digital Methods, Analog Media: The Local Challenges of LLM-Assisted Historical Research on the Example of the Japanese Photochemical Film Industry"
The massive recent advances in large language models represent a generational leap for historical research, particularly in areas such as text recognition, document retrieval and structured data extraction. The latest LLMs vastly outperform prior computational techniques in accuracy - yet there are also interesting regional blind spots in which the technology fails. Historical Japanese sources present a particularly difficult context for document digitization.
Utilizing the corporate histories of the Japanese photochemical industry - companies such as Fujifilm, Konica, and Daicel - this presentation will historicize Japan's position in the global history of cinema and photography from a material and environmental perspective and, in parallel, examine some of the characteristics that make Japanese historical records uniquely challenging to study with emerging LLM-assisted digital methods.
This event is part of a series organized by Dr. Carolyn Birdsall and Bruno Luberti (University of Amsterdam), co-hosted by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in collaboration with the International Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken).
Everyone is most welcome! The event is open to all staff, researchers, students, PhD candidates, and everyone interested. Sign up here.