A report of the 77th Annual Conference of the JARS
By The International Connection Committee
JARS held its 77th annual conference at University of Otani in Kyoto from September 7-9, 2018. A total of 683 people, including 132 non-member participants, attended. We owe the success of the conference to our conference organizers, and above all, to chief organization, Professor Yasushi Kigoshi.
The theme of this year’s opening symposium was “Homo sapiens and Religion.” Professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa (Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study) made a public lecture entitled “The Evolution of the Mind that Mourns for the Dead: Behavior of a Mother Chimpanzee towards Her Dead Infant,” and Prof. Kiyokazu Washida (Kyoto City University of Arts / Otani University) made a public lecture entitled “Belief, Credit, Trust,” followed by a comment by Prof. Ken Kadowaki (Otani University) entitled “Death as a Part of Life.” Many participants attended them and enjoyed the presentations and discussion.
The Conference organizers want to express their gratitude to the member for their kind collaboration.
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Public Symposium
Homo sapiens and Religion
Tetsuro Matsuzawa (Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study), The Evolution of the Mind that Mourns for the Dead: Behavior of a Mother Chimpanzee towards Her Dead Infant
Kiyokazu Washida (Kyoto City University of Arts / Otani University), Belief, Credit, Trust
Ken Kadowaki (Otani University), Death as a Part of Life
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The regular program consists of 21 panels and 233 individual papers, which were organized into 14 parallel sessions.
Special Session Title and Convener
Rethinking “the Religious” in Secularized Societies (Kiyonobu Date)
Panel Titles and Conveners
Advancement of Religious Studies and the Role of Academic Societies and Federations: Dialogue with the Science Council of Japan (Satoko Fujiwara)
Social Contributions of Japanese Buddhism and Buddhist Studies in the 21st Century (Masahiro Shimoda)
Perspectives of Izutsu’s “Oriental Philosophy” and Religious Studies (Yoshitsugu Sawai)
Research on Communities and Temples in an Era of a Declining Population (Yasushi Kigoshi)
The Current State of and Prospects for Shinshū Temple: Data from the Shūsei Basic Survey Conducted by Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha (Hidekazu Yoshida)
Modern Buddhist Thought and Japanism: Shinran, Zen, and Nichiren (Tatsunori Niwa)
Methodology for the Transformation of Body & Mind and Spiritual Violence: A Study of Negative Feelings Processing (Tōji Kamata)
Studying Inoue Enryō: A Hundred Years after His Death (Daisuke Iseki)
East-West Flows of Japanese Buddhism: New Findings from Collaborative Research on D. T. Suzuki’s Transnational Networks (Tomoe Moriya)
Transformation of “the Religious” in the Contemporary World: Case Studies on Japan and China (Chiyoko Nagatani)
Transnational History of the Religious Peace Movement in Postwar Japan (Eiichi Ōtani)
Technological Society and Religion: On the Religious Significance of the Social Implementation of Artificial Intelligence (Takeshi Kimura)
Common Religiosity and Degrees of Religion among Eight Countries (Akira Kawabata)
Research Materialization of Nishida Kitarō’s Unpublished Notes: Focusing on the “Lecture on Religious Studies” (Hiroshi Asami)
Study Report of Religious Education and Training at Universities in Japan (Naotoshi Ejima)
Religious Persons’ Care and Caregivers’ Religiosity: Findings from Researches in Kawasaki City (Norichika Horie)
Re-narrating the History of Religions through the Study of Calendars (Makoto Hayashi)
Buddhism and Modern Asia: Sect, Education, and Knowledge (Yansheng He)
Christian Martyrdom and Historical Memory (Carla Tronu)
Action Research of Regional Disaster Prevention with Religious Facilities as Regional Resources (Keishin Inaba)