Ongoing activities of the Japan Chapter include:

• Planning symposia in Japan for academic exchange between Japan-based members of BAJS and the wider academic community in Japan.
• Sharing advise and points of contact for doctoral and early-career fieldwork in Japan.
• Offering financial support to graduate students and early career scholars who wish to attend BAJS and BAJS-sponsored events in Japan.

From 2023 onward, the chapter is also considering:

• Hosting online writing workshops to present works-in-progress, undertake discussion, and to exchange conceptual feedback and comments on draft writing.

Activities are open to all members of BAJS, with announcements made through the main BAJS mailing list.

The BAJS Japan Chapter was founded by Phillip Seaton (Director 2009-2019), and was later directed by Robert Aspinall (2019-2022). More information can be found in Robert’s BAJS Podcast. The current director Sam Bamkin can be contacted at sbamkin2 [-at-] gmail [-dot-] com.

(Planning for events is underway).

• Online conference based in Fukuoka (Kyushu University):Contesting Memorial Spaces in the Asia Pacific November 6 and 7, 2020 – online event. There were eight panels examining the temporality and territoriality of memory, explorations of official and marginalized memorials, new spaces of mnemonic performance, and national and transnational memorial networks. There were also two plenary roundtables, discussing tangible and intangible heritage practices, and the affective power of territorial disputes.
• Online conference based in Fukuoka (Kyushu University): “Heritage, conflicted sites and bordered memories in Asia” Part 2: “Contesting and Memorializing Sites of Heritage” July 31 2020. (Karii Shimizu, Hokkaido University; Edward Boyle, Kyushu University: Jason Mark Alexander, Kyushu University; Kaori Yoshida and Huong Bui , Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University; Dasom Lee, Independent Scholar; Julia Gerster and Flavia Fulco, Tohoku University).
• Online conference based in Fukuoka (Kyushu University): “Heritage, conflicted sites and bordered memories in Asia” Part 1: “Materials and Modes for Narrating the Past” July 18, 2020. ( Ying-Kit Chan, Leiden University; Joshua Lee Solomon, Hirosaki University; Arisha Satari, Kyushu University; Raluca Mateoc, University of Geneva; Gabriel Gee, Franklin University Lugano; Justin Aukema, Kyoto Women’s University).
• Mini-Conference in Chiba (Chiba University): “Critique of/in Japanese Studies: New challenges and new approaches“, 27th-28th May 2017.
• Mini-Conference in Fukuoka (Kyushu University): “Borders of memory: national commemoration in East Asia“, 17th-18th December 2016.
• Mini-Conference in Sapporo (Hokkaido University): “Civil Society, Tourism, Anthropology“, 29-31 July 2016.
• Symposium in Nagoya (Aichi Prefectural University): “Health and Well-Being in Contemporary Japan”, 31 October 2015. (Eugene Ryan, Toyohashi University of Technology; Nicolas Tajan, Kyoto University; Emma E. Cook, Hokkaido University; Miho Ushiyama, Waseda University).
• Symposium in Osaka (Osaka City University): “British Media Images of Japan Seventy Years After World War II”, 30 May 2015. (David McNeill, The Independent, The Economist, The Irish Times; Justin McCurry, The Guardian; Eric Johnston, The Japan Times; Garren Mulloy, Daito Bunka University; Aleksandra Jaworowicz-Zimny, Hokkaido University; Philip Seaton, Hokkaido University).
• Symposium in Tokyo (University of Tokyo) “Symposium on Postdoctoral Career Development in Japanese Studies and Undergraduate Education in English at Japanese Universities”, 1-2 November 2014. Eight papers and three roundtables.
• Symposium in Hikone (Shiga University) “Symposium on Risk, Society and Politics in Contemporary Japan” and PhD Workshop “Building an Academic Career in Japan”, 24-5 May 2014. (William Bradley, Ryukoku University; Mayumi Ishikawa, Osaka University; Scott North, Osaka University; Tom Gill, Meiji Gakuin University; keynote speech Koichi Nakano, Sophia University).
• Symposium in Akita (Akita University and Akita International University) “Sustainability and Revitalization in Rural Areas of Japan”, 2-3 November 2013. (Anthony Rausch, Hirosaki University; Donald C. Wood, Akita University; Adrian Favell, Science Po Paris; Sebastian Boret, Tohoku University; Peter Ackermann, University of Erlangen; Susanne Klien, Hokkaido University; Peter Matanle, University of Sheffield).
• Symposium in Kyoto (Kyoto University) “Reflections on Politics, Law and Human Rights in Contemporary Japan”, 18 May 2013. (Ian Neary, Oxford University; Mari Miura, Sophia University; Koichi Nakano, Sophia University; Mark Fenwick, Kyushu University; Colin Jones, Doshisha University).
• Mini-Conference in Sapporo (Hokkaido University), 3-4 November 2012. Keynote Session, ‘Exploring Risk in Post-3/11 Japan’ (Chair – Jun Kaneyama; Speakers – Andrew DeWit, Hiroko Takeda & Piers Williamson; Discussant – Jiro Yamaguchi). Session co-hosted by the Research Faculty of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University. The conference included 15 other papers.
• Meeting in Kyoto (Ritsumeikan University) “Rethinking Cool Japan”, 19 May 2012. (Stephanie Assmann, Akita University; Philip Seaton, Hokkaido University; Takeshi Okamoto, Kyoto Bunkyo University; Akiko Sugawa, Kansai Gaidai University).
• Mini-Conference in Sapporo (Hokkaido University), 28-9 May 2011.
• Meeting in Kyoto (Doshisha University), November 2010. Session 1: Bakumatsu/Early Meiji (Ian Ruxton, Kyushu Institute of Technology; Eleanor Robinson, Osaka University; John Breen, International Research Centre for Japanese Studies); Session 2: Professional Development Session (Peter Matanle, Sheffield University; Greg Hadley, Niigata University of International and Information Studies).
• Meeting in Tokyo (University of Tokyo), May 2010. Theme: The First Year of the Hatoyama Administration: When “Change” Came to Japan? (Takamichi Mito, Kwansei Gakuin University; Andrew Staples, Doshisha University; Garren Mulloy, Daito Bunka University).
• Symposium in Kyoto (Kyoto Koka Women’s University), 7 November 2009. Theme: “Japanese Universities and the Globalization of Higher Education” (Takamichi Mito, Waseda University; Carolyn Wright, Kyoto Koka Women’s University; Harumi Takiguchi, Hokkaido University; Philip Seaton, Hokkaido University).
• Inaugural Work in Progress Seminar in Tokyo (Waseda University), 21 February 2009. Theme: “Remembering a Gendered Nation at War” (Beverley Yamamoto, Osaka University).

The Anthopologists of Japan in Japan (AJJ) annual conference, Kyoto University, 3rd-4th December 2022. Three awards of 25,000JPY each to support in-country travel and accommodation for doctoral students and early career scholars.