各位
AJJは日本研究を専攻とする在日人類学者、民俗学者、民族学者を中心とするグルー
プです。１９９８年に発足し、年一回研究発表会を開催してきました。昨年までは在
日外国人が大半でしたが、日本人の人類学者、民俗学者、民族学者との交流を強めた
いという切なる要望により、今年は日本人にも広く呼びかけることになりました。今
年は国立民族学博物館で、五月十ニー十三日に民博と共催で行うことになりました。
日本研究に関する研究発表であれば、特にテーマの限定はありません。発表用語は英
語といたします。その他の詳細につきましては、下記案内をご覧ください。（この案
内が重複することがあるかもしれませんが悪しからず。）

Anthropology of Japan in Japan (AJJ)

Now in association with the National Museum of Ethnology
We will have our annual meeting this year on May 12th and 13th in Osaka atthe Minpaku

Membership: About 80 anthropologists and those in related disciplines whowork and live in Japan.
Purpose: To provide an English-language forum to share original research
and work in progress in a small and intimate setting with those most
familiar with our ethnographic context: contemporary Japan.

Overview To Date:
With the leadership of Befu Harumi, the AJJ began in 1998 with our
first meeting at Bunkyo Daigaku in Kyoto. (A conference volume came out ofthat year entitled Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan,ed by Harumi Befu, Jerry Eades and Tom Gill, Trans Pacific Press, 2000) Oursecond annual meeting in 1999 was at Sophia University in Tokyo and last year's meeting was at Minnosota State University in Akita.
During the past three years, it seems that the general consensus is
both that there is a need for a group such as AJJ and that we are
fulfilling that need. We have had many good papers on a wide range of
topics. There is no other group of our size or scope that functions as a
forum to present findings and arguments in English. For those who are not
part of a kenkyukai or for those who also want to present to a more
international audience, we have done well.
Still, we have tended to be a group of foreigners working on Japan,
both in the papers presented and the over-all attendance. That is, there
have not been many Japanese anthropologists at our meetings. We would like to change that. To that end, we introduce the AJJ Network.

New Directions: AJJ Network
A network bringing foreign and Japanese anthropologists working on Japan
together.

The Need:
Most scholars work within their national tradition. This has good
and bad aspects, but is often professionally and practically unavoidable.
Still, what AJJ Network can do is enable us to go beyond those national
boundaries.
Many Japanese and foreigners living in Japan go to international
conferences to present papers. Although it is lots of fun, it is costly and
time consuming. (That kojin kenkyuhi disappears fast.) We hope that the AJJ Network could be a local version of this idea, bringing anthropologists andthose in related disciplines together. Actually, AJJ Network could be better because since we are all in Japan, we have the chance to develop relationships and friendships and get to know each othersユ work in more depth. This is something that a weekend in the basement of some Hyatt hotelin Chicago or Frankfurt listening to 15-minute papers does not allow us to do.

Immediate Goals:
The network is designed to facilitated scholarly contact between
Japanese and foreign anthropologists who are working on Japan in Japan. Our purpose will still be to provide a forum to share original research and
work in progress in a small and intimate setting with those most familiar
with our ethnographic context. We will also keep our language of use
English.

Scholarly Benefits:
The advantages for both sides, although often ignored, are quite
substantial. First, having more people more closely associated with your
work improves research (even for the bunch of loners that many
anthropologists often are). Second, we each increase the exposure of our
writing to new audiences; increase potential funding sources; gain access
to different data sources; and benefit from complimentary approaches.

Long-term Goals:
Act locally -- think globally. Developing contacts with each other
also opens the way the institutional contacts in the future. If we need to
organize future conferences, find some place to spend our sabbatical or
some shorter research trip, help our graduate students with research or a
job, or even find a new job for ourselves one day, this international
network of people you know personally can help greatly.
Also, now is the age of "globalization" and it seems that both funding
agencies and publishers are keen to have multi-national volumes as well as true comparative research.
What we would like to do is to introduce scholars who are working
on related topics. We would imagine that these could lead to the
development of new kenkyukai, joint-research projects, or even
trans-national comparative research. (As you can see, we are thinking
long-term.) At least, it should lead to shared thoughts over a cup of
coffee and maybe an exchange of meishi and articles.

2001 Annual Meetings
We will have our annual meeting this year on May 12th and 13th
(from 12:00) in Osaka at the National Museum of Ethnology. Minpaku is the
foremost scholarly and research institute in Japan for anthropological
studies. (For more information on Minpaku, please see their web site,
including directions on how to get there and a list of hotels in the area
(http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/english/index.htm) We have been lucky enough to secure an invitation through Harumi Befu to hold our meetings in their
beautiful complex. We are inviting some of their scholar and graduate
students to give talks and looking forward to having a chance to meet
informally with them.

Format:
Since this is our first year under the new management, we will be
somewhat informal and flexible as we look for a format that will best suit our purposes. We invite paper submissions from any and all. Ethnographic work in progress is encouraged if it has generated at least some preliminary findings. More theoretical work is equally welcome. We will accept as many papers as we have time and space.
The organizers (Harumi Befu, John Clammer, Brian McVeigh and David
Slater) will put the papers into panels. Panels will be loose so as to
allow for the inclusion of a wide range of papers. Unless we get a huge
number of abstracts, we wonユt concurrent sessions. All papers and
abstracts should be in English.

Abstracts Submission:
If you would like to present a paper, please email Brian McVeigh an
abstract of no more than 200 words by at bmcveigh@gol.com. Please send as soon as possible so we can get the panels in shape.

Participation:
There will be a fee of Y5,000 for all participants. (Also, you will
be expected to pay your own travel, hotel and food expenses). If you would
like to attend, please contact Brian, again, as soon as possible by email.