First announced at the end of 2023, and running successfully in April of last year, the online symposium Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures represents a major and exciting new stage in the development of Japanese popular culture studies as a vibrant academic field. The 2024 program brought together speakers from academic institutions in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Australia, UK, and several EU countries – and the event was free and open to all interested participants. Following up on the successful first year, this past February, its organizers launched the Call for Papers for the 2025 Symposium, and now, are able to present this year’s program!
The Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2025 will run from Monday, May 19 to Wednesday, May 21. It will be held primarily online, with details for one public lecture to be announced. The program is set to feature keynote addresses and public lectures from some of the leading scholars currently working in the field, as well as up to 20 individual presentations – once again representing a truly wide range of global approaches, methodologies, and viewpoints, addressing anime and manga (as well as anime/manga fan cultures), video games, uses of and interactions with social media, and popular culture more broadly. The Symposium is FREE, but registration is required. Before the Symposium starts, you will receive a link to view the actual speeches and presentations.
You can direct any questions about the Symposium to the organizers at popculturesjapan (at) gmail (dot) com. Support for the Symposium is provided by the Media, Gender, and Sexualities Group (University of Tokyo) and the Platform Lab (Concordia University).
And for my part, I would like to thank the organizers of the Symposium for their dedication and hard work, and wish them and every one of the participants in this year’s event the best of luck!
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Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2025
Monday, May 19
9:00 p.m. (EDT) / Tuesday, May 20 – 10:00 a.m. (JST)
Panel Session: Mediating Gender
Chair: Megan Catherine Rose (UNSW Sydney)
- Romantic Archetypes and the Ideology of Love in Otome Games
Kelly Li (University of Sydney)
- Kawaii as Contradiction: Gender Performativity and Embodied Resistance in Odottemita Dance Culture
Zhaoyang Yang (University of Tokyo)
- Afro/Japanese Placemaking: An Inquiry into Black Women’s Intimacies with Anime Characters
Sarah-Anne Gresham (Rutgers University)
Tuesday, May 20
7:00 a.m. (EDT) / 8:00 p.m. (JST)
Keynote Address
Michelle Ho
Assistant Professor, Feminist and Queer Cultural Studies, National University of Singapore
Author of Emergent Genders: Living Otherwise in Tokyo’s Pink Economies (Duke U. Press, 2025)
Chair: Megan Catherine Rose (UNSW Sydney, University of Tokyo)
8:15 a.m (EDT) / 9:15 p.m. (JST)
Panel: Revolutionary Genders
Chair: Aurélie Petit (Concordia University)
- Amuro, I’m About to Do Something Extremely Wicked:” Queer Subtext and Queer Text in the Gundam Franchise
River Seager (Independent scholar)
- “Catboy Churches and Pre-Obliterated Twinks:” Early-2000s Yaoi Aesthetics as Tools for Cultural Disruption in the Digital-native Fiction of Porpentine Charity Heartscape and Blake Planty
Eve McLachlan (University of Dundee)
- “I Am Human:” Trans, Disabled and Feminist Criticism of Shonen Hegemonic Masculine Representation and its Limitations in Dororo
Bleuenn Gacel (Linköping University)
5:00 p.m. (EDT) / Wednesday, May 21 – 6:00 a.m. (JST)
Panel: Rebellion, Politics and (Un)rest
Chair: Aurélie Petit (Concordia University)
- The Hikikomori Heroine: Bed Rotting Under Kawaii Quarantine
Elya Myers (Concordia University)
- Rebelling Within Constraints: Gender, Sexuality, and Developer Discourse in Persona 5
Lilia Yan (Duke University)
- Playing Queerly Under Capitalism in Jet Set Radio Future
Serafina Paladino (University of California, Riverside)
6:00 p.m. (EDT) / Wednesday, May 21 – 7:00 a.m. (JST)
Keynote Address
Kimberly Hassel
Assistant Professor in Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Chair: Aurélie Petit (Concordia University)
8:00 p.m. (EDT) / Wednesday, May 21 – 9:00 p.m. JST
Panel: LGBTQ Representation & Regulation
Chair: Megan Catherine Rose (UNSW Sydney)
- Unapologetically Rezubian: Lesbian Identities in Contemporary Yuri Manga
Roy Yan (University of British Columbia)
- Women just like…? Exploring Female Bisexuality Through Images and Self-representations in Japanese Social Media and Pop Culture
María Camila Neira (Ritsumeikan University)
- ‘Kakei-san, You Don’t Come Off as Gay at All – Whether it’s Your Looks, the Way You Talk, or Your Whole Personality’: A Critical Analysis of Actor Persona and Gender Representation in What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Kinō Nani Tabeta?)
Yuuki Namba (Ritsumeikan University)
- Obscene Australia: Australia’s Regulation on Explicit and Erotic Material
Ashley Remminga (University of Tasmania)
9:00 p.m. (EDT) / Wednesday, May 21 – 10:00 p.m. (JST)
Panel: Trans and Genderqueer
Chair: Ashley Remminga (University of Tasmania)
- Girlish Transformations: Transfeminine Crossings in Manga and Anime Sapphic English-Speaking Fandoms
Megan Catherine Rose (UNSW Sydney) and Patrick Galbraith (Senshū University)
- “Guys Can be Cute Girls as Well!”: Investigating Gender Exploration and Empowerment Amongst VTuber Live Streamers
Zoe Li (University of Sydney)
- From Mistranslation to Canonizing Queer Anime: The Case of Gender Bending Characters from the Filipino-Dubbed Anime Ghost Fighter
John Paolo Sarce (Polytechnic University of the Philippines)
Wednesday, May 21
2:30 a.m. – 4:00 a.m. (EDT) / 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. (JST)
Public Lecture – Hyperfeminine Harajuku: Queer KAWAII Practices
Megan Catherine Rose (UNSW Sydney)
7:00 a.m. (EDT) / 8:00 p.m. (JST)
Keynote Address
Akiko Sugawa-Shimada
Professor, Urban Innovation, Yokohama National University)
Chair: Emerald King (University of Tasmania)
8:00 a.m. (EDT) / 9:00 p.m. (JST)
Panel: Women and Media
Chair: Aurélie Petit (Concordia University)
- Silence of Periods: Representation of Menstruation in Japanese Anime and Manga and the Reinforcement of Menstrual Normativity
Moon Taha Teen Nikita (BRAC University of Bangladesh)
- Netflix Streaming of Gendered Anime: A Content Analysis of the Recommendation Process in Netflix India
Khushboo Bansal (University of Delhi)
- Motherhood in Torikai Akane’s Works: A Feminist Perspective
Asuka Ozumi (Università degli Studi di Torino)
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