The Department of Japanese Studies of the Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures has won a competition to organize the next edition of the EAJS international conference, which will be held at the end of August 2026. EAJS or the European Association for Japanese Studies is the world's largest organization bringing together specialists of various disciplines, most often from the humanities and social sciences, engaged in the study of Japan and its relations with other countries.
Thanks to the Association's great activity and popularity (and despite its name), its members include not only researchers from Europe but also North America and Asia, including Japan itself. The group of Japanese researchers at the conferences usually numbers several hundred.
The EAJS conference has been held every three years since 1973 in various cities in Europe and additionally since 2013 in Japan occasionally, and since the pandemic in a fully hybrid format. It is attended on average by 700-800 people, while the largest event in Lisbon in 2017 attracted 1,200 participants. EAJS conferences are very popular due to their multidisciplinary and global nature. The last and so far the only time the conference was held in Poland was in Warsaw in 2003.
The organizer of the 2026 conference on behalf of UAM is the Organizing Committee comprising staff of the Department of Japanese Studies and other UAM units under the direction of Prof. Beata Bochorodycz from the Department of Japanese Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies.
Source: prof. Beata Bochorodycz