MediAsia2025

November 04-08, 2025 | Held in Kyoto, Japan, and Online

The 6th Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture (KAMC2025) was held alongside The 16th Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film (MediAsia2025) in Kyoto, Japan, from November 04-08, 2025. The event welcomed over 300 delegates from more than 38 countries and invited keynote speakers from Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Japan, and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India. IAFOR was also proud to organise a panel presented about Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World, and a Roundtable Discussion on "Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan".

From news media to indigenous art, invited keynote speakers and panellists at KAMC/MediAsia2025 addressed timely questions around power and representation. Manifested in various forms – (neo)colonialism, cultural hegemony, and capitalism – power struggles and social injustices continue to perpetuate sociopolitical structures through the misuse of media. Those who control the means of telling stories, control the world.

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Speakers

  • Nasya Bahfen
    Nasya Bahfen
    La Trobe University, Australia
  • Aaron Gerow
    Aaron Gerow
    Yale University, United States
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Virgil Hawkins
    Virgil Hawkins
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Padmakumar K
    Padmakumar K
    Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India
  • Yutaka Kubo
    Yutaka Kubo
    Kanazawa University, Japan
  • Melina Neophytou
    Melina Neophytou
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Nobuyuki Okumura
    Nobuyuki Okumura
    Musashi University, Japan
  • Timothy W. Pollock
    Timothy W. Pollock
    Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan
  • Apipol Sae-Tung
    Apipol Sae-Tung
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Reiko Tsuchiya
    Reiko Tsuchiya
    Waseda University, Japan
  • Brian Victoria
    Brian Victoria
    Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, UK
  • Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano
    Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano
    Kyoto University, Japan

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Programme

  • The Shōwa Restoration in 1930s Japan: True National Socialism
    The Shōwa Restoration in 1930s Japan: True National Socialism
    Keynote Presentation: Brian Victoria
  • Reshaping the Soundscape: Adaptations, Innovations, and Hindrances in India’s Commercial FM Radio Channels
    Reshaping the Soundscape: Adaptations, Innovations, and Hindrances in India’s Commercial FM Radio Channels
    Keynote Presentation: Padmakumar K
  • Generative AI and Legacy Media: Potentials and Pitfalls
    Generative AI and Legacy Media: Potentials and Pitfalls
    The Forum: Nasya Bahfen, Apipol Sae-Tung
  • Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World
    Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World
    Panel Discussion: Virgil Hawkins, Nobuyuki Okumura, Reiko Tsuchiya, Joseph Haldane
  • Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan
    Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan
    Roundtable Discussion: Aaron Gerow, Yutaka Kobo, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Timothy W. Pollock

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Conference Committees

The International Academic Board (IAB)

Professor Anne Boddington, IAFOR, Japan (IAB Chair)
Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & The University of Osaka, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Jun Arima, IAFOR & The University of Tokyo, Japan
Professor Virgil Hawkins, IAFOR Research Centre & The University of Osaka, Japan
Mr Lowell Sheppard, IAFOR & Never Too Late Academy, Japan

Professor Umberto Ansaldo, VinUniversity, Vietnam
Dr Susana Barreto, University of Porto, Portugal
Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Dr Evangelia Chrysikou, Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Professor Brendan Howe, Ewha Womans University, South Korea & The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA)
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging

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Conference Programme Committee

Dr Nasya Bahfen, La Trobe University, Australia
Dr Thomas G. Endres, University of Northern Colorado, United States
Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR and The University of Osaka, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Bradley J. Hamm, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, United States
Dr Virgil Hawkins, The University of Osaka, Japan
Dr Gloria Khamkar, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom
Professor Timothy W. Pollock, Osaka Kyoiku University / Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
Professor Padma Rani, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India
Dr Paul Spicer, Hokkaido University, Japan

Conference Review Committee

Professor Azza Ahmed, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Professor Carla Cadete, Lusófona University, Portugal
Dr Christine Anne Cox, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Professor Basma Fouda, The Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates
Professor William Kunz, University of Washington Tacoma, United States
Dr Michael Ogden, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
Professor Oluyinka Osunkunle, University of Fort Hare, South Africa
Dr Keshav Patel, University of Delhi, India
Dr Paul Spicer, Hokkaido University, Japan

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Nasya Bahfen
La Trobe University, Australia

Biography

Dr Nasya Bahfen is the postgraduate media and communications coordinator at La Trobe University, Australia, where she is also a researcher with the Centre for Sport and Social Impact. A former journalist and producer whose research looks at sport, media, and diversity, Dr Bahfen currently teaches digital content making and has supervised the completion of higher degrees by research students in the fields of Journalism and Public Relations/Strategic Communication. Her previous academic work includes how race is framed in Australian journalism through sport, interview choice among young journalism students covering diversity, the incorporation of social media in media education, and internet use by southeast Asian and Australian Muslim youth. Dr Bahfen was previously a visiting scholar with NYU’s Center for Religion and Media, where she conducted research comparing social media use among Muslim students in Melbourne and New York City. Her co-authored book Cyber Racism and Community Resilience: Strategies for Combating Online Race Hate (2017) was funded by the Australian Research Council, and explored building resilience among Jewish, Muslim, and other culturally diverse groups targeted by cyber racism.

Forum Discussion (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Interview (2022) | Challenges Faced by Media Covering the Asia-Pacific: A Conversation with David Robie
Presentation (2019) | Australia and Asia: Media and Identity in a Time of Change
Aaron Gerow
Yale University, United States

Biography

Dr Aaron Gerow is Alfred W. Griswold Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Film and Media Studies at Yale University, United States. He has published extensively on Japanese and East Asian film history, television, cinema in the Japanese empire, film theory, censorship, and spectatorship, among other topics. His books include Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925 (2010); Research Guide to Japanese Film Studies (co-authored with Markus Nornes, 2009 [Japanese edition 2016]); A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan (2008); and Kitano Takeshi (2007). His co-edited anthology Rediscovering Classical Japanese Film Theory—An Anthology was published in Japanese in 2018. Professor Gerow has supervised the reprinting of several important prewar Japanese film journals, as well as the English translation of Hasumi Shiguéhiko’s influential book, Directed by Yasujiro Ozu (1983). He is currently preparing a monograph on the history of Japanese film theory as well as editing an anthology with film producer and curator Aiko Masubuchi on Japanese film director Obayashi Nobuhiko. Professor Gerow also runs his own Japanese film website titled Tangemania, which can be accessed at aarongerow.com.

Roundtable Discussion (2025) | Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan

Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the founder, chairman, and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in nineteenth-century French studies (ULIP/RHUL), and has research interests in world history and politics; international education; and governance and decision making. Since 2015, he has been a Guest Professor at Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre since 2017.

In 2020, Dr Haldane was elected Honorary Professor of University College London (UCL) through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, and full Professor in the United Nations Peace University's European Center for Peace and Development in 2022. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for global governance, he holds visiting professorships at Belgrade and Doshisha Universities where he teaches ethics and governance. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Professor Haldane has had full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute (Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas), and the Schools of Journalism of Sciences Po Paris and Moscow State University.

Dr Haldane has been invited to speak at universities and conferences globally, including the UN HQ in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

Virgil Hawkins
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Dr Virgil Hawkins is a professor specialising in world affairs and the news media, and is based at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), The University of Osaka, Japan. He obtained his PhD in International Public Policy from OSIPP, where he focused on international politics, conflict, the UN Security Council, and the news media. He proceeded to work for five years for a non-governmental aid organisation, primarily in Cambodia and Zambia, before returning to the university as a faculty member. He has written and edited a number of books, including Stealth Conflicts: How the World’s Worst Violence is Ignored (2008), and Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field (co-edited, 2015). His work focuses on furthering our understanding of how and why the vast majority of the world remains relatively uncovered by the news media.

To these ends, Professor Hawkins has since shifted his focus to work at a more practical level. He co-established the Southern African Centre for Collaboration on Peace and Security (SACCPS) [http://saccps.org/] in 2010, which is a network that has brought together researchers and practitioners working on these issues throughout the region. He went on to establish Global News View (GNV) [http://globalnewsview.org/], a large-scale media project that analyses trends and deficiencies in the world news coverage by the Japanese news media, and attempts to compensate for those deficiencies by providing analysis on undercovered global issues.

Featured Panel Discussion (2025) | Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Featured Panel Discussion (2024) | Media and Power in the Asia-Pacific: IAFOR Global Fellows and IAFOR Research Centre Panel Discussion

Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | International News Coverage and The Role of Independent Media
Featured Presentation (2019) | Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right
Featured Presentation (2017) | Introduction of Osaka University’s Global News View Database
Padmakumar K
Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India

Biography

Dr Padmakumar K is a Professor and Head of Post Graduate Programs at the Manipal Institute of Communication located within the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India. He teaches courses on podcasting, radio production, media research, brand planning and corporate communication. He is a recognised PhD Supervisor at the Institute and a member of Boards of Studies at several Indian Universities. He is currently the Indian Faculty Ambassador of the International Association of Media & Communication Research (IAMCR). Professor K was awarded the prestigious Australia India Research Student (AIRS) Fellowship in 2023, funded by the Australian Department of Education, to teach and pursue his research as a post-doctoral fellow at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

Before his academic work, Professor K spent ten years in Commercial Radio, in positions ranging from Producer to Programming Director. As a DAAD Fellow, he taught International Media Systems at Hochschule Bremen, Germany and Media and Culture at Volda International University, Norway, and was invited as a plenary speaker at major international forums, including the 2013 Asia Media Forum in South Korea (2013), Broadcast Asia in Singapore (2015), and Youth Communication Day in Indonesia (2020). He has also conducted a number of workshops on voice culture, radio programming, and corporate communication at leading Indian media and communication schools, including IIMC Delhi and Kottayam, Symbiosis International University, XIM University, Bharathiar University, PSG CAS Coimbatore, and KCLAS.

Keynote Presentation (2025) | Reshaping the Soundscape: Engagement, Adaptations, Innovations and Hindrances in India’s Commercial FM Radio Channels

Yutaka Kubo
Kanazawa University, Japan

Biography

Dr Yutaka Kubo is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Kanazawa University, Japan. His research centers on queer forms of touch, affect, mourning, foodways, aging, and digital archiving in Japanese visual culture. Dr Kubo earned a BA in English with a Concentration on Film Studies from Framingham State University, United States, and received his PhD from Kyoto University, Japan, in 2017. He is the author of Yūyakegumo no kanata ni: Kinoshita Keisuke to kuia na kansei [Over the Sunset: Kinoshita Keisuke and Queer Sensibility] (Nakanishiya shoten, 2022) and has written chapters for the upcoming anthologies The Cinema of Kinoshita Keisuke (Edinburgh University Press, 2025), The Japanese Documentary Cinema of Haneda Sumiko (Routledge, 2025), and Screening Postmillennial Queer Film (Routledge, 2026). Outside of academia, Dr Kubo has served as script supervisor for Yasutomo Chikuma’s forthcoming 2025 film ‘The Deepest Space in Us’.

Roundtable Discussion (2025) | Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2022) | Revisiting Keisuke Kinoshita through a Queer Lens
Melina Neophytou
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Dr Melina Neophytou is the Academic Operations Manager at IAFOR, where she works closely with academics, keynote speakers, and IAFOR partners to shape academic discussions within The Forum, bring conference programmes together, refine scholarship programmes, and build an interdisciplinary and international community. She is leading various projects within IAFOR, notably The Forum discussions and the authoring of Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings, and she oversees the Global Fellows Programme.

Born in Germany and raised in Cyprus, Dr Neophytou received her PhD in International Development from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2023, specialising in political sociology, the welfare state, and contentious politics. She received an MA in International Development from Nagoya University, with a focus on Governance & Law, and a BA in European Studies from the University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

Dr Neophytou’s research interests currently focus on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the relationship between state and society. Her current work examines technologies such as facial recognition (FRT) and biometric surveillance, and how these tools impact freedom of expression, protest, and social policy.

Forum Discussion (2025) | Generative AI and Legacy Media: Potentials and Pitfalls (Online)

Previous Presentations

Forum Discussion (2024) | Global Citizenship: Media & Digital Citizenship

Nobuyuki Okumura
Musashi University, Japan

Biography

Dr Nobuyuki Okumura is a Professor in the Faculty of Sociology at Musashi University, Japan, and has been teaching within the department of Media Sociology since 2014. His research interests include Journalism Politics and Media, Media Ethics, and Digital Journalism Fact Checking. He earned a master’s degree in International Relations from Sophia University in Tokyo in 1989, and later joined the news division of TV Asahi, working as a producer for its News Station programme. He also served as a reporter in the station’s political news and editing departments. Professor Okumura has been a visiting scholar at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies within the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, United States, and Professor in the College of Social Sciences at Ritsumeikan University, Japan.

Featured Panel Discussion (2025) | Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World

Timothy W. Pollock
Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan

Biography

Professor Timothy W. Pollock lectures on film and visual culture at Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan. He has presented papers on film, semiotic theory, ethics, and education, all of which were structured around the central theme of the power of multi-modal, dramatic visual narratives. His film research has focused on the development of standards and practices in classical Japanese cinema in general, and on the later films of Ozu Yasujiro in particular, while his work in the field of semiotics has focused on the applicability of social semiotic theory to the analysis of Japanese cinema and Japanese visual culture.

Professor Pollock’s media work includes appearing in conversation with fellow film historian Stuart Galbraith IV on the new Blu-ray releases of the Akira Kurosawa films Sanjuro, Red Beard, and The Idiot from A Contracorriente Films. As a long-time resident of Japan, he has also worked as an assistant editor on the second edition of the GENIUS Japanese-English Dictionary. He has served as a judge for film festivals in the United Kingdom and India, and is currently serving as visiting faculty at the Manipal Institute of Communication in Karnataka, India.

Roundtable Discussion (2025) | Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Observation vs. Immersion: Trends in Contemporary Visual Anthropology
Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Apipol Sae-Tung
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Apipol Sae-Tung is an Academic Coordinator at IAFOR, where he contributes to the development and execution of academic-related content and activities. He works closely with the Forum’s partner institutions and coordinates IAFOR’s Global Fellowship Programme. His recent activities include mediating conference reports for the Forum’s international conference programme and facilitating the IAFOR Undergraduate Research Symposium (IURS).

Mr Sae-Tung began his career as a Program Coordinator for the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He was awarded the Japanese Government’s MEXT Research Scholarship and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan. His research focuses on government and policy analysis, particularly on authoritarian regimes. He currently takes part in research projects on international student education in Thailand, Southeast Asian politics, Japan-Asia digital economy, and AI-language model training.

Mr Sae-Tung holds an MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Thammasat University, Thailand, where he studied foreign policy analysis and Thailand-China relations. He also holds a BA in History from the same institution, with a focus on modern Western and Southeast Asian comparative history and historiography.

Mr Sae-Tung has interned for the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) in Japan, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Thailand. He served on the Lifelong Learning Team while with UNESCO, working specifically on projects enhancing education access through online platforms among Thai NEET individuals and supporting Myanmar migrant children, providing shelters and access to proper education along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Forum Discussion (2025) | Generative AI and Legacy Media: Potentials and Pitfalls

Reiko Tsuchiya
Waseda University, Japan

Biography

Dr Reiko Tsuchiya is a Professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Japan. She has researched the history of media, focusing primarily on the period from Japan’s Meiji era to the post-war period, with a particular interest in newspapers and printed ephemera. She has published several books including Media and Intelligence in Occupied Japan (2024 Japanese), Chronology of Japanese Media History (2018, Edited in Japanese), The Pacific War Read from Propaganda Leaflets against the Japanese (2010, Japanese), and The Origin of Popular Newspapers in Japan (2002 Japanese).

Professor Tsuchiya is also a co-editor of an English book, Competing Imperialisms in Northeast Asia: New Perspectives, 1894-1953 (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia, 2023) and contributed an English paper titled “Japanese Mass Media” for the New Cambridge History of Japan, Volume Ⅲ: The Modern Japanese Nation and Empire, c.1868 to the Twenty-First Century (2023). She has served as Director of the 20th Century Media Research Institute since 2010, organising monthly research seminars and overseeing the editing of the institute’s annual research journal, Intelligence.

Featured Panel Discussion (2025) | Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World

Brian Victoria
Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, UK

Biography

Dr Brian Victoria is a native of Nebraska and a 1961 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University, United States. He holds an MA in Buddhist Studies from Sōtō Zen sect-affiliated Komazawa University in Tokyo, and a PhD from the Department of Religious Studies at Temple University, United States.

In addition to a second, enlarged edition of Zen At War (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), Brian's major writings include Zen War Stories (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003); an autobiographical work in Japanese titled Gaijin de ari, Zen bozu de ari (As a Foreigner, As a Zen Priest), published by San-ichi Shobo in 1971; Zen Master Dōgen, coauthored with Professor Yokoi Yūhō of Aichi Gakuin University (Weatherhill, 1976); and a translation of The Zen Life by Sato Koji (Weatherhill, 1972). In addition, Dr Victoria has published numerous journal articles focusing on the relationship between religion, particularly Buddhism, and violence and warfare.

Dr Victoria was a Professor of Japanese Studies and Director of the AEA Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program at Antioch University, United States from 2005 to 2013. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan from 2013 to 2015. His latest book, Zen Terror: The Death of Democracy in Prewar Japan was published by Rowman & Littlefield in February 2020. Dr Victoria is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and a fully ordained Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect.

Keynote Presentation (2025) | The Shōwa Restoration in 1930s Japan: True National Socialism

Previous Presentations:

Keynote Presentation (2023) | To Whom Do the Senkaku (Ch. Diaoyu) Islands Belong and Why Should We Care?
Keynote Presentation (2022) | The “Zen” of Zen Gardens: Fact or Fiction?
Keynote Presentation (2021) | 'Holy War' as Portrayed in Japanese Films, 1937-45
Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano
Kyoto University, Japan

Biography

Dr Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano is Professor of Cinema and Media Studies and Director of the Joint Degree Master in Transcultural Studies programme in the Graduate School of Letters at Kyoto University, Japan. Professor Wada-Marciano earned an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University and a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Iowa, United States. Her research interests include Japanese cinema and media culture, East Asian Cinema, women's documentary, and archive film in the digital period. Professor Wada-Marciano has authored a number of books and articles, including Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008), Japanese Cinema in the Digital Age (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012), and No Nukes:〈Post-3.11〉eiga no chikara, âto no chikara [No Nukes:〈Post-3.11〉Power of Cinema and Power of Art] (Nagoya University Press, 2021), which was translated into English under the title Japanese Filmmakers in the Wake of Fukushima: Perspectives on Nuclear Disasters (Amsterdam University Press, 2023). Her latest research involves film archiving in and outside Japan, and has been supported by the Grants-in-aid for Scientific Research (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) since 2020.

Roundtable Discussion (2025) | Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan

The Shōwa Restoration in 1930s Japan: True National Socialism
Keynote Presentation: Brian Victoria

Needless to say, ‘National Socialism' will forever be associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party he led in Germany. However, as numerous scholars have shown, by the time Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, the term ‘National Socialism’ had become little more than a façade used by Hitler and the Nazis to crush the political left and empower Germany’s corporate elites.

In Japan, the leaders of incidents like the Young Officers Uprising of February 26, 1936 are typically described as simply having been ‘militarists’ seeking an enhanced role, including additional funding for the military, especially the army. This applied term has contributed to a misleading understanding of the motivations of those involved in these incidents, something they themselves described as shōwa ishin: a ‘Shōwa Restoration’.

This keynote presents a new understanding of prewar Japanese history than we currently have. The national socialist-embracing proponents of a Shōwa Restoration sought major domestic economic and social reforms, especially land reform, in 1930s Japan, inspired by the ‘home-grown’ ideology of men like Kita Ikki, whose national socialist writings, especially his seminal 1919 work, An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan (Nihon Kaizō Hōan Taikō), predate those of the German Nazis. The talk will examine how leading proponents of the Shōwa Restoration had clear political goals consisting of domestic social reforms that can only be described as ‘nationally socialist’ in nature.

Read presenter's biography
Reshaping the Soundscape: Adaptations, Innovations, and Hindrances in India’s Commercial FM Radio Channels
Keynote Presentation: Padmakumar K

India has a dynamic radio landscape, with over 380 operational commercial radio stations and more than 480 community radio stations as of 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently approved the FM Radio Phase-III Policy, a significant expansion of India’s FM radio network in an effort to reach 234 new cities and small towns, an initiative that is expected to enhance the growth of the FM radio industry in India. This expansion is anticipated to address the existing demand for FM radio services in some cities and many small towns that currently lack such provisions, creating a platform for the dissemination of local content in the target locations’ native languages.

The commercial radio sector in India has undergone a major transformation since its inception in the early 2000s. India’s FM radio stations have started moving from completely studio-centric shows over to on-the-ground activations for attracting new listeners and even ’at-home studios’ for post-pandemic programming. Topicality, high interactive content, and quick digital adaptation have been strategies adopted by many stations to ensure and sustain listenership with a few adopting cross-platform strategies resulting in a broader listener base. The traditional aural medium in India is showing signs of hybridisation by shifting its stance from being an anonymous ‘blind’ medium to a hybrid visual medium with the advent of social media.

A preliminary content analysis using the ‘intensive listening’ method revealed that interactive shows are high among Indian radio stations. Are these interactive shows just forms of mere engagement, or participatory in the real sense? How about the quality of participation of the listeners? What are some of the content strategies adopted by these radio channels? How are Indian Commercial Radio stations responding to newer tastes of listeners? This presentation will discuss these questions and explore issues related to the FM Radio Phase-III FM Policy, the challenges these stations face, their show strategies, and insights on creating persuasive audio creatives.

Read presenter's biography
Generative AI and Legacy Media: Potentials and Pitfalls
The Forum: Nasya Bahfen, Apipol Sae-Tung

Disinformation through social media is at a crisis point in Asia and throughout the world (Surjatmodjo et. al. 2024). Legacy media, or traditional forms of media that existed before the internet, plays a key role in addressing the root causes of fake news and hoaxes by amplifying credible and reputable sources, and providing information to inform the populace. However, as newsrooms rapidly embrace generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools to create content or perform tasks based on input computer data (Fletcher & Nielsen, 2024), ethical concerns arise about whether algorithmic biases tied to structural factors, such as gender, race, or class, will exacerbate misogyny, hate speech, and fake news on and offline (Thompson, 2023). This could lead to stereotyping and physical harm against minorities, migrants, women, gender-diverse groups, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This Forum session invites delegates to discuss the following questions: Can legacy media play a part in building a future free from misinformation? What are the potentials and pitfalls in the use of AI by legacy media? How can legacy media be used in the institutions and classrooms in which we work and engage with others in an effort to combat disinformation spread by GAI?

Read presenters' biographies
Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World
Panel Discussion: Virgil Hawkins, Nobuyuki Okumura, Reiko Tsuchiya, Joseph Haldane

The major Japanese broadsheet newspapers in circulation today have a history spanning 150 years, but unlike many of their city-focused Western counterparts, these leading newspapers tend to operate at a national level. They primarily focus on domestic issues, allocating a certain amount of page space to world news and maintaining a network of foreign bureaus. But how do they choose to cover the world? It is reasonable to assume a strong ‘home’ lens, in which countries, regions, and events perceived as impacting Japan’s national interests are prioritised when covering global news. We can also assume that powerful Western countries exert influence on what is reported. However, long-term research on how Japanese newspapers cover world affairs remains limited, and our understanding of broader trends in coverage is still developing.

This panel examines how Japanese newspapers construct and prioritise their coverage of the world, with attention to both historical and contemporary patterns. By bringing together new research on the international orientation of the press, the panel seeks to highlight how domestic concerns, geopolitical pressures, and broader media transformations intersect to shape reporting choices.

Read presenters' biographies
Expanding Film and Media History: Lessons from Japan
Roundtable Discussion: Aaron Gerow, Yutaka Kobo, Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano, Timothy W. Pollock

The academic study of film and film history was developed within the discursive fields of European and American academia, and has consequently often been limited by the assumptions, values, and viewpoints of the scholars in the Western Academy. This roundtable will focus on the panellists’ individual contributions and efforts to broaden the field beyond a Western-centric lens, especially in regards to East Asian film inclusion. Discussion will be drawn from the panellists’ current and ongoing activities: Professor Aaron Gerow’s efforts to incorporate the work of Japanese film scholars into the existing framework of film theory, Professor Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano’s reintroduction of historically significant female documentarians back into the mainstream of Japanese film history, and Dr Yutaka Kubo’s examination of how Japanese film studies and criticism can be reimagined through a queer lens by reflecting on curatorial, academic, and critical practices.

Read presenters' biographies