The Japanese Association for Canadian Studies (JACS) annual conference of this year was held on 20–21 September 2025. The first day was held at Kwansei Gakuin University (KGU) and the second day was held, courtesy of the Canadian Government, at the Canada Pavilion on the 2025 Osaka Expo site.
Chaired by Kenichiro HIROSE, the program of the first day started with a session on First Nations, which included three presentations: “Urban Indigenous Homelessness” (Nobuhiro KISHIGAMI), “Criminal Sanction, Treatment and Indigenous Discrimination” (Tsutomu KASUGA), and “Journey of Reconciliation in Canada” (Fumiya NAGAI).
Symposium 1: Canada-US Relations, chaired in the afternoon by Nobuyuki SATO, included four presentations: “US-Canada Relations under the Second Trump Administration” (Kenji TAKITA), “The Impact of the Trump Tariffs on Japan and Canada” (Toshiki TAKAHASHI), “An Analysis of the 2025 Federal Election” (Kentaro OKADA), and “Le Québec face à l‘administration Trump 2.0” (Junichiro KOJI).
At the beginning of the annual general meeting, held after the presentations on the first day, ICCS president, Anna BRANACH-KALLAS, appeared online to give an opening speech and congratulate the 50th Annual Conference of JACS.
The second day was held enthusiastically at the Canada Pavilion on the Osaka Expo site. As the number of visitors to the Osaka Expo was expected to count more than 200,000 people, the Canadian Government issued priority passes for all the JACS conference attendees, which let us skip the lines and enter the Expo site through the priority lane.
Chaired by Sayoko IIZASA, the second day started with a session on Open Topics, which included two presentations: “La fille laide d’Yves Thériault” (Nao SASAKI) and “Challenges faced by International Students in Canada” (Tomoko KUMAGAI). After the welcome address given by Laurie PETERS, Commissioner General for Canada Pavilion, we had third session, EXPO and Canada, chaired by Kenji SUZUKI, with two presentations: “Robert Lepage and the Canada Pavilion” (Mai KANZAKI) and “Translating Canadian Nature at the Tsukuba Expo 1985” (Yuta SHIMOYAMA).
The afternoon session opened with Sandra DEN OTTER’s keynote speech, “Inheriting Empire: The Commonwealth’s Challenge in the 21st Century,” followed by the second symposium, which focused on Commonwealth History and Canada, chaired by Toshihiro TANAKA who gave the first presentation on the “Transformation of the Canadian Citizenship.” The other two presentations were “The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and its Aircraft Production System” (Jun FUKUSHI) and “The Commonwealth and Canadian Diplomacy: A Case Study of the UN Emergency Force” (Yuri SETOUCHI).
Held at the Osaka Expo site, the participants of the second day seemed to be excited the whole time and appreciated the courtesy shown by the Canada Pavilion officers. Two Mounties joined the group photo taken in front of the Pavilion. After the closing remarks given by Taro OISHI, JACS vice-president, attendees were privileged to listen to a mini concert performed by a young renowned Canadian pianist, Tony Yike Yang.
To see more photos, click this link.
Thank you to JACS President Norie Yazu for this report.
JACS photographs.