Report: Tracing the Tracks of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy & the International Association of Japanese Philosophy UEHARA Mayuko Kyoto University, Professor, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy John W. M. KRUMMEL Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Associate Professor, President of the International Association of Japanese Philosophy 1. A New Stage for the Evolution of Japanese Philosophy in the 21st Century When did the research of Japanese philosophy start? In this case, let us here confine "Japanese Philosophy" to that which is considered a modern product after the beginning of the Meiji era. Translation of Nishida Kitarō's works, for instance, was initiated during the 1930s in Germany and the 1950s in the U.S. It is undeniable that the philosophy of the Kyoto School, which attained its zenith in the 1930s, is a symbol of Japanese philosophy. After World War II, however it fell into decline, so that it continues to live only in obscurity within the history of philosophy in Japan. Since the 1990s-the fiftieth anniversary of Nishida Kitarō's death was commemorated in 1995, and in the same year the department named "Japanese philosophy" was established in Kyoto University-more research of Nishida philosophy and the Kyoto school has begun to appear in Japan. In parallel, a handful of philosophers in North America came to translate and study Japanese philosophy within the academic world filled with stubborn prejudice against non-Western philosophy. The field of Japanese philosophy even in Japan at that time remained not well known, but the situation was changing. With the opening of the 21st century, the research community of Japanese philosophy has certainly been expanding worldwide. Within this context the Journal of Japanese Philosophy (JJP), a peer reviewed journal, was founded in 2011. The breakthrough project of its publication was initiated by the strenuous efforts of Kevin Lam and Ching-yuen Cheung and developed with strong support from the State University of New York Press to publish its inaugural issue in 2013. This is the first international medium specializing in Japanese philosophy and accessible for all scholars of this field. The international editorial team of JJP includes John Report: Tracing the Tracks of the JJP & IAJP Tetsugaku, Vol.3, 2019 © The Philosophical Association of Japan 39 Krummel as assistant editor and Curtis Rigsby from the United States, Lam and Cheung from Hong Kong, and myself as editor-in-chief from Japan, and was joined by two more members, Leah Kalmanson from the United States in 2014 and Anton Luis Sevilla from the Philippines in 2016. The editors encourage enthusiastically veteran scholars as well as newcomers from different backgrounds in language, culture, or career, to contribute articles proposing different approaches (interdisciplinary research and monographs) and different themes. JJP's quality has been acknowledged to become a part of Project MUSE soon after the appearance of its first issue. The contents of the five volumes which have already been published are as follows. Volume 1 (2013) Uehara Mayuko Introduction Fujita Masakatsu, translated by Bret W. Davis The Significance of Japanese Philosophy John C. Maraldo Japanese Philosophy as a Lens on Greco European Thought Bret W. Davis Opening Up the West: Toward Dialogue with Japanese Philosophy Graham Parkes Kūkai and Dōgen as Exemplars of Ecological Engagement Lin Shaoyang Japanese Postmodern Philosophy's Turn to Historicity Leah Kalmanson Book Review: McCarthy, Erin. Ethics Embodied: Rethinking Selfhood through Continental, Japanese, and Feminist Philosophies Volume 2 (2014) TAKADA Yasunari Opening Remark: Against the Grain of Reductio ad Japonicum YUSA Michiko Parsing the Topos and Dusting the Mirror: A Radical Internalization of "Basho-Topos" Laura Specker SULLIVAN The Self-Contradictory Identity of the Personal Self: Nishida's Argument against Kantian Pure Practical Reason AKITOMI Katsuya On the Possibility of Discussing Technology from the Standpoint of Nishitani Keiji's Religious Philosophy Raquel Bouso GARCIA Arakawa and Gins's Nonplace: An Approach from an Apophatic Aesthetics Anton Luis SEVILLA Watsuji's Balancing Act: Changes in his Understanding of Individuality and Totality from 1937 to 1949 UEHARA Mayuko, John W. M. Krummel Japanese Philosophy in the world 40 Bradley Douglas PARK Book Review: Bret W. Davis, Brian Schroeder, and Jason M. Wirth, Editors. Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School Volume 3 (2015) James W. HEISIG Tanabe Hajime's Elusive Pursuit of Art and Aesthetics Shigenori NAGATOMO Dōgen's "Do No Evil" as Nonproduction of Evil": An Achievement and Its Micro-Macrocosmic Correlativity Rein RAUD Casting off the Bonds of Karma: Watsuji, Shinran, and Dōgen on the Problem of Free Will SUHARA Eiji Is Shōmyō Nembutsu Magic? Reconsidering Shinran's Nembutsu Debate in Japanese Scholarship from a Multidimensional Perspective MITSUHARA Takeshi Nishida and Husserl between 1911 and 1917 Steve ODIN Book Review: Cunningham, Eric. Hallucinating the End of History: Nishida, Zen, and the Psychedelic Eschaton Volume 4 (2017): "Special Issue on Karatani Kōjin" The Editorial Team Introduction: Special Issue on Karatani Kōjin KARATANI Kōjin, translated by Cheung Ching-yuen Two Types of Mobility KOBAYASHI Toshiaki, translated by John W. Krummel The Shifting Other in Karatani Kōjin's Philosophy Joel WAINWRIGHT The Spatial Structure of World History UEMURA Tadao The Documents of a Great Defeat: Karatani Kōjin Immediately Prior to His "Turn" Kanishka GOONEWARDENA Theory and Politics in Karatani Kōjin's The Structure of World History Rika DUNLAP Hope without the Future: Zen Buddhist Hope in Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō Ralf MÜLLER Conference Report: Japanese Philosophy in a New Key Volume 5 (2018) NOE Keiichi The Great Earthquake Disaster and the Japanese View of Nature John A. TUCKER Japanese Philosophy after Fukushima: Generative Force, Nationalism, and the Global Environmental Imperative Maximilian Gregor HEPACH A Phenomenology of Weather and Qi Report: Tracing the Tracks of the JJP & IAJP Tetsugaku, Vol.3, 2019 © The Philosophical Association of Japan 41 POON Man Wai Carol Reading Japanese Philosophy through Parasyte: The Paradox of Coexistence SHYU Shing Ching Special Report on National Taiwan University's "Japanese Studies Series" Matthew FUJIMOTO Book review: John W. M. Krummel's Nishida Kitarō's Chiasmastic Chorology: Place of Dialectic, Dialectic of Place In 2014, the International Association of Japanese Philosophy (IAJP) was founded, and became an affiliate society of the American Philosophical Association (APA) (see John Krummel, "2. Other Activities of the IAJP"). The IAJP held its first independent, international conference "Opening up Japanese Philosophy: The Kyoto School and After" at Kyushu University, Nishijin Plaza (Fukuoka City, Japan), October 7 to 9. In 2017, the IAJP held its second independent conference "International Conference on Globalizing Japanese Philosophy: From East Asia to The World" at National Taiwan Normal University (Taipei, Taiwan), July 28 to 29. The third conference, "The Future of International Philosophy", was organized during the two days of August 17–18 within the XXIVX World Congress of Philosophy during August 13–20 (Beijing, China). On this occasion, having become a member of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP), our annual meeting thus took place at the Congress under the WCP category of "Society Sessions". U. M. 2. Other Activities of the IAJP: Affiliation with the American Philosophical Association The International Association of Japanese Philosophy (IAJP) (国際日本哲学会) is an organization dedicated to promoting Japanese philosophy in its various aspects and dimensions. The group was conceived by the editors of the Journal of Japanese Philosophy (published by SUNY Press) and the board of directors include members residing and teaching in Japan, China, and the US. The purpose is to promote the field of Japanese philosophy by providing a space for scholars of the field to present, exchange, and publish their scholarship. UEHARA Mayuko, John W. M. Krummel Japanese Philosophy in the world 42 The IAJP became affiliated in 2014 with the Eastern Conference of the American Philosophical Association as a group member. The APA is the largest philosophical organization in North America and is divided into three Conferences: Eastern, Central, and Pacific, each of which holds its own annual conference. The IAJP held its first meeting in North America at the APA's Eastern Division Meeting in December 2014 and since then it has been holding panel sessions at the annual meeting at the APA Eastern Conference. In 2018 IAJP also started holding panel sessions at the Central and Pacific Conferences of the APA. For each of these meetings, the IAJP has sent out a call-for-papers announcement to receive abstracts in advance of potential participants. The IAJP then selects suitable presentations. On some occasions but not always, the IAJP has sent out a call for papers dealing with a specific topic in order to form panels on that topic. The Eastern Division IAJP sessions have been organized by Leah Kalmanson (Drake University) and John Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges). The Central Division sessions were organized by Kevin Taylor (University of Memphis) and Xiaofei Tu (Appalachian State University). And the Pacific Division sessions are being organized by Rika Dunlap (Seattle University). The participants have always included scholars from a variety of places and institutions. The IAJP panels at the APA meetings have been as follows: 111th APA Eastern Division Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, December 2014: • Panel 1: What is Japanese Philosophy?: o Chair: John Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) o John Krummel (HWS): "Philosophy and Japanese Philosophy in the World" o Curtis Rigsby (University of Guam): "Japanese Philosophy: Beyond the Analytic-Continental Divide" o Leah Kalmanson (Drake University): "What is Tetsugaku?: Japanese Negotiations with the Philosophy-Religion-Pagan Paradigm via Western Colonialism" o Ralf Mueller (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany/Kyoto University): "Japanese Philosophy-Historiographical or Systematic Specifics?" o Bret Davis (Loyola University Maryland): "What is (Japanese) Philosophy?" • Panel 2: Topics in Japanese Philosophy: Report: Tracing the Tracks of the JJP & IAJP Tetsugaku, Vol.3, 2019 © The Philosophical Association of Japan 43 o Chair: Leah Kalmanson (Drake University) o Mitsuyo Toyoda (Tokyo Institute of Technology): "Overcoming Catastrophic Experiences: The Power of Philosophical Dialogue in Schools in Sendai" o Takushi Odagiri (Duke University/University of Iowa): "Biopolitics of World History: Karatani's Recent Works" o Raquel Bouso (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain): "Topological Thinking in a Global and Deterritorialized World" o James Mark Shields (Bucknell University): "Toward the Creative Nothing: Revisiting Japanese Buddhist-Anarchist Thought" o Shigenori Nagatomo (Temple University): "Nishida's Theory of Acting-Intuition" 112th APA Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, DC, January 2016: • Panel 1: Nishida and Watsuji: o Chair: John Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) o Yingjin Xu (Fudan University, China): "What if Wittgenstein Could Speak Japanese or Even Read Nishida?" o Graham Mayeda (University of Ottawa, Canada): "The Philosopher and the Aesthete: The Similarities and Differences between the Approach of Kuki and Nishida to Religious Experience" o Yuko Ishihara (University of Copenhagen): "Limits of Transcendental Inquiry: The Turn Towards Place in Heidegger and Nishida" o Carolyn Culbertson (Florida Gulf Coast University): "The Genuine Possibility of Being-with: Watsuji, Heidegger, and the Primacy of Betweenness" o James McRae (Westminster College): "Watsuji Tetsurō and the Unified Theory of Ethics" o Steve Bein (University of Dayton): "Does Climate Change Threaten Being-in-the-World?: a Watsujian and Greimassian Analysis" o Maki Sato (University of Tokyo): "In Between Universalism and Particularism" • Panel 2: Topics in Japanese Philosophy: Ancient to Contemporary: o Chair: John Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) UEHARA Mayuko, John W. M. Krummel Japanese Philosophy in the world 44 o Tomoko Iwasawa (Reitaku University, Japan): "The Japanese Kami and Sense of the Sacred" o John Tucker (East Carolina University): "Jin in Tokugawa Confucianism" o Curtis Rigsby (University of Guam): "Being and Nothingness in Japan and Beyond" o Anton Luis Sevilla (Kyushu University): "The Educational Possibilities of the Kyoto School of Philosophy" o Takeshi Morisato (University of Leuven): "Metanoesis in Japanese Philosophy: A Way to the Open Community of World Philosophies" 113th APA Eastern Division Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, January 2017: • Panel: Environmental Philosophy (special session on the book Japanese Environmental Philosophy edited by J. Baird Callicot and James McRae): o Chair: John Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) o James McRae (Westminster College): "Mutual Flourishing: Japanese Environmental Philosophy and the Current Ecological Crisis" o Leah Kalmanson (Drake University): "Pure Land Ecology: Taking the Supernatural Seriously in Environmental Philosophy" o Yu Inutsuka (University of Tokyo): "Sensation, Betweenness, Rhythms: Watsuji's Environmental Philosophy and Ethics in Conversation with Heidegger" o John W.M. Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges): comment & questions 114th APA Eastern Division Meeting, Savannah, Georgia, January 2018: • Panel: Comparative East Asian Philosophy: Philosophical Dialogues between East Asian Traditions o Andrew Lambert (CUNY College of Staten Island): "Japan from the Viewpoint of Contemporary Chinese Scholars: Li Zehou on the Japanese Tradition" o Sarah Mattice (University of North Florida): "Re-Presenting the Canons: Chinese and Japanese Women in the Story of Philosophical Traditions" 115th APA Central Division Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, February 2018: Report: Tracing the Tracks of the JJP & IAJP Tetsugaku, Vol.3, 2019 © The Philosophical Association of Japan 45 • Panel: Japanese Philosophy in Comparative Perspectives: o Stephen Lofts (Western University): "Hiromatsu and Cassirer: A Comparison" o Dennis Strombach (Temple University): "Nishida's Philosophical Resistance: The Inversion of Western Conceptions of Religion" o Johnathan Flowers (Southern Illinois University): "Reconsidering mono no aware through Confucian Aesthetics" o Graham Mayeda (University of Ottawa): "Space, Culture and Human Relationships: A Philosophical Analysis of Watsuji Tetsurō's Pilgrimages to the Ancient Temples in Nara (Koji Junrei)" 92nd APA Pacific Division Meeting, San Diego, California, March 2018: • Panel: Topics: o Chair: Rika Dunlap (Seattle University) o Rika Dunlap (Seattle University): "Buddhist Dialetheism and the Status of Nature in Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō" o Kyle Peters (University of Chicago): "Rethinking Collectivity in Modern Japanese Aesthetics: Nakai Masakazu and the Small Collective" 115th APA Eastern Division Meeting, New York City, New York, January 2019: • Panel 1: Topics: Language and Body, and Kyoto School Philosophy o Chair: John W.M. Krummel (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) o Zhang Ligeng (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): "Are Japanese Ideophones a Kind of Synaesthesia?" o Ralf Müller (Hildesheim University): "Japanese Philosophy as Translation" o Maki Sato (University of Tokyo) and Jonathan McKinney (University of Cincinnati): "In the Quest of the Place of Kokoro" o Dennis Stromback (Temple University): "Nishida on the Notion of the Secular" o Richard Stone (Hokkaido University): "The True Self and the INovel: Re-Reading An Inquiry into the Good in the Context of Early Modern Japanese Literature" o Steve Bein (University of Dayton) and James McRae (Westminser College): "Gorillas in the Midst (of an Ethical Conundrum)" UEHARA Mayuko, John W. M. Krummel Japanese Philosophy in the world 46 • Panel 2: Japanese Buddhist Philosophy: o Chair: John W.M. Krummel, Hobart and William Smith Colleges o Victor Forte (Albright College): "Saichō: Founding Patriarch of Japanese Buddhism" o Ralf Müller (Hildesheim University): "The Philosophical Reception of Japanese Buddhism after 1868" o Steve Bein (University of Dayton): "Watsuji Tetsurō: Accidental Buddhist?" 116th APA Central Division Meeting, Denver, Colorado, February 2019: • Panel: Topics: o Kevin Taylor (University of Memphis): "Mottainai and the Plurality of Buddhist Mindfulness" o Xiaofei Tu (Appalachian State University): "D.T. Suzuki's Zen Philosophy and Translation Theory" o Junichi Tanaka (Otani University): "The Concept of Religious Mind and Ideal Society in Modern Japanese Buddhism: From the Standpoint of Pure Land Buddhism and 'Hokekyō' Buddhism" o Johnathan Flowers (Worcester State University): "Reconceiving Mono no Aware as an Aesthetics of Experience" In addition to these meetings within the APA, the IAJP has been holding international conferences outside of North America but in October of 2019, it will hold its first international conference within the US in Honolulu, Hawaii. The IAJP plans to continue holding sessions annually at the Eastern, Central, and Pacific Division Meetings of the APA within North America. J. K.