IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences (ACP) > ACP2024 Overview

ACP2024 Overview

Join us in Tokyo & Online for ACP2024!

March 25 – 29, 2024 | Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, and Online

The Asian Conference on Psychology & Behavioral Sciences (ACP) celebrated its 12th anniversary in 2022. It has proven to be a great opportunity for engaging in interdisciplinary dialogue, speaking to scholars, and learning from other experts from around the world and from a variety of academic disciplines. The interdisciplinary and international focus of the conference draws world-class speakers and keeps people coming back year after year.

Established scholars have commented that the format of the conference allows them to share insights with younger researchers, and to learn from the next generation. Many of the works presented at ACP have been on the cutting edge, demonstrating presenters’ deep mastery of complex topics and proposing important new ideas. ACP2024 will undoubtedly continue this tradition of being a great place to learn and to network. It gives attendees the chance to build an interdisciplinary and global perspective on the study of psychology and behavioral sciences.

For this year’s conference, the Organising Committee has opted to leave the theme more open than in past years. There will be a number of streams and special sessions within the fields of psychology and behavioral sciences, but presenters will not be limited by any one, specific theme. It is hoped that this open format will encourage a broad range of submissions on a variety of related topics and encourage discussions across disciplines. ACP2024 will be held concurrently with The 10th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen2024) under the name Think Tokyo, reflecting the conferences’ location in Japan’s capital city. Registration for either conference allows access to both.

Held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, this international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

In conjunction with our Global Partners, we look forward to extending you a warm welcome in 2024.

Key Information
  • Location & Venue: Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, and Online
  • Dates: Monday, March 25, 2024 ​to Friday, March 29, 2024
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: October 06, 2023*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: December 14, 2023
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: January 26, 2024

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

Submit an Abstract

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Speakers

  • Dani S. Bassett Copy
    Dani S. Bassett Copy
    University of Pennsylvania, United States
  • Dani S. Bassett
    Dani S. Bassett
    University of Pennsylvania, United States
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Yu Niiya
    Yu Niiya
    Hosei University, Japan
  • Frank S. Ravitch
    Frank S. Ravitch
    Michigan State University College of Law, United States
  • Haruko Satoh
    Haruko Satoh
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Jan Spijker
    Jan Spijker
    Radboud University, Netherlands
  • Brian Victoria
    Brian Victoria
    Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, UK
  • Perry Zurn
    Perry Zurn
    American University, United States

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Programme

  • Curious About Curiosity
    Curious About Curiosity
    Featured Discussion: Dani S. Bassett & Perry Zurn
  • Are Modern Understandings of Karma the Teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha?
    Are Modern Understandings of Karma the Teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha?
    Featured Presentation: Brian Victoria
  • Recent Developments Concerning the Separation of Religion and State in Contemporary Japan
    Recent Developments Concerning the Separation of Religion and State in Contemporary Japan
    Panel Presentation: Frank Ravitch, Haruko Satoh, Brian Victoria, Joseph Haldane (Moderator)
  • Ships in the Night: Expansion of the Separation of Politics and Religion in Japan as the U.S. Supreme Court Abandons the Separation of Church and State
    Ships in the Night: Expansion of the Separation of Politics and Religion in Japan as the U.S. Supreme Court Abandons the Separation of Church and State
    Keynote Presentation: Frank Ravitch
  • To Be Young and Depressed: Higher Prevalence Rates for Depression in Youngsters in the Netherlands
    To Be Young and Depressed: Higher Prevalence Rates for Depression in Youngsters in the Netherlands
    Keynote Presentation: Jan Spijker
  • Whose Time Am I Spending? Non-zero-sum Time Perception Promotes Psychological Well-being and Prosociality
    Whose Time Am I Spending? Non-zero-sum Time Perception Promotes Psychological Well-being and Prosociality
    Keynote Presentation: Yu Niiya

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Conference Committees

Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR and Osaka University, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Jun Arima, President, IAFOR & University of Tokyo, Japan
Professor Anne Boddington, Executive Vice-President and Provost, IAFOR & Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech, United States
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Professor Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan
Dr Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Professor Dexter Da Silva, Keisen University, Japan
Professor Gary E. Swanson, University of Northern Colorado, United States (fmr.)
Professor Baden Offord, Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, Australia & Cultural Studies Association of Australasia
Professor Frank S. Ravitch, Michigan State University College of Law, United States
Professor William Baber, Kyoto University, Japan

Members of the IAFOR Board of Directors and The Academic Governing Board are standing members of the Global Programme Committee. Members of the IAAB are consultative members.

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Conference Programme Committee

Professor Mimi Bong, Korea University, South Korea
Professor George D. Chryssides, The University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Dr Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Professor Roberto Ravera, ASL1 of Imperia, University of Turin & University of Genoa, Italy
Professor Frank S. Ravitch, Michigan State University College of Law, United States
Dr Roswiyani Roswiyani, Tarumanagara University, Indonesia
Professor Monty P. Satiadarma, Tarumanagara University, Indonesia
Professor Dexter Da Silva, Keisen University, Japan
Dr Brian Victoria, Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, United Kingdom

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Conference Review Committee

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by the Conference Programme Committee under the guidance of the International Academic Board (IAB). Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ACP2024 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

Apply to Join the Review Committee

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IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) – “Innovation and Value Initiative”

The IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) is housed within Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and in June 2018 the IRC began an ambitious new “Innovation and Value Initiative”. Officially launched at the United Nations in a special UN-IAFOR Collaborative Session, the initiative seeks to bring together the best in interdisciplinary research around the concept of value, on how value can be recognised, and measured, and how this can help us address issues and solve problems, from the local to the global.

Learn more about the Innovation and Value Initiative

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Dani S. Bassett Copy
University of Pennsylvania, United States

Biography

Professor Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, and Psychiatry. They are also an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Bassett is most well-known for blending neural and systems engineering to identify fundamental mechanisms of cognition and disease in human brain networks. They received a BS in physics from Penn State University and a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge, UK as a Churchill Scholar, and as an NIH Health Sciences Scholar.

Following a postdoctoral position at UC Santa Barbara, Bassett was a Junior Research Fellow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind. They have received multiple prestigious awards, including American Psychological Association's ‘Rising Star’ (2012), Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow (2014), MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant (2014), Early Academic Achievement Award from the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2015), Office of Naval Research Young Investigator (2015), National Science Foundation CAREER (2016), Popular Science Brilliant 10 (2016), Lagrange Prize in Complex Systems Science (2017), Erdos-Renyi Prize in Network Science (2018), OHBM Young Investigator Award (2020), AIMBE College of Fellows (2020), American Physical Society Fellow (2021), and has been named one of Web of Science's most Highly Cited Researchers for 3 years running.

Bassett is the author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, which have garnered over 40,000 citations, as well as numerous book chapters and teaching materials. Bassett’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Research Office, the Army Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Defense, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, the Paul Allen Foundation, the ISI Foundation, and the Center for Curiosity. Bassett has recently co-authored Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (MIT Press) with philosopher and twin Perry Zurn.

Featured Discussion (2023) | Curious About Curiosity
Dani S. Bassett
University of Pennsylvania, United States

Biography

Professor Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Physics & Astronomy, Neurology, and Psychiatry. They are also an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Bassett is most well-known for blending neural and systems engineering to identify fundamental mechanisms of cognition and disease in human brain networks. They received a BS in physics from Penn State University and a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge, UK as a Churchill Scholar, and as an NIH Health Sciences Scholar.

Following a postdoctoral position at UC Santa Barbara, Bassett was a Junior Research Fellow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind. They have received multiple prestigious awards, including American Psychological Association's ‘Rising Star’ (2012), Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow (2014), MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant (2014), Early Academic Achievement Award from the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2015), Office of Naval Research Young Investigator (2015), National Science Foundation CAREER (2016), Popular Science Brilliant 10 (2016), Lagrange Prize in Complex Systems Science (2017), Erdos-Renyi Prize in Network Science (2018), OHBM Young Investigator Award (2020), AIMBE College of Fellows (2020), American Physical Society Fellow (2021), and has been named one of Web of Science's most Highly Cited Researchers for 3 years running.

Bassett is the author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, which have garnered over 40,000 citations, as well as numerous book chapters and teaching materials. Bassett’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Research Office, the Army Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Defense, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, the Paul Allen Foundation, the ISI Foundation, and the Center for Curiosity. Bassett has recently co-authored Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (MIT Press) with philosopher and twin Perry Zurn.

Featured Discussion (2023) | Curious About Curiosity
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’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs and international education, as well as governance and decision making, and he is a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance. Since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and, since 2017, Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within the University.

In 2020 Dr Haldane was appointed Honorary Professor of UCL (University College London), through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. He holds Visiting Professorships in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, and at the Doshisha Business School in Kyoto, where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA, and is a member of the Value Research Center. He is also a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.

Professor Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences globally, including at the United Nations Headquarters 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 and Cabinet Office, and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and 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 in the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, and the schools of Journalism at both Sciences Po Paris, and Moscow State University.

From 2012-2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu), and since 2015 has been a Trustee of HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012 and the Royal Society of Arts in 2015. He lives in Japan and holds a black belt in Judo.

Panel Presentation (2023) | Recent Developments Concerning the Separation of Religion and State in Contemporary Japan
Yu Niiya
Hosei University, Japan

Biography

Dr Yu Niiya is a Professor in the Department of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies (GIS) at Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. She received her MA from the University of Tokyo and her PhD from the University of Michigan. Dr Niiya’s research interests lie in the exploration of whether a compassionate mindset can encourage people to overcome their hesitation to take risks. For example, she investigated how having compassionate goals (i.e., the goals to support others) predict the extent to which people express dissent toward the group they belong to, or the extent to which they will offer help to a stranger. Furthermore, she has worked on what enables people to learn from failure, the positive relational consequences of adult’s amae, and many cross-cultural studies on various topics. She received the International Contributions to Psychology Award from the Japanese Psychological Association in 2021. She has been a PI (principal investigator) and collaborator on many Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) projects for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Previously, she was also an associate editor for the Asian Journal of Social Psychology and is currently associate editor of the Japanese Journal of Social Psychology and the Japanese Journal of Psychology.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Whose Time Am I Spending? Nonzero-sum Time Perception Promotes Psychological Well-being and Prosociality
Frank S. Ravitch
Michigan State University College of Law, United States

Biography

Frank S. Ravitch is Professor of Law and Walter H. Stowers Chair in Law in Religion at the Michigan State University College of Law. He also directs the MSU College of Law's Kyoto Japan Program. He is the author of Freedom’s Edge: Religious Freedom, Sexual Freedom, and the Future of America (Cambridge University Press, 2016) (Nominated for a Prose Award); Marketing Creation: The Law and Intelligent Design (Cambridge University Press 2012), Masters of Illusion: The Supreme Court and the Religion Clauses (NYU Press 2007); Law and Religion: Cases, Materials, and Readings (West 2004)(2nd Ed. 2008) (3rd Ed. 2015 with Larry Cata Backer), School Prayer and Discrimination: The Civil Rights of Religious Minorities and Dissenters (Northeastern University Press, 1999 & paperback edition 2001). He is co-author, with the late Boris Bittker and with Scott Idleman, of the first comprehensive treatise on Law and Religion in more than one hundred years, Religion and the State in American Law (Cambridge University Press 2015) (this project was supported by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment). He is co-author of Employment Discrimination Law (Prentice Hall, 2005) (with Pamela Sumners and Janis McDonald).

Professor Ravitch's articles, which have appeared in a number of highly regarded journals, have primarily focused on law and religion in the US and Japan. He has also written about civil rights law and disability discrimination. He has authored a number of amicus briefs to the US Supreme Court and has given numerous academic presentations nationally and internationally. In 2001, he was named a Fulbright scholar and served on the law faculty at Doshisha University in Japan. He has also made dozens of public presentations explaining the law to school groups, community groups, and service clubs, and has served as an expert commentator for print and broadcast media.

Professor Ravitch's current projects include a book on the Japanese Legal System (co-authored with Colin Jones), a chapter on law and religious tradition, and a project focusing on Law, Religion, and Authoritarianism. He speaks English and has basic conversational skills in Japanese and Hebrew.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | Ships in the Night: Expansion of the Separation of Politics and Religion in Japan as the U.S. Supreme Court Abandons the Separation of Church and State

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2022) | Religion and COVID 19 in the U.S.: The Good, the Bad, and the Shocking
Keynote Presentation (2020) | Religious Complicity and LGBTQ Rights
Keynote Presentation (2019) | The Religious and Ethical Void of Trumpism & the Oddity of Trump Support Among Some Evangelical Christians
Keynote Presentation (2018) | Law, Religion and Authoritarianism: From State Shinto to Religio-Trumpism
Featured Presentation (2017) | Freedom’s Edge: Balancing Religious Freedom and Equal Access to Facilities and Services for Transexuals
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Free Speech & Hate Speech – History, Story, Narrative
Keynote Presentation (2016) | Freedom’s Edge – Religious Freedom, Sexual Freedom, and the Future of Justice in America
Featured Presentation (2015)
Keynote Presentation (2014)
Haruko Satoh
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Haruko Satoh is Specially Appointed Professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), where she teaches Japan’s relations with Asia and identity in international relations. She is also co-director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre and she was previously part of the MEXT Reinventing Japan project on “Peace and Human Security in Asia (PAHSA)” with six Southeast Asian and four Japanese universities.

In the past she has worked at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Chatham House, and Gaiko Forum. Her interests are primarily in state theory, Japanese nationalism and identity politics. Recent publications include: “China in Japan’s Nation-state Identity” in James DJ Brown & Jeff Kingston (eds) Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia (Routledge, 2018); “Japan’s ‘Postmodern’ Possibility with China: A View from Kansai” in Lam Peng Er (ed), China-Japan Relations in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); “Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-‘Postwar’ Narrative” in Jain & Lam (Eds.), Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment (World Scientific, 2012); “Through the Looking-glass: China’s Rise as Seen from Japan”, (co-authored with Toshiya Hoshino), Journal of Asian Public Policy, 5(2), 181–198, (July 2012); “Post- 3.11 Japan: A Matter of Restoring Trust?”, ISPI Analysis No. 83 (December 2011); “Legitimacy Deficit in Japan: The Road to True Popular Sovereignty” in Kane, Loy & Patapan (Eds.), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New Leadership Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “Japan: Re-engaging with China Meaningfully” in Tang, Li & Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Professor Satoh is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. She is Chair of the Politics, Law & International Relations section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Panel Presentation (2023) | Recent Developments Concerning the Separation of Religion and State in Contemporary Japan
Jan Spijker
Radboud University, Netherlands

Biography

Jan Spijker, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist at the Expert Center for Depression of Pro Persona Mental Health Care in Nijmegen, and a professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands. His research focuses on the epidemiology, origins, and treatment of chronic, treatment-resistant depression. His research group conducts RCTs into augmentation therapy for (chronic, treatment-resistant) depression. He has contributed to more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed psychiatric journals and is the chair of the committee for the Dutch Multidisciplinary Guidelines for Depression.

Keynote Presentation (2023) | To Be Young and Depressed: Higher Prevalence Rates for Depression in Youngsters in the Netherlands
Brian Victoria
Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, UK

Biography

Brian Victoria is a native of Omaha, Nebraska and a 1961 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. He holds a 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.

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 entitled 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 Prof. Yokoi Yūhō of Aichi-gakuin University (Weatherhill, 1976); and a translation of The Zen Life by Sato Koji (Weatherhill, 1972). In addition, Brian has published numerous journal articles, focusing on the relationship of not only Buddhism but religion in general, to violence and warfare.

From 2005 to 2013 Brian was a Professor of Japanese Studies and director of the AEA “Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program” at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, OH, USA. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. His latest book, Zen Terror: The Death of Democracy in Prewar Japan was published by Rowman & Littlefield in February 2020. Brian is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and a fully ordained Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect.

Featured Presentation (2023) | Are Modern Understandings of Karma the Teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha?
Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | Recent Developments Concerning the Separation of Religion and State in Contemporary Japan

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2022) | The Rehabilitation of a Buddhist Heretic
Keynote Presentation (2021) | Zen Terror: Killing Compassionately?
Featured Presentation (2019) | Is Religious Tolerance Always Desirable: The Case of Shinto and Buddhism
Featured Presentation (2018) | Shinto: Window on Universal Religion
Featured Presentation (2017) | Military Conscription, Slavery and the Modern State
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Battles of Ideas: Identity and Alienation
Featured Presentation (2016) | Abstract for Religion and War – The Wartime Tribalization of Universal Religions
Featured Presentation (2016) | Holy War – Its Causes, Nature and, if possible, its Solutions
Spotlight Presentation (2015) | Powers of the Soul – A Very Different Theory of Justice
Perry Zurn
American University, United States

Biography

Perry Zurn is Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University, and affiliate faculty in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies. Zurn will be a Society Fellow at Cornell University in '23-‘24 and a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania in ‘24-‘25. He researches primarily in political philosophy, critical theory, and transgender studies, and collaborates in psychology and network neuroscience. He is the author of Curiosity and Power: The Politics of Inquiry (2021) and the co-author of Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (2022). He is also the co-editor of Active Intolerance: Michel Foucault, the Prisons Information Group, and the Future of Abolition (2016), Carceral Notebooks 12 (2017), Curiosity Studies: A New Ecology of Knowledge (2020) and Intolerable: Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group, 1970-1980 (2021). Zurn is currently at work on a new monograph, How We Make Each Other: Trans Poetics at the Edge of the University (under contract, Duke University Press), and co-editing Trans Philosophy: Meaning and Mattering (under review). Zurn is the author or coauthor of 75+ additional publications in philosophy, political theory, trans studies, and network science and has given 150+ talks at local, national, and international venues. Zurn’s work has been featured in 50+ podcast, radio, and television shows, as well as in mainstream news outlets such as The Guardian. His work has been generously funded by the American Philosophical Association, the Center for Curiosity, the Hypatia Diversity Fund, the Lee Somers Fund, and the Mellon Foundation. Zurn’s previous appointments include Research Associate at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center and Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Curiosity in the School of Social Policy and Practice.

Featured Discussion (2023) | Curious About Curiosity
Curious About Curiosity
Featured Discussion: Dani S. Bassett & Perry Zurn

In this interactive, interdisciplinary plenary interview and discussion, Perry Zurn and Dani S. Bassett introduce their new theory of curiosity as a relational or "network" practice. For them, curiosity is not so much a capacity to acquire new information as it is a capacity to connect.

The presentation and discussion will also explore curiosity's centrality to the humanities and the sciences, its important connections to human cognitive as well as affective functions, and the implications of this transformative approach to curiosity for education and our collectively curious futures.

Participants, both online and in-person in Tokyo, are encouraged to contribute questions and comments.

Read presenters' biographies
Are Modern Understandings of Karma the Teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha?
Featured Presentation: Brian Victoria

"Karma”, like the word "Buddha”, is one of the few words of Buddhist/Hindu origin that have become so commonly used they no longer need to be italicised when written. Thus, when discussing something that happened to a particular person, usually of a negative character, it is unsurprising to hear someone say, “It was his karma, man.” Here, karma becomes very close to meaning "fate", suggesting a power outside of one’s control that determines one’s destiny. But is this the genuine meaning of karma?

This presentation will focus on the understanding of karma in twentieth-century Japan, beginning with that of Rinzai Zen master Shaku Sōen as presented at the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893, including an examination of the doctrinal underpinnings of Sōen's understanding in the Lotus Sutra. This will be followed by the contrasting understanding of Sōen's lay disciple, D. T. Suzuki, as well as that of the martyred Sōtō Zen priest Uchiyama Gudō.

To ensure that the understanding of karma held by Shaku Sōen, et al. is not regarded as a uniquely Mahayana interpretation, reference will also be made to examples of the use of karma in the Theravada tradition, specifically as used in contemporary Thailand.

In conclusion, an examination of karma as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha will be presented. It will be shown that both the Mahayana and Theravada understandings of karma are far removed, even contradictory, to the teachings of the Buddha himself.

Read presenter's biography
Recent Developments Concerning the Separation of Religion and State in Contemporary Japan
Panel Presentation: Frank Ravitch, Haruko Satoh, Brian Victoria, Joseph Haldane (Moderator)

The ongoing impact of religion on the state (and vice versa) remains an "evergreen" and controversial phenomenon in many countries of the world. Today, the split on national lines between the Christian Orthodox Church in Russia and Ukraine reveals once again how religions are both impacted by and impact upon nations at war. Even more recently, the relationship between Sweden and Turkey became strained due to the burning of the Quran by a right-wing group in the former country, and support for Kurdish groups fighting for their freedom from Turkey, but which Turkey views as terrorist groups.

The purpose of this panel is to introduce recent examples in Japan at both the national and local levels that illustrate the ongoing conflict that Japan, too, has in this regard. Professor Frank Ravitch will discuss relevant developments in Japan at the national level that followed in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 8, 2022. These developments led to the linking of both Abe and numerous other Japanese politicians to the controversial Unification Church (also known as the "Moonies"). Prof. Ravitch will discuss the current attempts in the Japanese Diet to craft legislation that will make it easier to ban religious organisations that are accused of exerting undue pressure on their adherents to donate large sums of money to their religion of choice.

Dr Brian Victoria will introduce both sides of an ongoing court case in Kyoto concerning a local city government-affiliated neighbourhood association that stands accused of allocating some of its yearly membership funds to support activities of area Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. This violates the postwar Japanese Constitution, specifically Article Twenty of which states in part: "Freedom of religion is guaranteed to all. No religious organisation shall receive any privileges from the state, nor exercise any political authority. No person shall be compelled to take part in any religious act, celebration, rite, or practice." The question will be asked whether this and other similar neighbourhood associations throughout the country are simply protecting long-established Japanese customs and culture, or, on the contrary, violating the constitution by contributing membership funds to specific religious organisations.

Read presenters' biographies
Ships in the Night: Expansion of the Separation of Politics and Religion in Japan as the U.S. Supreme Court Abandons the Separation of Church and State
Keynote Presentation: Frank Ravitch

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned more than 50 years of precedent on the establishment of religion (commonly referred to as the separation of church and state) in a case involving sectarian Christian prayer by a public high school football coach. This follows a recent trend of moving away from separationist concepts. This shift has already begun to have a negative impact on religious minorities and nonbelievers in some parts of the United States.

Meanwhile, in Japan, recent decisions by the 最高裁判所 (Japanese Supreme Court) have continued to expand the concept of separation of politics and religion through the application of precedent to new situations. Several recent cases have involved a Shinto shrine in Sunigawa City, Hokkaido and a Confucian temple in Okinawa.
Of course, the United States and Japanese legal systems and socio-political dynamics are quite different. If anything, however, these differences should have led to the opposite result because the U.S. system has a formal reliance on court precedents while the Japanese system has no such formal requirement.

What explains this difference in outcomes? This talk will explore this fascinating question.

Read presenter's biography
To Be Young and Depressed: Higher Prevalence Rates for Depression in Youngsters in the Netherlands
Keynote Presentation: Jan Spijker

According to recent results of NEMESIS, 26% of the Dutch adult population had a psychiatric condition in the past 12 months. Twelve years earlier this was 18%.

Especially, there was a sharp increase in the prevalence in depressive, anxiety and substance use disorders. Those aged under 35, living alone, without employment and living in cities were at higher risk of developing mental disorders.

NEMESIS-3 is a national psychiatric epidemiological survey with more than 6,000 respondents (18-64 years old) that started in 2019. The MINI is used to assess psychiatric disorders according to DSM-IV and DSM-V. Earlier prevalence of psychiatric disorders was assessed in NEMESIS-2. COVID-19 does not seem to have influenced the rise in depression as prevalence in the year before, during and after the pandemic did not differ. There are other signals of an increase of depression and suicidality among students. The chronic stress and performance pressure that young people experience might be the explanation for this situation.

Read presenter's biography
Whose Time Am I Spending? Non-zero-sum Time Perception Promotes Psychological Well-being and Prosociality
Keynote Presentation: Yu Niiya

In modern societies, time is a precious asset. Just like money, we invest, trade, spend, save, borrow, give, lose, and even steal time. Just like money, we see it as a zero-sum resource that can be taken or given. But time could be also conceived as a non-zero-sum: Time may be just there, created moment by moment, and may not belong to anybody. Drawing on an experience sampling survey and a series of experiments, I will present empirical evidence which demonstrates that when people perceive that time spent on others is time spent on the self and vice versa (i.e., they perceive time as non-zero-sum), they experience greater relatedness, autonomy, competence, and satisfaction with life, less stress and time pressure, and more willingness to spend time helping others. None of these effects appeared when people perceived that they were offering or sacrificing their time for others or when others were taking away their time (i.e., perceive time as zero-sum). Drawing on the ecosystem theory of relationships (Crocker & Canevello, 2015), I will suggest that people can enhance psychological well-being and prosociality when they care for others without sacrificing the self.

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