The Yamaoka Memorial Foundation hosted the 5th Youth Culture Symposium on “Language Tradition and Contemporary Communication - Japan and Germany” on February 16 at the Goethe-Institut Villa Kamogawa. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to minimize the number of attendees at the venue, but we had a lot of participation online, with a total of 55 audience members.

The symposium is held as a forum for young researchers funded by the Yamaoka Memorial Foundation to report on how contemporary youth cultures and lifestyles in Japan and Germany have changed in recent years due to the rapid progress of globalization and information technology, and what developments can be expected in youth cultural exchange between the two countries in the future. This is the third time the symposium has been held in this way.

In this event, young researchers who received a research grant for “Youth Cultures and Lifestyles in Japan and Germany” for 2020 presented their research and studies on their respective topics and made comparisons between Japan and Germany with regards to the aesthetic value of haiku and the language and themes of right-wing groups. Many of the audience members commented that they were deeply moved by the presented perspectives, which they had never considered before, and that they learned a great deal.

In the general discussion, based on the topic of “Changes in Communication during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the effects of the pandemic on youth cultures were discussed, and the presenters of this year's research grant projects and those of the year before last had a lively discussion.

The symposium was held concurrently online, and an active exchange of opinions developed between the presenters and the audience based on comment sheets and questions received from the audience, making this a very meaningful symposium.

At the end of the symposium, a ceremony was held to award the 2021 Research Grants. One of the three recipients was present at the venue, and Executive Director Yukino of the Yamaoka Memorial Foundation presented him with a research grant certificate and shared with him these words of encouragement: “Please deepen your research not only in Germany and Japan but also in other parts of Asia.”

For those interested, the PowerPoint presentations of the lectures are available on our website.

・Jimpei Hitsuwari
(Kyoto University Graduate-School of Education, 1st Year Master's Course)
“Ambiguity and Beauty: Japan–Germany Cross Cultural Comparison on Aesthetic Evaluation of Haiku Poetry”

・Tamara Fuchs
(Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Japanese Studies (Modern and Contemporary Japan), Research Assistant)
“Youth Language and the Internet: New Right Tendencies in Social Media (Twitter) in Japan and Germany”

・Shinji Imai
(Adjunct Lecturer at Rikkyo University; Part-time Lecturer at Tokyo Kasei University, Tokyo Polytechnic University, and Otsuma Women's University)
“Comparison of Analog Games in Japan and Germany and Research on Young People's Participation in Games”

・Jiangcheng Wu
(Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University)
“The Reception of Haruki Murakami's Literature in German and Chinese Online Communities”

・Takehito Noda
(Associate Professor, Faculty of Modern Welfare, Hosei University)
“Environmental History of the Culture of Drinking Spring Water in Japan and Germany”