Most advisors tell graduate students early on that in order to develop a more complete and well-rounded CV they should start thinking about submitting papers to graduate student conferences or major disciplinary conferences. If your advisor is a bit hands off or you’re not terribly familiar with the state of the Asian/Japanese Studies field (and other disciplines related to your work) already, then figuring out how to find conferences and symposia of various sizes and different reputations can be difficult.
While some conferences are small and spontaneously hosted as one-time events by universities or research institutions, others are annual and sponsored by larger academic organizations.
Those interested in Japanese Studies may want to think about Japanese Studies conferences, conferences on Asia or East Asia, and those specific to their disciplines (be it history, technology, literature, medicine, etc.). Below I have attempted to list and categorize some of the major annual conferences, some general, some regional, some topical.
This list should not be considered exhaustive, as I may not be familiar with big annual conferences related to Asia/Japan for specific subdisciplines, but I have done my best to include what I have found. If you have anything you would like added to the list, please leave a comment or contact me as shinpai.deshou@gmail.com!
** Please note that many conferences maintain new websites every year for their conferences, so some websites listed below may be subject to change year by year.
** Some conferences may be held in multiple languages, not just English.
General Conferences
The Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
http://www.asian-studies.org/
AAS in Asia
http://www.aas-in-asia.org/
European Association of Japanese Studies
http://www.eajs.eu/
European Association of Japanese Studies in Japan
https://www.eajs.eu/index.php?id=630&L=1%252%5C%5C
The New Zealand Asian Studies Society
http://www.nzasia.org.nz/conference.html
Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA)
http://asaa.asn.au/conference/
Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA)
http://www.jsaa.org.au/
British Association for Japanese Studies (BAJS)
http://www.bajs.org.uk/conferences/
Nordic Association of Japanese and Korean Studies (NAJAKS)
www.najaks.org
International Convention of Asia Scholars
https://icas.asia/
Asian Studies Conference Japan (ASCJ)
https://ascjapan.org/
Japanese Studies Association (JSA)
http://www.japanstudies.org/
Japan-America Student Conference
http://www.jasc.org/
Regional Conferences (US)
Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC)
https://aspac2.org/
Western Conference Association for Asian Studies (WCAAS)
http://wcaas.org/
Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA)
https://asia.isp.msu.edu/mcaa/
New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS)
http://asianstudies.buffalo.edu/nycas/
Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies (MARAAS)
http://maraas.org/
Southwest Conference on Asian Studies (SWCAS)
https://www.swcas.net/
New England Association for Asian Studies (NEAAS)
https://sites.dartmouth.edu/neaas/
Southeast Conference Association for Asian Studies (SECAAS)
https://www.sec-aas.com/
Language, Linguistics, Pedagogy
Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
https://www.nectfl.org/
The International Conference on Practical Linguistics of Japanese (ICPLJ)
http://www.ninjal.ac.jp/icplj8/
American Association of Teachers of Japanese
https://www.aatj.org/
The Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference
http://www.mikebarrie.com/JK/jk27.html
The Japan Second Language Association
http://www.j-sla.org/e/index.html
The Japanese Society for Language Sciences 21st Annual International Conference
https://jsls.jpn.org/con/jsls2019/
Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education (CAJLE)
http://www.cajle.info/
Literature, Arts, Humanities
Association for Japanese Literary Studies (AJLS)
https://sites.google.com/view/ajls
Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities
https://acah.iafor.org/
Sciences, Anthropology, Religious Studies
International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia (ICHSEA)
http://isheastm.org/
The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology (JASCA)
http://www.jasca.org/index-e.html
The Conference on Asian Linguistic Anthropology
https://cala.asia/
International Association of Buddhist Studies
http://iabsinfo.net/
Annual Graduate Student Asian Studies Conferences
Columbia University Gradcon
http://ealac.columbia.edu/program/graduate/
East-West Center International Graduate Student Conference
https://www.eastwestcenter.org/education/student-programs/current-ewc-students/international-graduate-student-conference
Harvard University East Asia Society
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/heasconference/home
University of Colorado, Boulder Asian Studies Graduate Student Conference
https://www.colorado.edu/alc/cubasga
Nanzan Seminar for the Study of Religions
https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/activities/nanzan-seminars/
What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies? 