JAWS holds major conferences – some in conjunction with the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) – as well as smaller workshops and seminars.
JAWS publishes selected works on Japan anthropology in partnership with Routledge.
[1] It is now a conference held approximately every 18 months, organised with hosts across the world.
The idea for JAWS was conceived at the 1982 European Association of Japanese Studies (EAJS) Conference in The Hague, after which a planning meeting was organised the following year at the Nissan Institute for Japanese Studies in Oxford.
The first workshop was held in March 1984 when a need was identified for a forum for the growing but largely isolated band of anthropologists of Japan to meet together and exchange ideas.