Since its 1987 inaugural meeting at the University of Alberta, JSAC has operated successfully as an informal and collegial organization.  Every year, scholars and their committed support teams stepped up to host and run our conferences at, or through, their respective universities. Now though universities are glad to serve as conference sites, they are less agreeable to acting as our “bank”.

We refined our bylaws to make them compliant with the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, held our first Directors meeting and approved the bylaws and other initiating articles at our Annual General Meeting at our Montreal conference.  Some aspects of our work will not change; others will.

JSAC will still rely on the initiative of scholars at Canadian universities to organize conferences at their campuses or nearby sites.  What will differ is that JSAC will administer most of the grants we secure through our NFP. The call for papers, prepared by the conference organizers, will be distributed through the JSAC website, which will also serve as our membership platform.   

This new structure will position JSAC more prominently in a crowded scholarly association landscape.  So please make sure you join JSAC and renew your membership! We will require this support to continue our commitment to Japan studies in Canada.