The “Crisis” of Sociality: Caring for the Dead Otherwise

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Activity Type: 
Conference
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Date: 
Tuesday, March 18, 2025 - 12:00 to 14:00
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Location: 
University Club Conference Room A
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Responding to the record low birthrate, in 2023, then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida declared Japan “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions.” Seeing this as a crisis of social reproduction, he announced policies to incentivize young people into having children—to reembrace the family as the center of life/livelihood. As sociality continues to downsize in Japan—to single households, solo lifestyles, childless futures—the keynote asks how these changes affect the elderly who once counted on “the family” to both care for and bury them. 

Anne Allison’s research on contemporary issues in Japan spans the nightlife, popular culture, Pokémon, sexuality, gender, precarity, and death. She is the author of Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club; Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination; and Precarious Japan. Her most recent book, Being Dead Otherwise, has been awarded the John Whitney Hall Prize for 2025. 

UCIS Unit: 
Asian Studies Center
Other Pitt Sponsors: 
The World History Center
The Ford Institute for Human Society
Is Event Already in University Calendar?: 
Yes
University Calendar ID: 
49038781757949