Japan Fieldwork Workshop invites you to a timely presentation...

FOOD CHOICES IN POST-FUKUSHIMA JAPAN
Nicolas Sternsdorff
PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology,
Harvard University (affiliated with Sophia University)

Sophia University, Yotsuya Campus
Bldg. 10, room 301
Thursday, March 15th
6:30-8pm.
Access: http://www.fla.sophia.ac.jp/about/location

Lecture in English (Japanese discussion welcome) Free and open to all; no registration necessary

(We usually go out for a beer around the corner after presentations--and again, all are welcome.)

Abstract: My research looks at questions of food safety

and quality in Japan. I explore how producers, distributors and consumers are dealing with the fallout of the nuclear accident, and how notions of what is safe to eat are being reconfigured in post-Fukushima Japan.

People on all ends of food supply chains have to deal with the science of radiation, and this has become a significant part of my study. I am particularly interested in how safety is defined, and the ways in which people mobilize scientific arguments to construct foods as safe or unsafe. The government has set safety standards, but many of the groups I have been following consider those to be too high, and I am trying to trace how they

define and put into practice their own safety standards.

At the same time, food safety was already a concern to many Japanese consumers before the earthquake, and one of the themes I am exploring is how these concerns co-exist and affect the ways in which people approach the threat of radiation.

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JAPAN FIELDWORK WORKSHOP, now in our 12th year, is an open forum for those who are doing fieldwork in any discipline. It is designed to give scholars of any status a chance to present work in progress and to get feedback on the content, methods and possible directions of their research.

--
David H. Slater, Ph.D.
Faculty of Liberal Arts
Sophia University, Tokyo