The Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna would like to draw your attention to the upcoming hybrid u:japan lecture:

Sakura Yamamura (RWTH Aachen University, Germany):
"Conceptualizing Superdiversity and Intersectionality in Urban Japan"

Date and time: Thursday, November 27, 2025, 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)

Location: Onsite @ Campus of the University of Vienna Department of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies room JAP 1 (2K-EG-21), University Campus Hof 2.4, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=23548#c646040

Online: Join the lecture via Zoom (no registration necessary):
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/66152639079?pwd=OsmghCfUoJed0aR7PcUdTCiOgGDK1E.1
Meeting-ID: 661 5263 9079 | Passcode: 403360

Abstract: Amid the rapid diversification of contemporary urban Japan, new ways of understanding how people live together are becoming essential. Approaching Tokyo through the combined lenses of superdiversity and intersectionality offers a pathway into this emerging complexity. Drawing on the monograph Spatial Diversity in the Global City: Transnational Tokyo (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), this talk reframes the city as a constellation of overlapping mobilities, identities, and spatial practices that exceed conventional narratives of homogeneity in the context of urban (super-)diversity.
Superdiversity, rather than referring only to an increase in migrant numbers or countries of origin, captures the diversification within migrant populations themselves. It highlights the growing complexity of individual characteristics--such as gender, language, ethnicity, and religion--as well as migration-related dimensions including legal status, migration type, and the channels through which people move. This expanded understanding provides a lens for recognizing the multilayered heterogeneity emerging across Tokyo's urban landscape. 

However, while superdiversity has often been invoked as a celebrator concept associated with conviviality and multicultural encounters, this talk moves a step further by examining how superdiversity and intersectionality intersect conceptually and spatially within specific contexts. This reveals not only sites of encounter but also the uneven power relations, institutional structures, and socio-spatial dynamics that shape everyday urban life.
By approaching superdiversity through an intersectional spatial lens, the talk uncovers how differences are simultaneously produced, negotiated, and contested in Tokyo's neighborhoods. It shows that superdiversity in global cities is not merely a demographic trend but a lived, relational condition embedded in urban space. Taken together, superdiversity and intersectionality offer a nuanced framework for understanding how urban coexistence is being reconfigured within Tokyo and across the wider network of global cities.

For more information on the speaker and future events at u:japan, please follow the link below:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/

We look forward to your participation!
Hanno Jentzsch, Lola Moreau, Anna-Maria Stabentheiner, Ralf Windhab and Julian Wollinger

PS: If you missed a lecture or want to review, head to our recorded lectures section:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/records/

u:japan lectures
Department of East Asian Studies / Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna
E-mail: ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at

Kindly sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation:
https://www.toshibafoundation.com/