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METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260206T095528Z
DTSTART:20260325T160000Z
SUMMARY:The Fear of a Shrinking Nation: Chronologies of the Future and th
 e Collapse of Everyday Life in Japan
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DESCRIPTION: Chigusa Yamaura (University of Oxford)\n\nThe fear that the 
 nation is shrinking\, potentially into oblivion\, prevails in contempora
 ry Japan. Every year\, stories about record-low fertility rates and popu
 lation decline circulate widely in Japanese society. Such narratives som
 etimes go so far as to predict the disappearance of the Japanese ethnic 
 group itself. How can we understand this fear of a gloomy national futur
 e? This presentation argues that narratives of population decline functi
 on as a new form of nationalism. By examining a new genre of book\, the 
 Chronology of the National Future series\, I show how imagining and cons
 tructing scenarios of a potential dystopian future provokes a timeless s
 ense of national belonging\, encompassing not only the past and the pres
 ent\, but also the future. The Chronology of the Future series illustrat
 es how population decline is projected to lead to disastrous consequence
 s for the everyday lives of Japanese citizens\, presented year by year. 
 These imagined outcomes include\, for instance\, the dysfunction of publ
 ic transportation systems and the collapse of emergency medical services
 . At the same time\, this presentation considers whether such fear actua
 lly mobilises Japanese nationals. Despite the widespread sense of urgenc
 y and crisis-ness surrounding population decline\, concrete and practica
 l actions to alter the nation’s future seem to remain limited. In this c
 ontext\, what does this pervasive feeling of fear ultimately lead to?
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:A202\, Samuel Alexander Building\, Manchester
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