Japan on the Margins

Diversity, Norms, and Negotiations in Contemporary Japan

About the Project

Japan on the Margins is an academic project that examines diversity, social norms, and marginality in contemporary Japan.

The project focuses on individuals and groups whose experiences challenge dominant narratives about Japanese society. Rather than viewing marginality solely as a condition of exclusion, the project explores how marginalized positions can also become spaces of negotiation, creativity, and social change.

By combining perspectives from sociology, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies, the project seeks to better understand how social norms are constructed and contested in everyday life.

The project brings together scholars working on themes such as digital culture, gender relations, political discourse, and social inequality. Through lectures, publications, and collaborative research activities, Japan on the Margins aims to contribute to broader discussions about diversity and social transformation in East Asia.

Yoko Demelius PhD

Yutaka Yoshida PhD

PhD, Docent
University Lecturer, Centre for East Asian Studies
Docent, Faculty of Social Sciences

Areas of expertise: diversity, marginality, minority, gender, civil society, community, conspiracy theories, transgression and intimacy, ethnography
ORCID

Contact:

yoko.demelius@utu.fi

PhD
Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences

Areas of expertise: far-right movements, hate crime, perpetration of and victimisation in fraud, psychosocial criminology

ORCID

Contact:

YoshidaY@cardiff.ac.uk