The director of Trans Pacific Press, Yuko Uematsu, was a speaker at the JCAS symposium on January 25, along with Mr. Tetsuya Suzuki, editor-in-chief of Kyoto University Press, and Mr. Masaru Katsu, JETRO advisor. The theme of the symposium was "Publishing Area Studies”. There were over 100 participants, ranging from professors to young post-doctoral students, some from overseas.

Yuko spoke about the international distribution of academic books, while Mr. Suzuki discussed the fact that academic books, unlike journal articles, need to ask bigger questions and need a strong narrative element, and Mr. Matsu spoke on the readership of academic books.  

The three speakers discussed the gap that exists between publications conceived by area researchers and those demanded by society from the viewpoint of publishers who connect academia and general society. The talk was presented in Japanese; if you missed it, you can view the recording here for one week only.

 

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