The UAB's GREGAL group and Casa Àsia present a platform on social and cultural relations with Japan

J-Lab aims to catalyse the production and dissemination of content on a wide range of topics through news, reviews, analysis articles, research reports and specialised studies, to facilitate interaction between experts (academics, journalists, creators, analysts, etc.) and the public interested in Japanese society and culture. The aim is to generate expert knowledge about the connections between both countries and put it at the service of society at a time of global success of the Japanese cultural and creative industries, ranging from manga and anime to music (J-pop), cinema and video games (geemu).

The platform, which has been developed as part of a research project financed with European funds, was presented by Blai Guarné, principal investigator of the GREGAL group and director of the Centre for East Asian Studies and Research (CERAO) of the UAB; and by Jordi Serrano-Muñoz, Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ghent, Belgium, and researcher of the GREGAL group, at an event in Barcelona that took place on 8 July. The meeting also included a conference by Pau Pitarch, lecturer at Waseda University in Tokyo, in which he analysed the growing social interest in Japanese literature in Spain, and a round table in which GREGAL researchers Alba Serra-Vilella, Alba Torrents, Just Castillo and Mario Malo spoke about the opportunities that open up relations with Japan. As for the institutional speeches, Akiko Shikata, consul general of Japan in Barcelona, and José Pintor, director general of Casa Asia, also took part in the event.