Once again The Japan Foundation and The British Association for Japanese Studies worked together on the 9^th iteration of the Postgraduate Japanese Studies Workshop. Students from across various UK institutions came to SOAS, University of London for a day of workshops, presentations and networking. The aim of this year’s workshop was to give students help and advice on academic publishing.

The first session was a hands-on feedback workshop, looking at work that students had submitted that they were hoping to turn into a publication in the future. Broken into smaller groups, they were helped by a panel of academics with a broad range of expertise and a wealth of experience in publishing their own works as journals, chapters and monographs.

Following a networking lunch, the students returned for session two, a Q&A session with the panel of assembled academics. The questions covered everything from politics sensitivities, to work-life balance in academia and with such a diverse panel from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, there was no shortage of interesting responses to each of the questions.

Session three saw Prof Ian Reader (The University of Manchester), take up the role of keynote speaker. A veteran of publishing with countless works to his name, Prof Reader aimed to guide students through the nuts and bolts of publishing a monograph, including how to select a publisher, the etiquette of submission and what to expect once you have submitted. Prof Reader was followed by Mr Laurence Green, the Managing Editor of Japan Forum. Mr Green gave important insider knowledge on the process of journal publishing and the work that goes into selecting which articles are published and what the submission process was like.

For the final session of the day, representatives from The Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, The Embassy of Japan in the UK, and The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation joined the organisers in discussing the funding opportunities that were available to students of Japanese Studies from their organisations. After the final session, a reception was held for all the attendees, academics and representatives to network and discuss the day’s workshop.

The Japan Foundation would like to thank the British Association for Japanese Studies for all their efforts in co-organising this event as well as the academics for giving up their valuable time. We would also like to thank all the funding institutions that spoke in the final session, Nikkei Europe and Kinokuniya Publication Services for displaying their services, and SOAS for hosting the event.