Call for papers – Replaying Japan 2026: Beyond Games: Intersections of Popular Culture and Transmedia Entertainment (Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus)

Replaying Japan 2026 – The 14thInternational Japan Game Studies Conference – Beyond Games: Intersections of Popular Culture and Transmedia Entertainment

Dates: August 18-21, 2026. A symposium on play and creation (conducted in Japanese) is scheduled for the 18th

Place: Osaka Ibaraki Campus, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka, Japan

Submission deadline: Mar. 14th, 2026

Organized by: Keiji AMANO (Ritsumeikan University), Aki Nakamura (Ritsumeikan University), Kazufumi FUKUDA (Ritsumeikan University), Akito INOUE (Ritsumeikan University), Yasuo KAWASAKI (Ritsumeikan University), Siyu YANG (Ritsumeikan University)

An excursion to TOEI Kyoto Studio Park (Aug. 22) will also be part of the conference

Call for papers

Since its inception, the Replaying Japan Conferences has served as the leading international conference dedicated to the study of Japanese and East Asian videogames. The 2026 conference will broaden the conference scope to explore the dynamic and evolving relationships between games and adjacent forms of popular culture. This year’s theme focuses on games in the context of media mix and transmedia storytelling, examining how games interact with and contribute to broader cultural ecosystems, including:

  • Anime 
  • Manga
  • Novel (including light novel) 
  • Film 
  • Television dramas (including period dramas) 
  • Consumer-generated media
  • Creative Labour,
  • Fandom, communities, consumer, user
  • Ecologies or Ecosystems

Games and these other forms of popular cultures can be seen as a source of mutual inspiration as well as a source from which cross-disciplinary movements and businesses draw.

We invite submissions that examine the multifaceted relationships between games and these media forms, from historical, social, economic, cultural, technological, and aesthetic, ethical perspectives. 

We also invite papers on other topics relating to games and game cultures in Japan, East Asia and Southeast Asia, digital narratives, artificial intelligence and education from the perspectives of humanities, social sciences, business, or education.

Submission Guidelines

 Abstract submission deadline: Mar. 14th, 2026Notification of Acceptance: Mid April 2026

[Conference Formats] The following types of submissions are welcome:

Full Papers and Panels: Long paper sessions and panels will get 60 minutes. Long paper sessions will have three papers, while panels could have up to 6 speakers. For long paper sessions there will be an appointed chair, for panel sessions the chair will be one of the panelists.

Poster/Demo session: A 90-minute session will be set aside during the event schedule for poster/demonstration proposals of games or interactive projects. The date and time will be communicated to presenters after the program is finalized. Presenters who want to demonstrate innovative work best shown interactively rather than submit a written paper should take advantage of our poster/demo session.

Lightning Talks: At least one 60-minute session will be secured for Lightning Talks for works in progress. If you have work in progress that you would like to present we will have a Lightning Talk session. Student and early career submissions are highly encouraged. Abstracts can be shorter than 500 words.

All papers must be original. Abstracts must be submitted via EasyChair as an anonymised abstract (pdf). The abstract for Full Papers, Panels, and the Poster/Demo Session should be no more than 1000 words in English, 1600 characters in Japanese. Figures, tables and references do not count toward the word limit. Abstracts are expected to have a bibliography, but the bibliography doesn’t count towards the word limit.

Abstracts must be submitted via EasyChair as an anonymised abstract (pdf).

The abstract for Full Papers, Panels, and the Poster/Demo Session should be no more than 1000 words in English, 1600 characters in Japanese. Figures, tables and references do not count toward the word limit. Abstracts are expected to have a bibliography, but that the bibliography doesn’t count towards the word limit.

[Info]

  • Sessions will be in English, but we may have voluntary translation support for presenters who are not comfortable with English.
  • Replaying Japan is an in-person conference. No hybrid sessions are planned.

We look forward to your contributions and to welcoming you to Osaka in 2026!

Committees

Conference Co-Chairs
  • Keiji AMANO (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Aki NAKAMURA (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Martin ROTH (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Mitsuyuki INABA (Ritsumeikan University)
  • James NEWMAN (Bath Spa University)
  • Geoffrey ROCKWELL (University of Alberta)
  • Rachael HUTCHINSON (University of Delaware)
  • James Manning (RMIT University)
  • Jérémie PELLETIER-GAGNON (Université de l’Ontario français)
  • Tsugumi (Mimi) OKABE (Baruch College, CUNY)
  • Koichi HOSOI (ZEN University)
  • Chitoko KOIDE (ZEN University)
Program committee
  • Keiji AMANO (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Aki Nakamura (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Kazufumi FUKUDA (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Akito INOUE (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Yasuo KAWASAKI (Ritsumeikan University)
  • Siyu YANG (Ritsumeikan University)

Venue

Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus Building H

2-150 Iwakura-cho, Ibaraki,Osaka 567-8570 JAPAN

https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/access/

Contact

For more information about Replaying Japan 2026, visit the conference home page (replaying.jp) or write to replayingjapan@gmail.com.

Fanny Barnabé
Fanny Barnabé

OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Fanny Barnabé (24 janvier 2026). Call for papers – Replaying Japan 2026: Beyond Games: Intersections of Popular Culture and Transmedia Entertainment (Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus). LPCM. Consulté le 8 juin 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/15k18


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