This article aims to show how the Nuclear disaster in Fukushima (3 March 2011) affected Japanese Language teaching and learning in Italy, focusing on the ITADICT Project (Marcella Mariotti, project leader, Clemente Beghi, research fellow and Alessandro Mantelli, programmer). The project intends to develop the first Japanese-Italian online database, involving more than 60 students of Japanese language interested in lexicographic research and online learning strategies and tools. A secondary undertaking of ITADICT is its Latin alphabet transliteration of Japanese words into Hepburn style. ITADICT is inspired by EDICT Japanese-English database developed by the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group established in 2000 within the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. The Japanese-Italian database is evolving within the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the largest in the country and one of the main teaching centres of Japanese in Europe in terms of the number of students dedicated to it (1800) and number of Japanese language teaching hours (1002h at B.A. level, and 387h at M.A. level). In this paper we will describe how and why the project has been carried out and what the expectations are for its future development.

This volume brings together the papers presented at the international symposium Rethinking Nature in Contemporary Japan: Facing the Crisis held at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in March 2015, as the last of a three-years research project on post-Fukushima Japan funded by the Japan Foundation. The book focuses on Religion and Thought, Fine Arts, Music, Cinema, Animation and Performing Arts (Theatre and Dance), from a multidisciplinary perspective.

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Abstract

Associations of teachers of Japanese play an indispensable role in assisting not only teachers but also learners and impacting society by offering resources and opportunities for the growth of in-service teachers and pre-service teachers such as postgraduate students. Enhancing the quality of the resources and opportunities is expected to become effective when they know each other, learn from each other and work together. For this purpose, the Association of Japanese Language Teachers in Europe hosted a summit where the representatives of 22 European countries gathered to discuss the current and the future of Japanese language education in Europe. The aim of the current report is to present general but up-to-date information about the teachers, learners, institutions, associations, and features and challenges of each country. Furthermore, this report will illustrate the key discussions of the summit on the challenges and the possible actions for the viable future of Japanese language education in Europe. The Authors hope to contribute to creating the reference points for larger future studies on such associations while reflecting on the impact the summit possibly had.