The Variation Theory Forum of Japan

The Variation Theory Forum of Japan was begun in 1989 as a forum for interested scholars and graduate students to study and discuss linguistic variation theory and the techniques and methods of its research. At the group's inception, members read a published paper in the field written in a foreign language (usually English, but occasionally in Chinese, Portuguese, etc.) and one of the members would lead a discussion of the issues discussed in the paper, particularly of their importance to the study of variation in Japanese. Soon after the group began, the meetings were expanded to include a presentation by one of the members of his or her own research followed by a discussion of that topic.

The group meets several times a year in the Kansai area, usually at Osaka University (Toyonaka campus). Meetings are held in Japanese and anyone is welcome to attend. There are no membership fees for those who would like to be placed on the mailing list to receive email announcements of upcoming meetings.  Those interested in having their names placed on the mailing list should contact either Daniel Long at dlong@bcomp.metro-u.ac.jp or Yoshiyuki Asahi at yasahi@ma.kcom.ne.jp

Anyone interested in attending future meetings is encouraged to do so. We have a page (in Japanese) with abstracts of previous presentations and details of upcoming times, places and topics for upcoming meetings. Click here to see it.