CFP

RJ2026: Replaying Japan 2026

Ritsumeikan University, Osaka Ibaraki Campus

Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, August 19-21, 2026

Conference website	https://replaying.jp
Submission deadline	February 28, 2026

Topics: videogame popular culture transmedia game

Call for Papers

We are pleased to announce that Replaying Japan 2026, the 14th International Japan Game Studies Conference, will be held in late August 2026 at Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus.

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

[Conference Theme] Beyond Games: Intersections of Popular Culture and Transmedia Entertainment

[Dates] August 19-21, 2026. A symposium on play and creation (conducted in Japanese) is scheduled for the 18th.

[Location] Osaka Ibaraki Campus, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka, Japan

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

- 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

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

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following paper categories 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.

Posters/Demo sessions: 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.

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 2023, visit the conference home page (replaying.jp) or write to replayingjapan@gmail.com.