27 APRIL: Film Screening

Abraxas (Director, Naoki Kato, 2010)

In his youth, Jonen was a punk-rock musician. Now he’s a Buddhist monk with a wife and five-year-old son. During his career-day speech at a local high school, however, Jonen has a public breakdown that leads to a deep depression when he realizes the importance of music to his life. In an attempt to raise Jonen’s spirits, the compassionate chief monk suggests he play a live show. As he plans for the concert, Jonen faces challenges from past loss, small-town resistance, and the possibility of alienating his family.

Location: Ron Howard Screening Room (RZC 111), Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts 

Time: 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM 

28 APRIL: A Symposium

Religion in the Public Sphere: Japan and the World

Location: Tutor Campus Center, Room 227 (The Rosen Family Screening Theatre)

Time: 10:30 AM – 5:00 PM

“Post 3-11 Religion in Japan”

By Susumu Shimazono (Professor, University of Tokyo; former President, Japanese Association for Religious Studies) 

Respondent: Donald Miller (Professor and Executive Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC)

“Religion in Films and Religious Culture Education in Contemporary Japan”

By Nobutaka Inoue (Professor and Director, Institute of Japanese Culture and Classics, Kokugakuin University) 

Respondent: Jolyon Thomas (Ph.D. Candidate, Princeton University)

“A Place for Religion in the Public Sphere? Some Postwar Japanese Responses to Secularization”

By Mark Mullins (Professor, Sophia University; Editor-In-Chief, Monumenta Nipponica) 

Respondent: David Kyuman Kim (Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Connecticut College)

“Religious and Citizenship Education in Public Schools in Japan: A Comparison with the United States”

By Koichi Mori (Chancellor, Kobe College; Professor Emeritus, Doshisha University)

Respondent: Helen Hardacre (E.O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University)