The 2025 Annual Spring Conference will be held in person on Thursday, March 13, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio, in conjunction with the 2025 Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference.

The AATJ conference will feature a full day of concurrent panel and individual presentation sessions beginning at 9:00 AM, followed by a general session and keynote presentation.

A networking event is being planned for the evening of Wednesday, March 12; please stay tuned for details. Several of AATJ’s Special Interest Groups may also schedule meetings during the AATJ/AAS conference.

The keynote speaker at the 2025 Conference is Mari Noda, Professor Emeritus at the Ohio State University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and a longtime leader in the field of Japanese language education. Professor Noda is the 2025 recipient of AATJ’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented following her keynote address. Read about Noda sensei and the award.

The conference sessions will be held in meeting rooms on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency Columbus Hotel (360 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43215; 614-463-1234).

REGISTER FOR THE SPRING CONFERENCE 

Registration for the conference is open. Registration fees are as follows:

$60 for AATJ members (post-secondary faculty)
$40 for student members
$30 for K-12 educators
$110 for non-members

Members of the Canadian Association of Japanese Language Educators (CAJLE) are welcome to register at the same rates as AATJ members.

Hotel reservations at the Association for Asian Studies conference rate are available on the AAS website: please go to https://www.asianstudies.org/conference/hotel2025/ to reserve a room at one of the conference hotels.

We strongly encourage AATJ members to also attend the AAS conference, which takes place Friday – Sunday, March 14-16, at the Hyatt Regency and other nearby venues. The Program information is online at https://www.asianstudies.org/conference/ . The AAS conference features hundreds of presentations on topics related to Japan and other Asian countries, as well as a large Exhibit Hall at which academic publishers and other organizations display their latest books on Asia and other products. Exhibitors include many publishers from Japan. Entrance to the Exhibit Hall is free to everyone; it is not necessary to be registered for the AAS conference to enter.

CULTR Grant for 2025 AATJ Spring Conference First -Time Attendees

AATJ is pleased to announce a special conference grant provided by Georgia State University’s Center for Urban Language Teaching and Research (CULTR). This opportunity is for AATJ member teachers in their first to fifth year(s) of teaching who have not yet attended an AATJ Spring Conference. This grant will provide $300.00 for two recipients to be used toward 2025 AATJ Spring conference attendance. Upon attendance and completion of CULTR requirements, the two recipients will receive $300 to offset these expenses.

The Center for Urban Language Teaching and Research (CULTR) works to enhance the global skills opportunities of urban and underrepresented learners and educators. CULTR is one of 16 National Foreign Language Resource Centers and is housed at Georgia State University.

Requirements:

-Recipients must attend the AATJ Spring Conference on March 13, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio.
-Recipients must be first-time AATJ Spring Conference attendees in their first 5 years of teaching.
-Recipients will be responsible for all registration, lodging, and travel arrangements and expenses.
-Recipients will complete a brief CULTR survey and submit a one to two-minute video to CULTR about the impact of the conference. The video will include answers to the following questions, and will be hosted on  CULTR’s website:

  1. How has CULTR’s (pronounced “culture”) sponsorship of this conference impacted your professional development as a teacher?
  2. What were your key takeaways from the conference you attended?
  3. How can this grant (and similar initiatives) help to improve language teacher retention?

-Payment will be made upon completion of all requirements.

Deadline for Applications: Feb 15, 2025.

Apply Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqHSFkTkboEBAF_Zab81-vwH5ZwArnr2PgVdoObwmRGxwdGg/viewform

2024 International Conference on Japanese Language Education

Instead of a 2024 Spring Conference, AATJ  hosted the 2024 International Conference on Japanese Language Education, August 1-3, in Madison, WI.

Programs from Past Spring Conferences

2023 Spring Conference Program
2022 Spring Conference Program
2022 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2021 Spring Conference Program
2021 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2020 Spring Conference Program
2020 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2019 Spring Conference Program
2019 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2018 Spring Conference Program
2018 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2017 Spring Conference Program
2017 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2016 Spring Conference Program
2016 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2015 Spring Conference Program
2015 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts
2014 Spring Conference Program
2014 Spring Conference Program with Abstracts