‘Reading the air’ (kūki wo yomu) is a highly valued communicative skill in Japan. It has been argued to shape expectations, motivations, and actions within social settings and to facilitate smooth relationships. Not being able to do it is understood as disruptive and damaging to social settings and the management of social relations. In this talk I discuss these concepts and explore the diverse ways in which people with food allergies in Japan are imaginatively reading the air and trying to avoid creating trouble (meiwaku) for others and themselves when they disclose their allergies. I trace how practices of reading the air, and the concept of meiwaku, can also be productively understood as a practice of the imagination, which is indeterminate, intersubjective and emergent, whilst also building from prior experience to direct the actions they take.

Emma Cook is a Professor of Modern Japanese Studies at Hokkaido University. Her research currently focuses on feeling, affect and emotion in food allergy experiences in Japan. She is particularly interested in exploring how the individual and social intersect, interact, and are embodied, and how cultural conceptions of food, food sharing, health, illness, and the body affect experiences of food allergies.

Lecture will be held exclusively online (register here) via Zoom (meeting ID: 833 2325 8931).

The meeting link will remain posted on the ISEAS website top page from October 19.