The Waseda International House of Literature (The Haruki Murakami Library)Waseda University

Apology and Updated Information

We regret to inform you that incorrect information regarding the special issue
of The Journal of Waseda University International House of Literature, Volume
4, was previously posted on this page. We sincerely apologize for any
confusion or inconvenience this may have caused to those who were considering
submitting their work.

Please rest assured that any manuscripts submitted―or being prepared―based
on the earlier information will be reviewed fairly as general (open-topic)
submissions, following the September 15 deadline.

The corrected call for papers is now available. For those interested in
submitting to the special issue “Japanese Literature and Body Politics,” please refer to the updated information.

Call for Papers: Special Issue of The Journal of Waseda International House of Literature
Theme: “Japanese Literature and Body Politics”
Submission Deadline: September 15, 2025 (Mon.) / Scheduled Publication: March 20, 2026 (Fri.)

The Journal of Waseda International House of Literature is currently accepting submissions for its upcoming Volume 4. In addition to open-topic articles （自由論文）, we are also calling for papers for a special issue on the theme “Japanese Literature and Body Politics.”
For details on the scope of the topic, please refer to the special issue’s call for papers below.
We aim to feature scholarship that brings new perspectives and methodologies to the field, and we especially welcome submissions from early-career researchers and graduate students.
We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Submission Deadline: September 15, 2025 (Mon.)
Scheduled Publication Date: March 20, 2026 (Fri.)
Articles may be submitted in either Japanese or English

Call for Papers: Japanese Literature and Body Politics
When the feminist slogan “the personal is political” was first raised, the body—long neglected in theory and criticism as a merely private matter—emerged as a crucial site of theoretical inquiry. This shift fractured established boundaries between the personal and the public, as well as between gender, race, and class, drawing attention to the power relations embedded within them. In the field of Japanese literature, the question of body politics has likewise prompted critical reflection on how to move beyond logocentrism and spiritualism. At a time when “big politics” appears to be in a global state of inertia, we welcome ambitious essays that reexamine body politics through the lens of literature.

紀要・報告書 – 早稲田大学 国際文学館(村上春樹ライブラリー) (waseda.jp)

• 1. Submissions should present research that addresses the founding goals of the Journal of the Waseda House of International Literature (hereafter, JWIHL). JWIHL welcomes submissions from authors regardless of academic credentials.
• 2. Submissions should be written in Japanese or English. Submissions should be 12,000 to 16,000 Japanese characters or 7,000 to 12,000 English words including footnotes.
• 3. Submissions must be previously unpublished. Essays that are under consideration for publication elsewhere cannot be considered. In addition, the following submissions cannot be considered: essays that have previously appeared in magazines or as book chapters, works that are available online (including in repositories or other digital archives), dissertation chapters (without considerable revisions), translations of previously published works, or similar works.
• 4. Submissions must conform to either the Japanese or English journal style guide.
• 5. Please submit the following files to the editorial team (email address listed below):
  ① PDF of essay (anonymized)
  ② Word file of essay (anonymized)
  ③ An abstract written in the language of the article (abstracts should be approximately 400 Japanese characters or 300 English words)
  ④ A separate file that contains: essay title (including kana for Japanese titles), author’s name (including kana reading of Japanese names), author’s affiliation, author’s position, mailing address, and email address.contact：[email protected]
  The subject of the e-mail should be “JWIHL/Submission”, and each item in ④ should also be written in the body of the e-mail. If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within three days after submitting your paper, please contact the address above.
• 6. Peer review will strictly follow the rules outlined in the “Peer Review Process” section below.
• 7. Copyright will reside with the author of the essay. However, the Waseda International House of Literature reserves the right to first publish accepted submissions and to include accepted submissions in the Waseda University online repository. Authors that intend to reproduce accepted essays in future works should include a citation to the original essay published in JWIHL.
• 8. Authors hoping to include illustrations should clearly source their images. Authors are responsible for securing all permissions and are likewise responsible for any copyright violations that may arise. In the event that an essay is accepted for submission, authors will be asked to submit a written publishing agreement.
• 9. JWIHL is unfortunately unable to respond to inquiries regarding submission results.
• 10. The deadline for submission to the third volume is September 15, 2025.
• 11. Authors will have the opportunity to correct first proofs only. Changes to proofs should be limited to the correction of factual or typographical errors. Significant additions and deletions may NOT be made at this stage.

Peer Review Process

• 1. Each submission will be reviewed by two members of the editorial board.
• 2. In the event that the initial two reviewers cannot come to an agreement, a third reviewer will be asked to make a final decision.
• 3. In principle, reviews will be performed by the editorial board. However, in the event that JWIHL editors cannot perform the review, a qualified third party will be recruited to complete the review process.
• 4. Peer Review Results will be as follows:
  A – Accepted (with the possibility of minor revisions to style or expression)
  B – Revisions requested (suggestions for minor revisions will be provided in comments and authors will be encouraged to resubmit for the current volume)
  C – Revisions requested (suggestions for major revisions will be provided and authors will be encouraged to resubmit for the subsequent volume)
  D – Rejected (comments will not be provided)

In principle, submissions in English should follow The Chicago Manual of Style and our guidelines below:

1.Document Formatting

Submissions should use an A4 page size.
English texts should use the Century font. Font size should be 10.5 for the body text and 9 for notes. Japanese words other than those accepted in common English usage should appear italicized, with the initial appearance followed by the original Japanese in MS Mincho font if necessary.
Character and word counts should follow item [2] from the Submission Guidelines, but please count half-width Japanese characters as 0.5.
Notes should appear at the bottom of the page. A bibliography should appear at the end of the document.

2.Style Formatting

Japanese names and terms should follow Hepburn romanization. Please use macrons for long vowels. In principle, Japanese names should appear with the family name first. The use of specialized terminology, proper nouns, and other such phrases should follow a uniform pattern throughout the submission.
Years should be listed in the Western format, with corresponding Japanese years listed only when necessary.
Units can be listed as the author prefers but should remain uniform throughout.

3.Quotations, Notes, and Bibliography

All quotations must be cited in Notes and Bibliography style of The Chicago Manual. Please indicate in the note when quotations have been altered from their original sources, for example: old form traditional characters have been changed to simplified characters, kana orthography has been changed to the contemporary usage, italics or underlines have been added for emphasis, etc.

4.Images

If submissions include images, please format the layout of the document in such a way that it indicates the approximate size and location of the image that will be added. If you intend to add images to your submission but have not formatted the document to include them, please indicate this in your submission email.
Images should be labeled individually, with each image including a sequence number and title or explanation.
In principle, space taken up by images will not count against the submission’s word count.
For images that require citations, please include that information after the bibliography at the end of the document.

5.Submission

Please follow our submission guidelines.

「Alphabetical order」

• Anne Bayard-Sakai (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales)
• Michael K. Bourdaghs (University of Chicago)
• James Dorsey (Dartmouth College)
• Gitte Marianne Hansen (Newcastle University)
• David J. Karashima (Waseda University, Assistant Editor-in-chief)
• Seiji M. Lippit (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Miho Matsunaga (Waseda University)
• Kazushige Munakata (Waseda University)
• Gaye Rowley (Waseda University)
• Richi Sakakibara (Waseda University, Editor-in-chief)
• Doug Slaymaker (University of Kentucky)
• Hirokazu Toeda (Waseda University)
• Atsuko Ueda (Princeton University)
• Cheng Wang (Tsinghua University)
• Yoon Sang In (Seoul National University)
• Victoria Young (University of Cambridge)