Message from the managing editor

Dear readers,

We greet you this Fall with two exciting announcements. First, we are happy to share the good news that Contemporary Japan has been accepted for indexing in Scopus! This was made possible by the hard work of our Taylor & Francis team, and we extend our deep thanks to them.

Second, this year marks the inaugural year for CJ’s Best Paper Prize. Articles published in our journal during 2016–2017 are eligible. The winning paper will be selected through a review by our entire Editorial Board, and the winner will be announced at the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF) conference in Berlin this November. The winning paper and the two runners up will be announced on our journal’s homepage and will be available for free access for 1 year. The next Best Paper Prize will be awarded in 2020 for papers published between 2018 and 2019, as we will alternate this prize with the VSJF Prize which will be awarded next year in Fall 2019.

The present Fall 2018 issue, CJ 30(2), is our second full issue based on general submissions since joining Taylor & Francis. All five of the original research papers underwent double-blind double-peer review and showcase some of the most pressing issues in Contemporary Japan. The topics cover a wide range of issues relating to pop-culture-driven heritage tourism, the ethics of immigration policies, voting rights for marginalized groups, changing regulations for healthcare policy regarding patient safety, and employing older workers in an aging society. In addition, we have a wide range of book reviews covering religion, history, international relations, sports, communication, and mental health.

With many thanks to our Editorial Board and outside reviewers who generously gave us their time, this issue has come together efficiently, with the average time from submission to final publication taking roughly 9 months. Authors with non-native English skills once again were able to benefit from our language support. We are grateful to our authors for their excellent contributions, and we are confident that you will find the contents interesting and stimulating as well.