This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts to be considered for publication should be submitted via the journal's ScholarOne Manuscripts site. New users should first create an account and submit via the Author Centre.

Two versions of your manuscript are required. One should be a complete text, including the manuscript title, name(s) of the author(s) and institutional affiliation(s), the word count of the manuscript (including footnotes, but excluding references), the date of the manuscript, an abstract (up to 200 words), author contact details (including email and full postal addresses), and the name of the corresponding author who will check proofs and receive offprints. Authors must use the File Designation “Main Document with full author details” when saving the non-anonymous version.

The second version of the manuscript should have all information identifying the author removed from the file, to allow it to be sent anonymously to referees. The author's name should not appear after the title, and the author's identity should not be revealed in running headers or footers, in the text or in notes. If you need to refer to your own work, do so impersonally: 'Stockwin (1999: 195) argues…', rather than 'As I have argued…'.. This file should be saved using the File Designation “Main Document - anonymous.”

Manuscripts should not normally exceed 10,000 words in length, inclusive of notes and references. They should be typed in double-spacing, without justified margins. The desired position of tables, figures and plates should be indicated in the text, but the tables, figures and plates themselves should be submitted as separate files. All captions for figures and plates (including sources and acknowledgements) should be included in these separate files. If plates (e.g. illustrations and photographs) cannot be submitted electronically, three copies of each one to be included in the manuscript should be sent to: The Editors, Japan Forum, School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TD, UK. Be sure to include your name and the title of your manuscript with such submissions by post.

Each submission should be accompanied by a separate file containing a brief biographical profile of the author. The file should be saved using the File Designation “Author Bio”. If you do not wish to have your e-mail address included in the biographical note that will appear at the end of your article, assuming it is accepted for publication, please so indicate.

Contributors for whom English is a second language are encouraged to have their manuscripts read by a native English speaker to avoid ambiguity of meaning. In all correspondence with Japan Forum after your manuscript has been submitted, please use the manuscript ID you will receive from the site upon submission.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal will be taken to imply that it presents original work, not previously circulated widely electronically, published in English or under consideration for publication in English elsewhere.

Permission to quote from or reproduce copyright material must be obtained by the author, who is also responsible for paying any fees required before the article is published. Acknowledgements should be included in the manuscript, preferably in the form of an Acknowledgements section at the end of the paper. Where photographs or figures are reproduced, acknowledgement of source and copyright should be given in the caption.

• British or American spelling may be used as long as the usage is consistent.
• British quotation marks and punctuation should be employed.

There are a few major ways in which the latter differ from the American: 1) single, not double, inverted commas are used for quotations; 2) a final comma or period goes outside the quotation marks, except where the quote is a complete sentence. Note the examples below.

American English: “ in the first, third, and fifth Yoshida cabinets.” British English: ‘ in the first, third and fifth Yoshida cabinets'.

[Note: A quote within a quote would be placed within single inverted commas in the first example, but within double inverted commas in the second.]

• Use of serial comma is author's preference but should be consistent.

Japanese terms in the text:

Only romanized Japanese is used in the articles published in this journal. If it is essential to provide the kanji or kana for a relatively few Japanese words in your submission, use romaji in the body of your manuscript, followed by the relevant kanji/kana text in brackets. If your manuscript involves extended analysis of text in the original Japanese, it is not suitable for Japan Forum.

Italicize Japanese words (and words in other foreign languages) in the body of your manuscript, unless the words 1) have entered the English language (as demonstrated by their inclusion in standard English-language dictionaries); 2) are proper nouns (e.g. place names, era/reign names, organizations, institutions, laws); 3) are widely used words within the field of Japanese studies and hence may be considered 'semi-anglicized'.

Some examples of (1): geisha, shogun, daimyo, samurai, kabuki, noh, tofu.

Some examples of (2): Sekigahara, Genroku, Heisei, Aikoku Fujinkai, Seiyukai, Keidanren, Koshoku Senkyo-ho.

Some examples of (3): anime, bakufu, bunraku, burakumin, bushi, han, hiragana, katakana, manga, nihonjinron, tanka, waka, ukiyo-e.

Provide an English translation at the first mention of an italicized Japanese word, and where possible use the English translation instead of the (romanized) Japanese word thereafter.

Macrons should not be used in fully anglicized words (e.g. shogun, daimyo), major cities (e.g. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto) or main islands (Kyushu, Honshu, Hokkaido). In Japanese-language references, however, macrons should be restored to these and similar words. It is generally best to use macrons for extended vowel sounds in Japanized foreign words (gairaigo): e.g. patotaimu, rorasuketo, supido, supa.

Romanization should follow the modified Hepburn system as found in Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary. Use 'n' not 'm' before syllables beginning with 'b', 'm' and 'p' (shinbun, not shimbun), and an apostrophe after 'n' when it is part of the preceding syllable and the following syllable begins with 'yo', 'yu' or a vowel.

The Harvard reference system is employed in this journal.

Please note the below:

Where relevant, the translator or date of first publication should be noted. The date of publication cited must be the date of the source referred to; when using a republished book or a modern version of an older edition, however, the date of the original publication may also be given in square brackets (place after the first date in both the refs and citation).

No translations of non-English sources required

Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year, these should be distinguished by using 2000a, 2000b, etc.

The reference list should include every work cited in the text, and no other works. Please ensure that the spelling of surnames and the dates used in the text are consistent with those in the reference list.

Notes:

These should be kept to a minimum and used only for e.g. definitions of terms, brief amplification of issues raised and archival sources that cannot be easily rendered as in-text citations. They will be reproduced as endnotes.

Visit our Author Services website for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.