As a result of increasingly widespread use of the internet, the basis of research in the humanities has witnessed a dramatic shift from a dependence on primarily print-based research materials to a heavy reliance on digital resources. This poses a whole new set of problems that in turn neccessitate a reassessment of the very foundations of textual scholarship. In discussions of these problems, numerous voices from the Anglo-American and German scholarly traditions have offered significant contributions and advanced the discourse in innovative new ways. Unfortunately, this crucial topic remains virtually absent from scholarly debates in Japan.

It is therefore with great pleasure that we announce an upcoming international conference dedicated to these issues, to be held over March 26 and 27 at Saitama University and the Printing Museum in Tokyo, Japan.

As the first conference in Japan to address these key issues, we hope to stimulate a discussion that will not only convey the timeliness and energy of these debates to Japan, but moreover contribute to the advancement of textual scholarship in a global context.