Abstract:

While there is a strong demand for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) education in Japan, there are few opportunities for lifelong learning outside school. Science cafés have attracted attention in Japan since the mid-2000s as an opportunity for scientific communication among people of all ages and genders. Many science cafés have been held. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely limited opportunities for face-to-face communication worldwide. A state of emergency was declared several times in Japan since April 2020, making it difficult for people to participate and communicate face-to-face in science cafés. In this context, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has emerged as a crucial tool. The author examined trends in 2019 and 2020 in her report on the 2022 plenary session. This time, she delved deeper, exploring trends in Japan's science cafés from 2019 to 2023 onward, including the latest data. This study aims to quantitatively clarify how science cafés in Japan changed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the characteristics of science cafés in Japan and their potential for future development. She grasped the situation by analyzing an information site that collects and aggregates information on these cafés based on over 4,400 posts from January 2019 to December 2023. Content analysis was conducted by extracting the characteristics of each café, including the method of holding the café, the number of people recruited, and the communication tools used. The results showed that, as expected, the number of science cafés held in Japan declined sharply after 2020 compared to 2019. There were many cancellation notices in the first half of 2020 due to COVID-19. Subsequently, the number of events increased. In 2020, 70% of the notices to hold the event were online, and that percentage dropped in 2021 but still accounted for more than half of the total. From another perspective, despite severe legal and social restrictions, Japanese science cafés have diligently worked to extinguish the fire of grassroots science communication through ICTs. Cafés with ICTs continue to account for a certain percentage of the total, suggesting that it is a new style of scientific communication. However, the overall number of posts did not recover by two-thirds compared to 2019. More recovery is expected from 2024 onward.

Keywords:

Science Cafés, COVID-19, ICTs, Japan.