Japanese studies ( Japanese: ) or Japan studies (sometimes Japanology in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

), is a sub-field of

area studies Area studies (also known as regional studies) are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what ar ...

East Asian studies East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, hi ...

involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...

, art,

music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

. Its roots may be traced back to the Dutch at

Dejima , in the 17th century also called Tsukishima ( 築島, "built island"), was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1854). For 220 years, ...

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in th ...

in the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

. The foundation of the Asiatic Society of Japan at

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of ...

in 1872 by men such as Ernest Satow and Frederick Victor Dickins was an important event in the development of Japanese studies as an academic discipline.

Japanese studies organizations and publications

In the United States, the Society for Japanese Studies has published the '' Journal of Japanese Studies'' (JJS) since 1974. This is a biannual academic journal dealing with research on Japan in the United States. JJS is supported by grants from the Japan Foundation,

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

in addition to endowments from the Kyocera Corporation and the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

. The

British Association for Japanese Studies The British Association for Japanese Studies, ''BAJS'', is an association at Essex University in the United Kingdom, whose aim is to promote studies in Japan. Founded in 1974, the organisation is a member of the Japan Library Group and hands out t ...

(BAJS), founded in 1974, is an association primarily sponsored by

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems ...

and the Japan Foundation. The BAJS publishes an academic journal called ''Japan Forum''. In Europe, the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) is also funded by Toshiba and the Japan Foundation. It has held triennial conferences around Europe since 1973. Other academic journals dealing with Japanese studies include ''

Monumenta Nipponica ''Monumenta Nipponica'' is a semi-annual academic journal of Japanese studies. Published by Sophia University (Tokyo), it is one of the oldest English-language academic journals in the field of Asian studies, being founded in 1938. Although the jo ...

'', a biannual English-language journal affiliated with

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...

in Tokyo, and '' Social Science Japan Journal'', published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. Scholarship on Japan is also within the purview of many organizations and publications dealing with the more general field of

, such as the

Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Annu ...

or the Duke University publication '' Positions: Asia Critique''. The International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), maintains an online database of institutions involved in Japanese studies research worldwide, including information on 1,640 institutions of Japanese studies. The database indicates that the country with the most institutions of Japanese studies outside of the United States and Japan is China (121), while other countries containing a significant number of institutions include South Korea (85), England (69), Germany (64), Canada (61), Australia (54), and France (54).

Notable Japanologists

Boris Akunin Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ� ...

* Ruth Benedict * Basil Hall Chamberlain * Serge Elisséeff * Carol Gluck * William Elliot Griffis * Conrad Totman *

Lafcadio Hearn , born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (; el, Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χέρν, Patríkios Lefkádios Chérn, Irish: Pádraig Lafcadio O'hEarain), was an Irish-Greek- Japanese writer, translator, and teacher who introduced the culture an ...

* Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale also known as A. B. Mitford and Lord Redesdale. *

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japan ...

Fosco Maraini Fosco Maraini (; 15 November 1912 – 8 June 2004) was an Italian photographer, anthropologist, ethnologist, writer, mountaineer and academic. Biography He was born in Florence from the Italian sculptor Antonio Maraini (1886–1963) and Cornel ...

Edwin O. Reischauer Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (; October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University. Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and cul ...

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also di ...

* Ernest Mason Satow * Edward Seidensticker *

Francis Xavier Francis Xavier (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin: ''Franciscus Xaverius''; Basque: ''Frantzisko Xabierkoa''; French: ''François Xavier''; Spanish: ''Francisco Javier''; Portuguese: ''Francisco Xavier''; 7 April 15063 December ...

* Judit Hidasi * Steponas Kairys

Scholarly journals

* '' Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese History'', In Japanese * ''East Asian History'' * ''Japan Forum'' * ''Japanese Studies'' * '' Japanese Journal of Religious Studies'' * '' Journal of Japanese Studies'' * ''

'', Japanese studies, in English * ''Sino-Japanese Studies'' Se
online
/ref> * '' Social Science Japan Journal''

References

External links

''Electronic journal of contemporary Japanese studies''

European Association for Japanese Studies

Images of Japan in Non-Japanese Sources

Library guides