Outline of outcomes of the “Declaration of International Japan-Studies” 21st Century COE Research Program

The basic concept behind the formation of a center for the “Declaration of International Japan-Studies” is the development of Japanese studies as cross-cultural research. Building on this concept, the program has produced the following four main outcomes.1) The first outcome concerns research approaches and methodologies, and is apparent in the adoption of a cross-cultural approach to Japanese studies through the incorporation of the perspectives of foreign researchers on Japanese studies (i.e., perspectives of “the other”). The construction of international Japanese studies is a meta-scientific venture that entails exploration of the conditions for the establishment of academic dialogue at home and abroad through dialogue between Japanese and non-Japanese researchers based on open approaches to research. This has yielded a model for international and academic collaborative research that overthrows the archaic modi operandi of the humanities in Japan—the closed, inward-looking approach and poor awareness of method—by founding a new academic discipline backed by the clear methodology of international Japanese studies.2) The second outcome has been the rediscovery of Japanese culture from a cross-cultural perspective and the opening of a new realm in Japanese cultural studies. Abroad, “Japanese studies” has consisted of research on Japan as “another culture,” and so has always incorporated a comparative element. This comparative perspective, particularly when it has taken the form of comparison between Japan and China, Japan and Germany, and Japan and France, has enabled the rediscovery of new and unconventional aspects of Japanese culture through the reinterpretation of Japanese culture itself. The location of nō, designated by UNESCO one of the “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity,” within the framework of international Japanese studies and its reinterpretation from a comparative perspective has opened up new realms in nō studies, while the shift in interest to the southern boundary region of the Ryukyus and Okinawa has demonstrated that Japanese culture, rather than being a single uniform and homogenous culture, in fact consists of “many cultures” having multiple cross-cultural sources and a multilayered structure that extends beyond Japan\u27s borders to China, Korea, and other parts of Asia.3) The third outcome has been the promotion of joint research activities on a global scale through the sharing of research data in real time and effective use of networks with researchers and research institutes in Japan and overseas. To assist in this process, content of value to Japanese studies has been converted to electronic format to create an electronic library system accessible to researchers from around the world.4) Finally, the fourth outcome has been the development of researchers in the field of Japanese studies who are equipped to communicate their findings to a wider domestic and international audience, achieved by applying the fruits of the “Declaration of International Japan-Studies” COE Program to postgraduate education at Hosei University\u27s Institute of International-Japan Studies