Two Posts in One

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

In relation to the post on Japanese teaching at UK universities:

Kyodo via Yahoo: Experts on Japan and other E. Asian countries resign from SOAS
Japanese, Korean and Chinese studies at one of Britain's most prestigious universities face disruption after 19 lecturers resigned from several top posts in protest at the axing of two specialist librarians. The staff at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, or SOAS, are demanding the reinstatement of a Chinese and Japanese librarian -- Sue Small and Fujiko Kobayashi -- who were recently made redundant. According to the academics, the two native speakers are to be replaced by librarians with, at best, only a working knowledge of Chinese and Japanese. They fear this will affect the upkeep and provision of the university's extensive collection of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean books, as well as the support that can be offered to staff and students consulting the documents.
...The axing of the posts follows concern over the decline in the number of high-level Japanese courses at Britain's universities. Several former ambassadors and Japan experts have written to SOAS appealing to bosses to think again. The two librarians made an unsuccessful appeal to keep their jobs and will leave at the end of this month.

[kamome]

...The axing of the posts follows concern over the decline in the number of high-level Japanese courses at Britain's universities. Several former ambassadors and Japan experts have written to SOAS appealing to bosses to think again. The two librarians made an unsuccessful appeal to keep their jobs and will leave at the end of this month.

Why did they fire the Chinese librarian if the cited reason was a decline in high-level Japanese courses? Perhaps it's another case of someone throwing all "Asians" into the same category without making important distinctions between the two?

[Mulboyne]

I think my editing may of the article may be misleading. The phrase "The axing of the posts follows concern over the decline in the number of high-level Japanese courses at Britain's universities." doesn't mean that the posts were axed because of that decline. Rather that the axing of the posts is a cause for concern since it comes after cuts elsewhere in Japanese courses and so is part of a disturbing trend.

[kamome]

I think my editing may of the article may be misleading. The phrase "The axing of the posts follows concern over the decline in the number of high-level Japanese courses at Britain's universities." doesn't mean that the posts were axed because of that decline. Rather that the axing of the posts is a cause for concern since it comes after cuts elsewhere in Japanese courses and so is part of a disturbing trend.

I'm still not seeing the trend/correlation between the cut in Japanese courses and firing a Chinese librarian. This is all semantics, but what's the source of concern if they fire a Chinese librarian? I can see the inference from the cuts in Japanese courses and the firing of a Japanese librarian that interest in Japan is waning and that more cuts/firings will occur. But the Chinese librarian seems to be a non-sequitor for me (unless it means there are going to be cuts in all Asian studies, which brings me back to the question of whether people are lumping all Asians together.

Hmmm..with the time I spent writing this, I suppose I could have just read the whole article to get an answer...

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Britain to get new Japanese studies center in September

Efforts by Japan experts in Britain to boost Japanese studies in the country will bear fruit this September with the opening of the National Institute of Japanese Studies in the new White Rose East Asia Center. "The subject is strategically important for our country," G lenn Hook, a professor at the University of Sheffield's School of East Asian Studies, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo. "We've often lost good students who decided to go overseas for postgraduate programs." NIJS is part of WREAC together with the National Institute of Chinese Studies. The center will get ￡4 million from the government over the next five years. After it opens in September, WREAC will be managed jointly by the University of Sheffield and the University of Leeds.
...He said Japanese studies in the U.K. have changed in recent years. Japanese studies reached their peak in popularity in Britain in the mid-1980s, with the robust economy in Japan leading Japanese companies to give money to academic institutions. Japanese pop culture, including animation and video games, has lead to an interest in more traditional culture as well. The University of Sheffield has 50 British students registered for its undergraduate Japanese studies course every year. However, at the postgraduate level, the majority of students are from overseas...As money from Japanese companies has dried up, many universities began shutting down their East Asian studies departments, saying they were not cost efficient. Most recently, Durham University decided to close its department in 2007.
...About four new students will be welcomed annually to WREAC. Applicants, restricted to European Union citizens, must have expertise in their areas of study as well applicable language abilities. Participants in the program will be able to take advantage of the center's links with more than 30 universities in China and Japan, including the University of Tokyo. "We've always lacked the ability to enable the students to continue their studies, but the new funding will be a great opportunity," Hook said.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Japanese studies facing the chop in Europe

Research into Japanese culture is approaching critically low levels in some parts of Europe, with the number of institutions offering courses in Japanese studies continuing to decrease, according to two leading Japanese studies researchers. The serious decline in Japanese studies was pointed out by Prof. Joseph Kyburz of the National Center for Scientific Research in France, and Prof. Heinrich Menkhaus of the Japan Center of the Philipps-Universitat Marburg in Germany, in reports first presented at an international symposium held in September at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Nishikyo Ward, Kyoto. According to their reports, countries in the European Union have since the late 1990s been gradually adopting a uniform tertiary education system. To reduce operational expenses, institutions there have been cutting or integrating smaller departments. In many cases, Japanese studies have been absorbed by Asian studies--a broad spectrum of research that includes the cultures of India, Afghanistan, Siberia, Oceania and the Pacific Islands. The number of academic courses specializing in Japanese studies, including Japanology and Japanese language, has dramatically decreased, as has the number of researchers' posts in the field. In Britain, the East Asian Studies Department at Durham University has been closed. In Germany, Humboldt University of Berlin and the Free University of Berlin are said to be reconsidering their plan to jointly establish a research center for Japanese culture and language. The reports by Menkhaus and Kyburz said the tendency to downsize or combine previously separate areas of study is especially prominent in the social sciences, as opposed to the humanities.

If the trend of studying Asian cultures collectively were to continue, a decline in the relative value of Japanese studies would be inevitable, the reports said, particularly in light of increasing academic interest in China as it experiences rapid economic growth and greater diplomatic influence. Kyburz, a former president of the European Association for Japanese Studies, suggested Japan should strategically emphasize the distinctive values of its spiritual culture, which is of comparable academic interest to those of Europe and China. One way to do this would be establishing overseas institutions where researchers speak Japanese as a common language, along the lines of Kyoto's International Research Center for Japanese Studies, he said. In optimistic news from the symposium, researchers from Russia and other eastern European countries said numerous Japanese books--ranging from "Manyoshu," the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, to modern novels by Soseki Natsume--have been translated into local languages and found wide audiences. Prof. Yosaburo Shirahata of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies said he could envision an ongoing role for international institutions undertaking Japanese studies. "Academics in industrially developed nations have temporarily moved on from areas of study concerning Japan, which is no longer a frontier [for them] in political and economic fields. "Japan has established a certain status as a member of the international community. Yet academics in these countries have yet to find a new theme for research into Japan," he said. Shirahata nominated Japanese animation and graphic novels, which have become very popular in western Europe, as one area which might prove to be a rich subject for future study. Japanese studies courses, as with study of any other culture, examine the nation's historical development from ancient times to contemporary circumstances, and consider which themes might offer valuable instruction for other cultures. The changes currently faced by many European countries as they grapple with modernization prompted by EU membership, may provide an opportunity to promote the study of contemporary Japan.

[Mulboyne]