Japanese Studies in the United States: Present Situation and Future Prospects

Abstract

Japanese studies in the United States today is a large and flourishing field, one in which literally hundreds of research works are published annually, which faces the challenge of increasing numbers of students, and which enjoys broad, public support, based upon widespread popular understanding of a national need for advanced training in Japanese language and professionalized knowledge of Japanese society. Built upon the efforts of a generation of scholars who were active in the Allied Occupation of Japan after the end of World War II, Japanese studies is currently in the process of generational change, which will result in the field's leadership by a younger generation of scholars whose academic concerns differ significantly from those of its predecessors. To understand fully the implications of this generational change is the key to an understanding of the field today and to a realistic projection of its future prospects. This paper seeks to provide such an understanding, focusing on general trends within the field and upon issues for its future direction; thus, it neither attempts to present a statistical overview nor to summarize the situation in different disciplines. It concentrates upon the following five topics: generational change in leadership, linguistic issues, fiscal prospects, changing institutional arrangements for scholars of Japan, and the challenge to define the parameters of critical scholarship on Japan.