Forschen und Fördern im Zeichen des Ginkgo - 10 Jahre Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien (Ten Years of Research and Promotion of Scholarship under the Sign of the Ginkgo: The German Institute for Japanese Studies)

In December 1998, the DIJ celebrated the tenth anniversary of its founding. The present volume documents this event and gives a systematic account of a decade of “Research and Promotion of Scholarship under the Sign of the Ginkgo”, as the German title refers to the symbol of the DIJ.

The ceremony brought together many persons in Tokyo linked to the DIJ and its work, and the special character of this institution was effectively mirrored in the ceremony’s program. The three speeches printed together in Part One of this volume with all addresses deserve notice beyond this particular occasion. In his speech, Hans-Olaf Henkel, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), sheds light on German-Japanese economic relations against the backdrop of the current situation in Germany. Referring to striking examples, Mishima Ken’ichi, the social philosopher, topicalizes the mutual perception between Japan and the “West” and categorizes “cognitive barriers”. The third speech, given by sociologist Wolf Lepenies, takes a study of Nagai Nagayoshi, the founder of Japan’s pharmaceutical industry as a starting point to reflect on scholarly contacts and forms of learning between the two cultures and societies.

Part Two of the volume documents the various activities of the DIJ from 1988 onwards, noting that from a very early point in its history, the Institute launched a broad program of events and publications. It mirrors, in its changing foci, not only the fluctuation of personnel, but a change in research interests and topics, reacting thus to changed conditions within Japan. The chronological perspective accentuates the DIJ’s multidisciplinary research profile. As for its strategies, “interwoven research” or “fuzzy learning” serve to describe an approach which strives to overcome conventional dichotomies of East and West or of tradition and modernity in favor of an interactive and relational perspective.

“Research and Promotion of Scholarship” as an agenda comes to life in the list of symposia, lecture series, workshops and other events planned and carried out by the DIJ, its publications in German, English, and Japanese, and the lectures and seminars offered by its staff. The Institute’s scholarship program meanwhile has supported more than forty Japan specialists who today hold Ph.D.s and work mostly in academic positions. It takes the configuration of a multidisciplinary institute situated “on the spot” in Tokyo to produce what is presented in this report of activities of the DIJ.