Prof. Dr. Verena Blechinger-Talcott
Vice President, Freie Universität Berlin
Special Advisor, the Beijing Center for Japanese Studies:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Date: 13 July, 2022

Place: Online (Zoom)

Original Language: English

Interviewer: Yuko Noguchi (The Japan Foundation, Beijing):::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Personal Profile
Dr. Verena Blechinger-Talcott is the Vice President for International Affairs and Professor of Japanese Politics andPolitical Economy at Freie Universität Berlin. She studied Political Science, Japanese Studies and Law in Munich,
Kyoto and Tokyo. She received her M.A. in Japanese Studies in 1991 and her PhD in Political Science in 1997,
both from Munich University. She has been invited as the Visiting Professor to the University of Tokyo (2008). In2012, she became the Director of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies, which is funded through the German
Federal Excellence Initiative. She is also the president of European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS), amember of Academic Advisory Board of German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), and Special Advisor of theBeijing Center for Japanese Studies.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Q. When was your first encounter with Japanese Studies in China, like meeting Chinese scholars andstudents working on Japanese studies?
A. My very first encounter with Chinese scholars and students working on Japanese studies was in 1989, the Heisei
Gan-nen (平成元年), when I did my study abroad at Doshisha University in Kyoto. There was quite a number ofstudents, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting professors from China. So, that was my first interaction with Chinesecolleagues. And then, from that time on, at international conferences from time to time, I would also meet Chinesecolleagues working on Japanese studies.
Actually, my way in was when the Japan Foundation asked me to visit the Beijing Center for Japanese Studies atBeijing Foreign Studies University, and I first visited in the spring of 2019 and took part in a seminar. I was really
impressed by the quality of the program and the very, very high level of Japanese language proficiency exhibited by
the students and the faculty.
Q. What was your impression or findings regarding Chinese scholars and students at that time?
A. What I found very interesting was the broad range of topics, both in the area of cultural studies approaches toJapan but also in the area of economics and sociological approaches to Japan. There was quite a broad range oftopics, ranging from the encounters between Japan and China and also studies of Japanese modernization andcontemporary Japan. I was quite impressed by the comprehensive range of topics and by the very thoroughapproach to Japanese language sources in the study, especially by the Chinese colleagues.

Q. What is the biggest difference between Japanese studies in China and that in your country? How do you
think Chinese scholars in Japanese studies can contribute to the international academic world?
A. I think the biggest difference between Japanese studies in Europe and Japanese studies in China is theperspectives and the positionality where the Chinese colleagues are coming from.
Many things that my colleagues in Europe and the United States take for granted are based on our own
backgrounds in Western culture and societies. But many of these points are questioned by our Chinese colleagues,or they have a different approach, because they come from a different perspective, and so they ask questions that
we probably would not necessarily think of first. I think that is very enriching for the discussion. This is a very
valuable contribution to international and global Japanese studies.
I think it’s very important in Japanese studies to also use a global approach and bring various positions andviewpoints together to generate new insights. If we only look at Japanese studies done by scholars from Japan,
Europe, or the United States, we have a certain set of things that are interesting to us because of the background wehave and the theoretical discussions that we have in our field, but colleagues from China, and if I may say so, also
from other parts of Asia, have a different perspective and it is very fruitful to bring these perspectives together.
One of the dreams that I have, if I may dream, would be to actually have a research project where we have people
from the US, Japan, Europe, China, and other countries all work on the same topic to bring these various positions
together and then get a more rounded and more fruitful approach to Japanese studies.
The topic that comes to mind is about modernity. We have done a number of workshops with doctoral students
from Europe, Japan, and China, and some of the topics that came up again and again were perspectives onmodernity. What does it mean to be a modern society? And on social interactions of relationship within societies,
you may call social coherence, could be a topic. But it also experiences in the way Japan approached its modernity,
which we have quite a number of presentations also on cultural approaches to modernization in Japan, ranging fromphotography to novels to just concepts of modern by Japanese thinkers and social scientists, and this was a very
fruitful exchange.
There is also another topic that was the historical experience, especially in the area of Manchu-kuo, not the era ofJapanese military presence in China, but in the founding of Manchu-kuo and the experience of Japanesecolonialism from Chinese perspectives. There is quite a number of presentations on each issue of education andeducational systems. And from my perspective studying in Europe, discourse is on colonialism and post-colonialstudies. I think this is a very interesting voice to have in this discussion that could also shift it to the continent ofAsia a bit more. In this way, it also brings a contribution to post-colonial studies that goes beyond the studies ofAfrica and America and puts Asia stronger in the focus. I think this may also be something that might be very
interesting theoretically and empirically.

Q. We held a joint workshop among Freie Universität Berlin, Beijing Foreign Studies University, and theUniversity of Tokyo. How was the reaction of your students during that time?
A. Our students really enjoyed the joint workshops. Indeed, the students from the three universities approachedsimilar topics, but the perspectives they went into this research were different, so the exchange was indeed a very
fruitful one. And I have the feeling that everyone learns something from it.
And again, I was quite impressed by the very strong language proficiency also in English on the sides of thestudents from the Beijing Center for Japanese Studies. They also often had more senior doctoral students as
discussants, and they were very, very good in summarizing the presentations and discussions, and then also inidentifying the interesting points that could lead to a joint benefit for all presenters. I believe that was a very good
exercise. It was also important for our students to see that Japanese studies take different shapes in different
cultures, in different countries, things you take for granted are not necessarily seen in the same way by everyone. It
was a very good learning experience in this context.
Q. Could you give some messages to the young scholars and students in China who are making efforts inJapanese studies?
A. I have two messages for them. One is “Be proud of what you have achieved.” I think, if you came especiallyfrom the program at the Beijing Center for Japanese Studies, you have a very good Japanese language proficiency
and a very, very strong skillset in the scholarly field you are engaged. So be proud and be self-assured that you areready to go out and present your research, don’t be afraid to present it to international conferences.
The second message is, “Be engaged in exchange,” because academia, and especially the field of Japanese studies,is an international field. It lives from the interaction of multiple perspectives and it lives from exchanging views
within the community both with our colleagues in Japan but also with our colleagues in the various areas ofJapanese studies in Europe, the United States and Asia. So in that way, taking part in this discussion and then also
trying to take something with you enrich your own researches from the perspectives and questions that you getthere.
Indeed, for everyone in Japanese studies, it is good to get out of the comfort zone of their national frame and topresent their work to people from other schools in Japanese studies, so exchanges help especially to train scholars
early in their careers to get stronger in discussion and to get better understanding of the field.
It would also be very good to start more comparative researches. Bringing experiences from Japan, Europe, andother Asian countries together as comparative cases will be great because it also opens up the field of Japanesestudies to scholars from other fields like history, sociology, political science, literature, and cultural studies. They
could also come in and bring their perspectives, and generate more interesting topics, which would strengthen boththe field of Japanese studies and their own original fields. This could also be a very good thing to do more in thefuture.
Published on June 29, 2023