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Back Issues 2：

Vol.011 ～ Vol.020

Vol. 011

The 29th NIHU Symposium: Diversity of Japan’s Dietary Cultures– Thinking about Dietary Cultures on food production, processing and consumption

Vol. 012

Research, Conservation and Utilization of the Marega Collection Preservedin the Vatican LibraryVol. 013

Interview Series『Robert Campbell Director-General, National Institute of Japanese Literature』

Vol. 014

New Asian studies in Asia

Vol. 015

The fascination of historical research on auroras opened up
by collaboration between the humanities and the sciencesVol. 016

Report on NIHU International Symposium“Migration, Refugees and the Environment from Security Perspectives”

Vol. 017

International Symposium 2017 “Northeast Asia: The Fetal Stage”

Vol. 018

Toward new methods of evaluating humanities researchVol. 019

On research communication in non-Japanese languages

Vol. 020

Interview Series『New Minpaku Director-General Kenji Yoshida』

Vol. 011 The 29th NIHU Symposium: Diversity of Japan’s Dietary Cultures– Thinking about Dietary Cultures on food production, processing
and consumption
Customs on food based on the modern Japanese mentality of valuing nature were inscribed on the representative list of theintangible cultural heritage of humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) under
the title, “Washoku; Traditional Dietary Cultures of the Japanese,” in December 2013.
Food and its culture are closely linked to the history, climate,geographical conditions, courtesies and other so-called customs of eachregion. Diverse regionally rooted cuisines and customs exist in all partsof the world for that reason. However, opportunities to pass on foodcustoms have diminished in Japan with the increasing Westernizationof food in recent years. There are also concerns that food ingredients,
cuisines and flavoring peculiar to each region will also become
standardized with the greater movements of people and goods causedby the evolution of transportation systems and information transmission
Keynote speech delivered by Isao Kumakura

methods. The attraction of travel may be spoiled if the same ingredientsare served all over Japan.

The National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU) cosponsored the 29th NIHU Symposium titled “Diversity of Japan’s Dietary
Cultures – Thinking about Dietary Cultures on food production, processing and consumption” with the Ajinomoto Foundation
for Dietary Culture on Saturday, October 15, 2016. At this Symposium, lecturers answered questions about the diverse foodways
found on the islands of Japan from their respective academic viewpoints and gave thought to how dining tables in Japan will
look going forward.
Opening the Symposium, Isao Kumakura, the Chairman of the Washoku Association of Japan and a professor emeritus at the
National Museum of Ethnology, delivered a keynote speech on the theme, “What is the Washoku Culture Inscribed on the
UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity?” In his keynote lecture, Kumakura explained the background to Japan’s
dietary cultures’ inscription on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity and the definition of Washoku. In apresentation that followed, Shinya Yamada, an associate professor at the National Museum of Japanese History, introduced foodcustoms found in courtesies handed down in respective parts of Japan under the title, “Development of Courtesies and Washoku.”
The third speaker, Reiko Saito, an associate professor at the National Museum of Ethnology, gave a presentation on food customs
found in courtesies preserved by the Ainu under the title, “Food of the Ainu and Trade.” Next, Nobuko Kibe, a professor at the
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, introduced food ingredients used in the cuisine of Okinawa and dishes
used in religious rites there under the title, “Food Culture of Ryukyu (Okinawa).” The last speaker, Tomoya Akimichi, a professor
emeritus at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature and a professor emeritus at the National Museum of Ethnology,
gave a presentation on the diversity of dashi (soup stocks) and soups eaten in respective parts of Japan, and referred to thecontemporary dashi culture under the title, “The Essence of Washoku Explored from the Perspective of Dashi – Seaweeds, Fish
and Livestock.”In panel discussions that followed the presentations, the speakers exchanged their opinions on the definition of Washoku.
Through the discussions, they reached the conclusion that protecting regional communities is important for protecting thediversity of food in Japan. The details of the Symposium are also available for viewing at the YouTube video sharing site.

Vol. 012 Research, Conservation and Utilization of the Marega Collection
Preserved in the Vatican Library
Missionary Francis Xavier arrived in Japan about the middle of the 16th century. Xavier preached the gospel to the feudal lords
known as daimyos in Japan. As a result, Christians grew in number among the daimyos. Otomo Sorin, who was based in the
Bungo region (Oita Prefecture today), was one of those daimyos who protected Christian missionary activities. Bungo becamea major base for the Christian mission in Japan with a church and a monastery built in Usuki. Missionary Luis Frois, who had
spent four years in Bungo, described the passionate Christian missionary work and how faith was practiced in Usuki in his book,
Nihonshi (History of Japan). An excavation also confirmed a Christian cemetery left in nearly perfect condition in the Shimofuji

district of Usuki City.
In the Edo Period, Tokugawa shogunate issued the Kinkyo-rei (Edicts banning Christianity) and suppressed Christianity. Many
Christians converted to Buddhism or became crypto-Christians as a result.
More than 10,000 ancient documents mainly on the Edo Period were discovered at the Vatican Apostolic Library of the Holy See
in 2011. These documents were collected by Italian Father Mario Marega during his stay in Oita and Usuki in the 1930s and the1940s. They represent one of the largest collections of historical materials on the Tokugawa shogunate controls over religions in
the Edo Period. The National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU) are advancing the classification of such documents and theirstudies in cooperation with the Vatican Library and the Oita Prefectural Government through NIHU Transdisciplinary Projects titledResearch, Conservation and Utilization of the Marega Collection Preserved in the Vatican Library (hereinafter referred to as the “Marega

Project”).
An open study meeting was held in Usuki City on March 5, 2017 under the sponsorship of the Marega Project. At the start ofthis meeting, Marega Project Representative Kazuo Otomo from the National Institute of Japanese Literature explained its aims.
Following Otomo, Takashi Kanda from the Usuki City Board of Education delivered a report titled, “Controls over Christians
Viewed from the Conditions of Christian Tombstones.” Kanda reported on controls over Christians in Usuki under the Edictagainst Christianity as reflected on the shapes of Christian tombstones in the Shimofuji district. The third speaker, Silvio Vita
from Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, treated about Father Marega’s early years, his life in Japan and the effects repeated
war experiences in his report titled, “Mr. Mario Marega’s Two Homes – What the Life of an Italian Missionary Tells Us.”
After these presentations, participants actively discussed the reality of religious controls over Christians in Usuki, where
Christianity thrived, compared with that of Nagasaki.
Why did Christian tombs survive in almost perfect condition in the
Shimofuji district under the strict ban on Christianity? How did
the Usuki Domain consider those tombs? Deciphering the ancient
documents collected by Marega, it is expected to elucidate the realityof religious controls by the Usuki Domain in the Edo Period.
It will be held the 30th NIHU Symposium titled, “Japanese Cultures
Overseas – Thinking about the Values and Meanings of Materials Held
Overseas,” an open symposium aimed at sharing the research resultsof Japan-Related Documents and Artifacts Held Overseas: NIHU International Collaborative Shimofuji Christian cemetery in Notsumachi
Research and Utilization in NIHU Transdisciplinary Projects , including the Marega Project,

Usuki city, Oita Prefecturewith people in relevant regions, at the Nishijin Plaza of Kyushu University in Fukuoka City on June 3, 2017.

Vol. 013 Interview Series『Robert Campbell Director-General,National Institute of Japanese Literature』
In April 2017 the National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL) welcomed RobertCampbell as its new director-general. He succeeds Yūichiro Imanishi who served as director
general for eight years from 2009 until his retirement in 2016. The ten-year “Project to
Build an International Collaborative Research Network for Pre-modern Japanese Texts” thatcommenced in 2014 is well on track as we eagerly anticipate the results.
Narifumi Tachimoto, president of the National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU) asked
the new director-general about his plans for meeting NIJL’s domestic and international expectations amidst the current situationof severe financial constraints.
Interviewer: Narifumi Tachimoto
President, National Institutes for the Humanitie

１．NIJL’s Future Mission and Standards for Performance Evaluations(Tachimoto) In the monthly magazine, “Gekkan Ecoutezbien”, I read an article about the discovery of the “Mario Marega
Collection” in the Salesian University library (**1) and learned more about your deep relationship with NIJL. I am delighted thatyou’ve assumed the position of director-general.
First and foremost, from your viewpoint as the new director-general, I would like to ask you about your thoughts on
the institute’s mission, the vital pillar of the NIJL, as well as about measures for performance evaluations; secondly, about
globalization of the NIHU and its six constituent institutes, including NIJL; thirdly, about your vision for the way forward for theinter-university research institutes.
(Campbell) Thank you very much. Regarding my relationship with NIJL, during my tenure at Kyushu University, I had theopportunity to partake in NIJL’s research and collection initiative (http://www.nijl.ac.jp/index_e.html). Then in 1995, I joined the
NIJL where I was assistant professor for five years before relocating to the University of Tokyo. So this is like coming home to myold haunt.
Records of Japanese literature need to be converted into materials and resources that can be used for research, such that it
can be regarded as data, as we do at NIJL. In other words, NIJL is the only institution worldwide that collects and investigatesoriginal written records created by previous generations as specimens for research.
(Tachimoto) I see. So NIJL’s mission after the Second World War to become the first archive to collect materials that were indanger of being scattered was very fortunate.
(Campbell) I believe our predecessors probably had a sense of urgency during the War, and thus began preparing for thissort of archiving in the 1960s. Compared to other Northeast Asian countries, for historical and cultural reasons, Japan had aconsiderable amount of documents preserved on paper. So as soon as the war ended, Japan started to collect documents that had
escaped human and natural calamities.
In looking back over the past 50 years, I feel it is extremely fortuitous that NIJL was created as an agency for bothpreservation and research because that ensures that, no matter what may happen, these materials shall survive as assets ofhumankind.

If we were to attempt to start something like this now, I think it would probably be very difficult to accomplish. It’s not
something that can be done on a short or medium-term project basis. NIJL began as a tiny spec in the continuum of the nation’slong history and it is crucial that the initiative is being sustained.
(Tachimoto) How do you envision the next 50 years of the research institute?
(Campbell) NIJL has a dense forest of cultural resources and a network of people. I feel that our foremost commitment towards
society is in the way we use the raw materials for research as well as how they can be applied toward cultural innovations. We
must consider how we should organize the materials we currently have so that they can actually serve as vital testimonies ofJapan’s literary culture. It is also essential that these materials are available multilingually and accessible not just to academicsof Japanese literature, but also to other humanities scholars, and even to young students. The doors should also remain open to
those working in other fields.
(Tachimoto) So communication is really about the mutual exchange of ideas. Regarding setting standards for performance
evaluations, researchers are faced with external expectations that demonstrate their “achievement” by meeting certain
benchmarks. In that regard, an institution like NIJL, that builds literacy in a way that is difficult to see, it may be hard todemonstrate NIJL’s achievements. What are your thoughts about that?
(Campbell) I don’t think that’s difficult at all. NIJL has collected pre-modern texts related to Japan from all over the world thathave been preserved as original specimens or in the form of photographs that are then shared for research. These are used byresearchers from various disciplines as well as by creators who inspire, revitalize and synergize communities leading to cultural
innovations. For example, we have acquired a great deal of wisdom from classical texts on how societies overcame devastations
by calamities and crises. As in the still waters deep in the ocean, through the cooperation by many for nearly half a century,
we can say that the wealth of NIJL is the culmination of all the nourishment deposited by all those contributors. And NIJL willcontinue its endeavors. All that may be difficult to show concretely, but we can make their achievements visible.
There was a newspaper article published in March 2017 about the joint research on auroras by the National Institute of Polar
Research (NIPR) and NIJL. Meigetsuki, the diary of the 13th century poet Fujiwara no
Teika, is a classic among classics. In it there is a mention of sekki, red vapor, visible aroundFujiwara’s mountain villa, Ogurasansō (*2). The scene is described as “dreadful because thered vapor looked like fire blazing the mountains.”
It had been speculated that comets caused the phenomenon but when we integrated theresearch by our researchers and that by NIPR, we learned that the appearance was actuallycaused by an aurora. At that time the solar winds and terrestrial magnetism behaved
differently from how they behave today and that is why an aurora was visible in the sky in
13th century Japan.
Our understanding of expressions in poems from the Kamakura period depicting arraysof colors and light, religion, worship, the sense of salvation and physical sensations mayneed to shift with our new knowledge that the society at that time shared the experience ofobserving this aurora.
In order to support the uncovering of such materials, to organize and make them accessible to the public, NIJL has deftly
sewn the seeds so that rich flowers can bloom between the dandelions without excessive weeding. Those are the achievementsthat are most visible to me.
(Tachimoto) Returning to the topic of performance evaluations, in order to expand the appreciation of the humanities in oursociety, we have started a program to train liberal arts communicators who promote the understanding of the humanities. These
communicators will reach out to society and raise the visibility of humanities research. It seems that the literary interpreters thatyou’ve discussed may also be related to assessments. What are your thoughts about that?
(Campbell) In the past, Japanese literature was viewed as an academic subject that provided various ideas and skills demanded
by society, but by the 1990’s many Japanese universities started eliminating literature departments. Today there are a muchsmaller number of institutions that offer full-fledged literature programs. Because of this, young academics can no longer spend
an entire career teaching only the Tale of Genji or Natsume Soseki. However, these people are essential in supporting Japan’s
potential and its culture. I believe that it’s necessary to expand skills that can be evaluated for work in universities, museums,
municipalities and the media.
In the field of non-Japanese literature, those fluent in foreign languages translate novels and philosophical texts and these arecounted as scholarly activities. However, in Japanese literature, despite needing a range of skills such as being able to decipher
words written in cursive form, revise and annotate the text and then interpret the text into modern language--skills that are
beyond what is needed to translate a work from one language to another--those skills are not appreciated in Japan.
I would like young scholars to develop skills that enable them to examine the plethora of Japanese classical literature, uncoverwhat’s there, convert relevant material into a form that is accessible to contemporary society, collaborate with others fromvarious disciplines and be involved in endeavors that lead to the birth of new ideas and creations.
(Tachimoto) So a liberal arts communicator and a literary interpreter are similar. I think the only way that NIHU’s six constituent
institutes will be appreciated is by making the resources accessible to contemporary society and then disseminating them.
(Campbell) I think the idea of literary interpreters should permeate into various academic societies in Japan. I also think thatit’s necessary for universities and other educational institutions to create programs that accredit literary interpretation as aqualification. If we are able to achieve this, that would be one way that shows the academic value of humanities research. We
have an obligation to see to it that we will have literary interpreters equipped to make new discoveries and salvage materials
from a nearly inexhaustible mine of Japanese classical knowledge and be prepared to tackle new challenges.

2. Globalization of NIHU and its Constituent Institutes(Tachimoto) Literary interpretation and cross-cultural understanding bring us to the topic of globalization. Currently there
are external assessment benchmarks that have been set to measure globalization. What does it mean when we talk about
globalization of Japanese literature and culture? From the perspective of the outside world, what needs to be globalized? What isthe direction that needs to be taken?
(Campbell) First of all, it’s vital that the environment is prepared for globalization. It’s not something that is either decided or
dictated as to what needs to be done at every stage. It is similar to translations. Several years ago in Japan, there was a project
led by the Japanese government to translate Japanese literature, publish a large number of works and disseminate them in a very
short period of time.
At that time, a committee decided which novels would be translated. I don’t think that works. In different regions of theworld, the demands of each of the cultural spheres are distinct. So I have some reservation using the term “transmit” because
transmissions originate from within our own conceptual framework. We need to consider what demands exist as well as about
how and where those demands connect to a society. We need to think about a format that would allow us to share the resources
and then selectively translate the materials into many languages. This isn’t about translating an entire work but creating abibliography and summaries of many works in less than 800 words and translating them into many languages. We would not
be unilaterally deciding what to transmit but mutually making those decisions while putting into consideration the demands by
various cultures as well as by the time period. These are decisions that need to be made as we build our inventory of the works.

3. The Future of the Inter-University Research Institutes(Tachimoto) I too believe that’s the steadiest path. NIJL was created 45 years ago as an inter-university research institute.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, inter-university research institutes arevery unique research organizations. Do you agree?
(Campbell) Yes I do. This institute is open to all students and members of the faculty and staff of every university in Japan. We
try not to impose what we think is constructive for universities, but rather track the research goals in each of the universities tohelp us determine the programs to be sponsored. By collaborating with various disciplines and research facilities, we endeavor to
make Japanese universities stronger and I believe that is our mission.
I, for one, as an interested party, think that one of NIJL’s greatest accomplishments is its creation of the research andcollection initiative. Scholars in a particular field working in the same region collaborate beyond the walls of their institutions toinvestigate and research materials available in that region. As a result, they are able to accomplish something that would not be
possible within the confines of one university. The researchers and educators involved in the collaborative efforts are then able toutilize what they gained in insights, experiences, and human networks and further enhance their own work. I am quite aware thatmy own work experience as an investigator in northern Kyushu for nearly ten years raised my value and abilities as an educatorat Kyushu University. I don’t know of any other program like this anywhere else in the world. I think we need to look into thevalue of this program in a more positive way and see how they connect to the creation of new academic fields.
(Tachimoto) I think pioneering into new territories is the raison d’être of the inter-university research institutes and, in thatregard, NIJL has already established solid cooperative relationships. Moreover, it sounds as though NIJL’s initiatives are wellknown among the community of researchers.
(Campbell) Yes. It’s known by overseas communities too. There are tremendous opportunities that lie ahead. We are now
immersed in the midst of what was solidly built by our predecessors. My hope is for many citizens, taxpayers, children and theirparents to become aware of this, and to participate in our projects.
In Japanese academic societies, the research community and general public are normally addressed as two discrete groups,

but I think creating this dichotomy has negative effects and is counterproductive. Today, right here, I am considered an expert ofJapanese literature, but if the angle were to turn 30 degrees, to turn to historical research and geographical research, let alone
polar research, I would be considered just another member of the general public, a complete layperson. New academic fields
will not emerge out of the mere ten degrees I turn as an expert. By incorporating the gradations of diverse needs of the generalpublic, the layperson may gain something from picking up and reading publications or viewing captivating images and texts on
the website. It’s important that we also publicize our research workshops and carry on with more of these outreach activities.
(Tachimoto) Professor Campbell, thank you very much for allowing me to interview you today.
**1 The official name is Biblioteca Don Bosco, Università Pontificia Salesiana (http://biblioteca.unisal.it/) located in the suburbs ofRome. It is a library of Japanese classics collected by Father Mario Marega.
**2 Court noble and poet in the early Kamakura period. Fujiwara Sadaie’s mountain villa was said to be located at the foot of Mount
Ogura in Saga, Ukyo-ku of Kyoto city.

Vol. 014

New Asian studies in Asia

Asian studies is being revitalized in Japan and going beyond conventional single country studies, noted Hirano Kenichiro,
Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo and of Waseda, and Executive Director of Tokyo Bunko at the 7th HarvardYenching Institute annual roundtable held on Wednesday, 22 March, 2017 at the Tsai Auditorium , CGIS South, in Cambridge.
To illustrate this point, in his presentation, Hirano touched upon the area studies program launched in 2006 at the National
Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU).
Initially, NIHU’s area studies began with an Islamic Area Studies Program and expanded to include a Modern China and a Modern
India Programs. After more than a decade, NIHU’s area studies program now covers three key regions in Asia: Northeast Asia,
Modern Middle East and South Asia. In Hirano’s views, these programs which are respectively run by a network of five or six
selected universities, are practical and economical compared to establishing a single national institute dedicated for area studies.
That is not to say that Asian studies in Japan is without challenges. The tendency to emphasize Japan as unique compared toother Asian countries has separated Japanese studies from Asian studies. It is only in Japan that Japanese studies is considered
as not being part of Asian studies. However, Hirano is not too pessimistic. He believes that Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and other
Asian scholars who have received their graduate education in Japan may become a force in overcoming the challenge, as thesescholars take active roles in education and research for Asian studies in Japan.
Hirano concluded his talk by emphasizing the necessity to develop new Asian studies in Asia in light of the increasing bordercrossing of ordinary Asians. “After all we do Asian studies for the sake of peace and well-being of ordinary peoples living in Asia”.
The Harvard-Yenching Institute roundtable annually brings together scholars from Asia to consider topics of Asia-wide
significance, as explained by Elizabeth Perry, Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute in her opening remarks. The 7th annual
roundtable invited four scholars from Japan, South Korea and China to discuss ideas about the revival and reinvention of Asianstudies in Asia.
To view Hirano’s presentation see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2n3Z97Oic

KOSO Ayumi
Project Assistant Prof., Center for Information and Public Relations, NIHU

Vol. 015

The fascination of historical research on auroras opened up
by collaboration between the humanities and the sciences

On 6 September 2017 a solar flare of the most powerful X-class was observed, and the possibility that an aurora might be visible
even in Japan around Hokkaido became a hot topic. Auroras are normally visible only at high latitudes in the vicinity of the
Arctic or Antarctic, but when powerful solar flares erupt a rare aurora can be seen even at lower latitudes. In fact, perusing backthrough history, there were a number of occasions when red auroras spread over the night sky in Japan.
In an interdisciplinary research project conducted from 2015 to 2017by The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) on the“Northern lights and human society: Past, present, and future”, led
by Kataoka Ryūhō, Associate Professor of the National Institute ofPolar Research, historic records of aurora observations were collected
and analyzed for the past 2,000 years using Japanese classic texts
and ancient documents, and also Chinese historic texts. At present,
this research has been taken over by a SOKENDAI joint research
project titled “Changes of natural disasters and human society: theway of words and the way of the world” and a large-scale pioneering
project spearheaded by the National Institute of Japanese Literaturedesignated the “Project to build an international collaborative research
An aurora depicted in Seikai(courtesy of Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture)

network for pre-modern Japanese texts,” and is in the process of
expanding towards research on extreme space weather events.

The most intriguing aspect of historic research on auroras is the impossibility of pursuing the topic without the cooperation ofresearchers in both the sciences and the humanities. Two events we focused on in particular were the auroras of 21 February1204 and 17 September 1770. The former is documented in Meigetsuki, a diary kept by Fujiwara no Sadaie, and is alreadywell known in the field of astronomy. However, from a comparison of solar activity traces left in tree ring data ( ※ 1) and thefrequency patterns of prolonged auroras ( ※ 2), we reconfirmed that prolonged auroras occur at times of increased solar activity,
and are not witnessed during periods of diminished solar activity over long intervals. Further, in reading the Meigetsuki passage
for this analysis, we noticed that the aurora was described with an expression that repeated a Chinese character (kanji) meaning“strange” or “mysterious,” not seen in descriptions of other astronomical events. This subtle difference in expression may be anindication that Sadaie the poet also had an eye for scientific observation.
For the 1770 aurora, while its existence had been previously known, once our research began more than 100 items of related
historical documents turned up, far exceeding expectations. Among them are drawings, and one of these is an aurora depicted in
Seikai , a handbook on comets. Said to have been seen in Kyoto, the aurora is depicted as spreading in fan-shaped fashion fromthe ridgeline of mountains (see the figure below). This novel depiction has raised doubts that it really was the image of an aurora.
But reconstructing the night sky for the same date based on a description in a diary handed down at the Azumamaro Shrine, alsoin Kyoto, resulted in the same fan-shaped aurora as pictured in Seikai. Further detailed investigations revealed that the magnetic
storm of 1770 could have been on an equal or perhaps greater scale than that of the Carrington Event ( ※ 3), said to be thelargest ever observed historically.
At the same time, the results of this analysis show that people of the Edo period tried to relate accurately the occurrences ofauroras in pictures and writings. The subtle expression through shades of darker and lighter red for variations in the light ofauroras requires the power of science to interpret. What science will reveal will give greater richness to the interpretation ofhistorical materials, and provide historians hints for discovering new perspectives that will help understand the awareness ofauroras and astronomical observations among people of the Edo period. Does not historical research on auroras thus suggest
possibilities for a new field of study, to be opened through collaborative research between the humanities and the sciences?

Iwahashi Kiyomi
Associate Professor, Center for Collaborative Research on Pre-modern Texts, National Institute of Japanese Literature※ 1 This refers to levels of 14C measured in the tree rings of Yakusugi (Japanese cedars on the island of Yakushima aged over 2,000 years) for which precise
calendar ages of individual rings can be determined, from which past solar activity can be read over an extended period.
※ 2 The term prolonged aurora refers to one observed over at least two or three successive days.
※ 3 A magnetic storm observed by British astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859, which was so powerful it caused failures in telegraph systems in Europe
and North America.

Vol. 016

Report on NIHU International Symposium “Migration, Refugees
and the Environment from Security Perspectives”

The Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University and the Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University (NoA-SRC)
organized an international seminar at Tohoku University, Sendai on 29 October, 2017. Almost 50 people attended the seminarwhich consisted of two sessions and a general discussion.
Akihiro Iwashita (Hokkaido University) chaired the first session titled “Migration and refugees in Northeast Asia”. The speakers
included Naomi Chi (Hokkaido University), Mitsuhiro Mimura (The Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia), Yuji
Fukuhara (University of Shimane) and Serghei Golunov (Kyushu University). The three papers each focused on a specific locationin Northeast Asia and analyzed how migration affects issues of security. Professor Chi presented her findings from 10 years offieldwork interviewing women from China, Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam. Professor Chi is interested in these women’s
experiences of being ‘marriage migrants’ and ‘domestic and care workers’ in Japan and Korea. Her argument was that bothsocieties could do more to protect these women’s human rights. Professors Mimura and Fukuhara did a joint-presentation that
also relied heavily on interviews. This time, the voices the audience heard about were those of North Korean men working on
building sites in Mongolia and these men’s employers. Professor Mimura contextualized the details of Professor Fukuhara’s
detailed fieldwork by placing these workers’ experiences in the framework of Mongolian-North Korean relations. The paper
revealed how these worker’s experiences are increasingly influenced by international politics – in particular, the pressure exerted
by the United States for Mongolia to reduce its support for North Korea.
The third paper moved away from interviews in person to consider the words of Russian politicians and officials as reported bythat country’s media. Professor Golunov identified how Russian perceptions of Chinese migrants exist between two poles that
he called ‘alarmism’ and ‘utilitarianism’. Although some politicians have resorted to critical portrayals of Chinese migrants asa threat to the nation’s security, others have taken a pragmatic approach favouring encouraging such migration as a boon to
the economy. He concluded with the insight that as China’s economy becomes stronger, migration for Chinese is becoming lessattractive. Furthermore, migration to China for Russians is actually becoming more appealing, who are enticed by the higher
wages. Professor Jong Seok Park (Kyushu University) as commentator provided several new points for the panelists and theaudience. These included a discussion about the role of ‘agency’ in women’s migration decisions and a questioning of the terms
used to describe North Korea.

Following lunch, Jusen Asuka (Tohoku University) chaired the second session on “Migration, refugees and the environment”.
The first speaker was Nina Hall (Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna, Italy). She spoke about
how international organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) have adapted their mandates to meet the challenges of migration caused by climate change.
John Campbell (University of Waikato, New Zealand) followed Professor Hall. He introduced his research on the threat posedby climate change to people living in Kiribati. While not central to his presentation, Professor Campbell’s view that the United
Kingdom as the former colonial power should do more to acknowledge its responsibilities to the Kiribati people caught theattention of the audience. Benoit Mayer (Chinese University of Hong Kong) gave the last presentation of the seminar. He argued
that rather than discuss climate change as a discrete factor contributing to migration, academics and policy-makers should think
about the ‘climate-migration nexus’. Using the example of international law, Professor Mayer examined how climate change
was one of many causes of migration that are entangled and cannot be separated out. The session concluded with comments by
Kentaro Ono (Honorary Consul of the Republic of Kiribati in Sendai). He made a plea for academics not to apply the label of ‘climate
refugee’ to the people of Kiribati. Instead, he urged the panelists to think of new terms that emphasized ‘migration with dignity’.
Following the two sessions, the symposium finished with a general discussion. Mr Ono’s argument provided the starting point
for a debate about how to counter ignorance in Japan about refugees. More specifically, an international student asked what
policy-makers might do to assist people in a country such as Bangladesh where the state has limited resources. The panelists
conceded that there are no simple solutions but warned against thinking only about migration as a security issue. As the title ofthe symposium stressed ‘security perspectives’, this reminder of the importance of a humanitarian approach to migration andrefugees was welcome. Akihiro Iwashita gave the closing remarks in which he thanked the staff of Tohoku University for their
hard work in organizing such a successful symposium.

Jonathan Bull
Assistant Professor,
Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University

Session A

Session B

Round table 1

Round table 2

Vol. 017

International Symposium 2017 “Northeast Asia: The Fetal Stage”

From September 19-20, 2017, over two days, the Institute for Northeast Asian Research (NEAR Center) at the University of
Shimane held its 2nd International Symposium 2017 "Northeast Asia: The Fetal Stage" at the Northeast Normal University in
Chanchung, China. At previous year’s 1st International Symposium 2016, “Northeast Asia: The Embryonic Stage” held overtwo days on November 19-20, 2016, we examined the historical definition of “Northeast Asia” and questions that have existed
therein. Based on the outcome of the previous year’s discussions, this year’s symposium focused on understanding aspects of theregion’s “fetal stage” and the emergence of ideas on modernistic political systems and nation-states within various nations.
This year’s symposium was made possible through support from the NEAR Center’s partner, the Northeast Normal University,a co-host of this conference, with whom we have had a long and friendly relationship and through assistance from NIHU’sliaison office of the Northeast Asia Area Studies Project that was established in June 2016. We were able to fully experience theimportance of NIHU Transdisciplinary Projects in Sino-Japanese academic exchanges.
The symposium’s sessions and presenters were as follows:
SESSION 1: PERCEPTIONS “ORIENTALISM”
S. Chuluun (Professor, Institute of History and Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences Bayanzurkh Duureg) “Russian
Politics over East: Mongolian Questions in the Treaty of Nerchinsk.”
TANG Yanfeng (Lecturer, Northeast Normal University) “The Russian’s View of China from the17th to 18th Century.”
SAWAI Keichi (Professor Emeritus, Keisen University) “The Illusion of Confucianism Co-Prosperity Sphere; ‘Japonisme’ of East
Asia in the 18th Century.”
UROZUMI Makoto (Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo) “Japanese ‘Spirituality’ in East Asia from the 18th to the 19th
Century.”
SESSION 2: RULING PHILOSOPHIESSASAKI Shiro (Preparatory Office for National Ainu Museum) “Governing System of the Qing Dynasty in the Amur River
Region: Principle and Reality.”
Sodbilig (Professor, Inner Mongolia University) “Transformation of Philosophy to Govern the Frontier of Qing Dynasty:
Abstinence to Cultivation .”HAN Dongyu (Professor, Northeast Normal University) “The Qing Dynasty's ‘Greater Chinese’ Expression toward the ‘Non-Han
Chinese Region’: From Awaken to the Grand Justice to the Imperial Edict of Abdication.”
ZHUANG Sheng (Professor, Northeast Normal University) “Geomorphic Features and Relief Policies of Daicing Gurun Ruling
Territory: Northeast China’s South Sea and Hunchun River Basin as the Center.”
MAKABE Hitoshi (Professor, Hokkaido University) “Evaluations of the Territory Government by Qing China in Tokugawa
Confucian Thought (1644-1850s).”
SESSION 3: “EXCHANGE”
MORINAGA Takako (Professor, Ritsumeikan University) “Tea Trade between Russia and Qing after 1860’s: The Circulation
Economic Route Connected by Moscow, Kyakhta and Hankow.”
NAKAMURA Atsushi (Associate Professor, Yamagata University) “Network of the Stations and People Transfer of Mongolia
under Qing Dynasty.”
NAMIHIRA Tsuneo (Professor, University of the Ryukyus) “The Ryukyuan People's First Encounters with the Modern West:
Focusing on Basil Hall’s ‘Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-choo Island, 1818’.”

ISHIDA Toru (Associate Professor, University of Shimane) “About the Handling of Arrivals of Foreign Ships at Tsushima Islandin the Edo Period.”DISCUSSION
HAN Dongyu, LIU Xiaodong, KUROZUMI Makoto, KONAGAYA Yuki (National Institutes for the Humanities), JANG Insung (Seoul
National University), HUANG Ko-Wu (Academia Sinica)
Through a total of 13 enlightening presentations and passionate discussions, we clarified the following. On the rise of ideas onmodernistic political systems in Northeast Asia, we determined that:
1. The transition from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty reversed the perception and understanding of Ming-Qing China
within Korea and Japan: the notion that Ming-Qing China is no longer a center of culture and civilization, but is barbarous
advanced the formation of modernistic nationalism in both countries.
2. Active movements of individuals, commodities and capital developed the perception of domestic and foreign territories invarious countries in Northeast Asia boosting the self-awareness of a nation.
3. The trends mentioned above, that we have defined as the “fetal stage,” transitioned the region from a “era of discovery” toan “era of imperialism.” From a world history perspective, we found concrete examples of emerging ideas on modern politicalsystems in Northeast Asia that brought the region onto the same trajectory as rest of the world that was transforming at thesame time.

Thanks to support from the Center of East-Asian Civilizations, Northeast Normal University we were able to hold this two-day
international symposium with simultaneous interpretation. This was a very meaningful academic conference and we hope to hold
another significant international symposium next year and continue to do so for many years into the future while we deepen ourcollaborations with overseas research institutions.

Atsushi Inoue, Principal investigator
Institute for Northeast Asian Research, University of Shimane
National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU), Northeast Asia Area Studies Project

Symposium in session

Vol. 018

Toward new methods of evaluating humanities research

Nowadays, when evaluating the research record of an individual or the research

capacity of an organization, surveyors

generally rely on bibliometric methods. However, bibliometric method may not produce accurate evaluations when applied tohumanities research. What, then, must we do to ensure appropriate evaluations in this field? Providing just such a solution to thismajor issue is one task before the National Institutes for the Humanities, or NIHU.
Our organization is tackling this issue in three ways. First, we are striving to improve the bibliometric methods in use. Second, weare developing new, non-bibliometric methods that can be used in evaluations. And third, we are exploring ways to enhance thereputation of NIHU’s humanities research, with the hope of sharing our best practices with the humanities community beyond
NIHU.
Humanities research fundamentally takes human society as its subject. For this reason, it must represent a response not just to
the concerns of academia, but to society itself as well. The results of the humanities research therefore often appear as books forbroader consumption. The focus on producing research output in this format leads to a need for evaluations of the books that are
published. When compiling data on the research performance of each of NIHU’s six institutes, (institutional research), we countindividual chapters of book-length publications as equivalent to academic papers to ensure equitable comparison with research
output in other fields. Researchers serving as coauthors or editors of works also have their contributions counted in this way.
In humanities research—particularly in research on Japan—it is frequently considered important to publish in Japanese in theinterest of maintaining a high level of specialized expertise. This leads to the need to evaluate research results published in
the Japanese language, and therefore to the need for an environment where such results can be made available online. In thisconnection, in 2015 we built a repository for all publications produced by NIHU’s six institutes. We also plan to obtain digital
object identifiers (DOIs) for all publications, thus clarifying the ways in which they are cited by other researchers.
The humanities are not a research field whose results are concentrated in bleeding-edge subject areas, but rather one displaying
considerable dispersion in its interests and focuses. Furthermore, publications in the humanities are likely to be cited forconsiderably longer than output in other realms of research. The long-lived nature of this research prompted us to investigate
the timeframes involved for citations of papers in the NIHU repository; our findings are shown in the figure below. Compared topapers in the information science field, research in the humanities tends to attract its citations over a span around twice as long.
In other words, humanities research has a much longer useful life. We are building on these findings by reporting them to informdiscussions on appropriate ways to evaluate humanities research, as well as recommending metrics that can take into accountthe extended citation period.
To evaluate the records of individual researchers, universities generally make use of information on the relative rankings of thejournals where their papers are accepted for publication. This approach can, however, downplay the significance of the schools’
own academic bulletins, because these publications will end up being ranked relatively lower compared to academic journals.
However, for the humanities in particular—a research realm that rarely pursues the latest trends—academic work that makes
steady contributions to the field, such as by adding to the store of available analysis on relevant materials, is also vital. In thisconnection, universities’ in-house bulletins have a key role to play. This is why we have decided not to rank universities’ in-housebulletins when evaluating NIHU’s research performance.
In our development of non-bibliometric methods for research evaluation, we are attempting to sketch out a complete “cosmos”
of research results. The Science Map developed by the National Institute of Informatics, is an effort to chart relationships amongscientific research papers based on publication titles. In the humanities, however, it can be much more difficult to elucidate
similarities among research efforts based solely on titles in this manner. Our approach is to scan the complete content of theacademic papers, mechanically judge their degree of closeness to other publications, and produce a two-dimensional map of therelationships thus clarified. (This work is scheduled for completion in March 2018.) Being able to plot the content of humanities
research should allow us to discover the diversity, novelty, and confluence of ideas at play in this cosmos.
Publishing activities play a vital role in building the reputation of the humanities as a field. We are working together with the
publishing industry to explore the best forms for academic texts to take in order to respond to the needs of academia while also
supporting the publication of general-readership texts that meet the needs of society. During the 2017 academic year, these
efforts are leading to the publication of two new books by Heibonsha Ltd.
Moving forward, we aim to invite researchers to come to Japan and experience the research environment here, sharing our
output directly with our international counterparts. In this way we also hope to raise the visibility of NIHU’s research among ourinternational colleagues.

Yuki Konagaya
Executive Director, National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU)

Figure: Citation Periods for Research in Various Fields

Vol. 019

On research communication in non-Japanese languages

A university in Tokyo convened a symposium titled “Thinking about the Whaling Issue.” Megumi Sasaki, the director of the
documentary film “A Whale of a Tale” [“Okujira-sama: Futatsu no seigi no monogatari ”] also took the podium with a talk entitled“Justice beyond Justice” [“Seigi no mukō no seigi ”] (http://okujirasama.com/). Going beyond the issue of whale meat as a food,
Sasaki argued that the antithesis of what one culture considers to be justice might not be “evil,” but rather another justice. I
have been inspired by Sasaki’s words and believe that a similar problem may underlie the language we choose to use whencommunicating our research as humanities researchers at Japanese research institutions.
Trained as a geneticist, when I was younger, I took it completely for granted that the results of my research should be madeavailable in academic papers written in English. However, since I was exclusively concerned with when, where, and how rice
plants, which are anthropogenic in nature, descended, the specter of humanity was never far away.In that sense, my researchareas of interest also fell under the humanities.
None of my English language manuscripts I submitted were accepted on the first try. For the most part, it was a process
whereby I would receive some comments from the reviewers, rewrite the paper accordingly, whereupon it would be acceptedand published. But occasionally I had papers rejected even after they had been rewritten. I would be frustrated by the rejection
and would file away those manuscripts in stacks, and in many cases the manuscripts would never again see the light of day.
Sometimes I feel they were dismissed unreasonably by senior reviewers wondering “what nonsense is this young nobody goingon about?” – a practice not uncommon even in Japan. However, I also feel that there were sometimes reasons that are moredifficult to explain. These were the manuscripts rejected as “unreadable” or “poorly written” even after they had been edited bynative English speakers who were also experts in my research area. Why were my manuscripts judged as such?
It is said that when we think, we do so in our mother tongue. If so, then it is possible that the logical reasoning and the routewe have taken to reach our conclusion will vary slightly depending on the language in which we articulate them. Perhaps ourconclusions may also change in some subtle fashion. An academic paper conceived of in Japanese and written in Japanese should
be expected to include something inherently Japanese.
If so, must we communicate our humanities research that contains “something inherently Japanese” in a non-Japanese language,
such as, English? My answer is “Yes.” Even in the case of the “Justice beyond Justice” talk I alluded to above, there are some whowill not acknowledge that there could be alternative forms of justice. At the risk of being misunderstood, this is nothing otherthan the doctrine of monotheism. Providing different perspectives to even those who would regard other religions as heresy thatalternative forms of justice exist, that other logical thinking are possible – is this not the obligation of the scholarly humanities?
And in accomplishing this, whether we like it or not, we have little choice but to communicate in the English language.
There is no need to use logical reasoning that is specific to the English discourse. What I am trying to say here is that whenpeople outside Japan face outlooks, beliefs, and ways of doing things that are different from their own, it is our duty to take anapproach that encourages those people to accept these as another justice, rather than thinking of these differences as heresies orsomething difficult to accept. I feel that the need for English-language research communication in the humanities lies here.
Of course, English should not be the only means of communication. There are non-English speaking audiences, such as thosepeople who have taken part in our fieldworks conducted around the world; these participants are one of the most importantaudiences we should reach out to. In that sense, when considering which language to use as a means of communication, in
addition to Japanese and English, we should also consider the languages used in the societies and local communities of our fieldstudies.
As one of the inter-university research institutes, it is NIHU’s responsibility to organize wide-ranging collaborative research thata single university would not be able to accomplish on its own. I feel that the same is also required for international collaboration
and research communication. In academic disciplines relating to Japanese culture, especially, I would venture to suggestthat research communication in multiple languages seems to be becoming increasingly important. In other words, researchcommunication in non-Japanese languages is an endeavor to convey how ideas are developed and arguments are made in theJapanese discourse - something we would not direct our attention to if we were communicating in Japanese.

Yo-Ichiro SATO
Executive Director, National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU)

Vol. 020

Interview Series 『New Minpaku Director-General Kenji Yoshida 』

At the National Museum of Ethnology (“Minpaku”), Professor Kenji Yoshida began his term from April 2017 as the new DirectorGeneral, following the retirement of Ken’ichi Sudo who served in that position from the 2009 through the 2016 academic years.
Along with celebrating the 40th anniversary of its opening in 2017, Minpaku
has also completed a comprehensive 10-year program of renovations of thepermanent exhibitions in its main building. The President of the National
Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU) asked the new Director-General about
his vision regarding how to utilize the ethnographic resources which
Minpaku has continuously accumulated (artifacts, audio-visual materials
such as photographs and movies, research papers, etc.) to realize a so-called“intellectual forum” that will serve a great variety of people as an arena for
intellectual exchange, discovery, and collaborative work.
Interviewer: Narifumi Tachimoto
President, National Institutes for the Humanities

1. Ambitions as the New Director-General(Tachimoto) Professor Yoshida, since taking up your post as the new Director-General, you have conducted a completely new
reorganization of the make-up of the research divisions, haven’t you?
(Yoshida) Yes, we have made it into an organization with four research divisions. The Department of Advanced Human Sciences
provides leadership in theoretical research on the basic fields of human science, and the Department of Cross-Field Researchtakes as its base the fieldwork conducted in various regions worldwide while striving to establish anthropological regional
research from a new perspective that transcends regions. These two are what we could call the basic divisions. Then as applied
divisions, there are the Department of Modern Society and Civilization, which takes up the challenges humankind is facing froma diachronic viewpoint spanning man’s past and future, and the Department of Globalization and Humanity, which approaches

these same challenges from a global perspective. Further, there is the Center for Cultural Resource Studies, which disseminatesinternationally information on the cultural materials that Minpaku has accumulated through these research activities, andpromotes the sharing of that information as a common resource of humankind. All of these are developing their research
activities through an international network, in collaboration with universities and research institutes both in Japan and abroad,and further with the people of the societies where research and collection of materials have been carried out, namely the source
community itself.
Making this reorganization substantive and not merely in name is the primary task that I believe is for me to carry out.
(Tachimoto) Would you say that what we see in this reorganization is Minpaku’s posture as it grapples with cultural
anthropology?
(Yoshida) As in the old days, fieldwork or intercultural exchange are no longer monopolies of cultural anthropology. While
making cultural anthropology unmistakably our pivot foot, on top of that we must unite with related fields, and promote studies
in a manner that attracts other researchers.
(Tachimoto) While I can imagine you have confidence in yielding results as a consequence of this reorganization, I would also
like to ask about your ambitions as Director-General regarding how to achieve Minpaku’s mission.
(Yoshida) Forty years have passed since its opening, and Minpaku has accumulated 345,000 artifacts, making it the largest
collection in the world for a museum specializing in cultural anthropology built from the latter half of the 20th century on. From
the time of its founding, when Professor Tadao Umesao took office as Minpaku’s first Director-General, we have been striving tobecome “one of the top-class museums in the world,” and I believe that has come about.
However, in terms of disseminating information, there is still much to be done. In order to become top class in making
information available to all parts of the world, first of all there is the problem of language. Our database is the largest item
we have in terms of resources, but until now many of the database of Minpaku’s artifacts and so forth are accessible only inJapanese. Work has already begun on making this database bilingual in Japanese and English. As a task to take up in the future, I
would very much like our resources made available worldwide by providing a multilingual database.

2. New Developments in the Utilization of Cultural Resources(Tachimoto) As a means to disseminate Minpaku’s resources internationally, you have begun to build an Info-Forum Museum.
What kind of information will Minpaku be sharing through this project as it greets its 40th anniversary? Could you explain to us
in simple terms?
(Yoshida) While Minpaku was able to finish comprehensive renovations of the exhibitions in its main building in March 2017,
these exhibitions are already progressing to the next new level. We will continue to update the contents of our exhibitions ona regular basis. At the same time we will be developing and building a system over the next several years that will enable allusers and researchers to extract freely the cultural resource data that Minpaku is still continuing to accumulate, based on theirinterests and using the exhibitions as a point of entry, to link up with further research. Also, in parallel with this, the project wewill be advancing is the Info-Forum Museum.
The Info-Forum Museum aims to share information consisting of Minpaku’s store of artifacts, and audio-visual materials suchas photos and movies, not only with researchers and users both domestically and abroad, but also with the people of the societiesthat originally produced these materials, or if they are photographs, the people of the regions where those photos were taken, inother words with members of the source communities. Then the knowledge gained thereby will be added collectively to enrichthe database in the hope that it will lead to new collaborative research and exhibition, and community activities.
(Tachimoto): So you are making a digital data bank. In concrete terms, how will you be advancing the project?
(Yoshida): Minpaku has already implemented, in Taiwan and South Korea, the practice of taking exhibited artifacts back to theirplaces of origin, the exhibitions of returned materials. In addition to instances of people from the source communities providing
new information when returning these artifacts, or photos and movies taken there in the past, there are also cases of people fromthe source communities coming to Minpaku and enriching the data of our resources. This type of collaborative activity leads to
new discoveries in contexts where people encounter things or other people, and new discussions or challenges emerge thereby,
and we aim to implement thoroughly this ideal format of “the museum as forum” not just in the museum’s exhibitions, but also inthe museum’s accumulated cultural materials, and further in anthropological research.
(Tachimoto) What is the new way of thinking in this project?
(Yoshida) Whether for collaborative research, or research with a special focus, I think the attempt to disseminate information
together with members of the source communities has been absent previously. I believe that with researchers receiving various
perspectives they themselves lack, through feedback from the people of the source communities, new kinds of things notpreviously seen will emerge.
(Tachimoto) As small units such as single villages were previously the main objects of cultural anthropology, the Info-Forum
Museum may have considerable impact for such villages. However, Minpaku’s exhibitions are organized on the basis of muchwider regions. How do you link the two together?

(Yoshida) Cultural anthropology today does not study only small-scalesocieties. While the objects on display were collected in particularethnic villages or towns, the fruits of our research activities advance ourunderstanding about the entire globe. We regard the permanent exhibitions
we have newly made as platforms for global inquiry. Accordingly, I would
like for all of Minpaku’s users to take the exhibited objects as their pointof entry, and through projects such as the Info-Forum Museum, extract
information as much as they like from our accumulated ethnographic
resources. Then by reconfiguring that information in their own particularways, for researchers I believe this should enable them to develop new linesof research, and lay users should be able to build up their understanding of the world in accordance with their own interests.
I myself have been conducting fieldwork in a small village in southern Africa for these past thirty-five years, and throughthat village I have witnessed developments in the culture and religion of the entire African continent. For example, taking thequestions I felt in that village as starting point, then going around to all of the countries in southern Africa, I have found myself
in the bind of chasing down developments in Christianity for modern-day southern Africa as a whole.
(Tachimoto) So, Minpaku is currently planning new developments for its exhibitions. What would be the difference in terms ofideals with the other NIHU museum, the National Museum of Japanese History (“Rekihaku”) that displays Japanese history insystematic fashion?
(Yoshida) Like Rekihaku, Minpaku also has exhibitions on Japanese culture, and speaking just in terms of the size of theexhibition gallery, the Japanese exhibition is the largest among the exhibition areas at Minpaku. So when Rekihaku opened,there actually was some debate about whether Minpaku’s Japanese exhibition had become unnecessary. However, Minpaku’s
exhibition on Japan is after all made with the intention of looking closely at Japanese culture in a global context. So from thestart, the intent and direction are different from the manner of Rekihaku, which is to know one’s own history by digging further
and further down into it.
Taking Japan as the point of origin, I think that only by having both the perspective of Rekihaku which digs further backalong the diachronic axis, and that of Minpaku which looks across the globe in synchronic fashion, do we get to see the worldin its entirety. It is a great strong point that two organizations with such differing directions are in Japan, and that distinguishes
them as well from the ideal of the national museum group of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, which the Tokyo
National Museum and Kyoto National Museum are part of.
(Tachimoto) Both Minpaku and Rekihaku take their exhibitions very
seriously. Exhibitions are but a small part of our activities, yet for somereason when we are evaluated on to what extent Minpaku has made useof its cultural resources, our value as research institutes gets measured interms of the number of visitors and so forth. What place do exhibitions holdfor you at Minpaku?
(Yoshida) Minpaku was established as one of the inter-university research
institutes. We have always stressed to others that we maintain exhibition
facilities as one pathway for publicizing our research activities. By making the fruits of research public we open up a point ofcontact with society, and our research gets improved through the critical evaluations received thereby. In that sense, exhibitions
are extremely important as an activity which supports the endeavors of research.

3. Anthropology and the Study of Human Cultures(Tachimoto) Originally, academics were a means for procuring answers to the problems confronted by humans and thus
improve our wellbeing. But for the problems of humankind in the 21st century, as a study of human cultures, how can cultural
anthropology contribute?
(Yoshida) Minpaku’s Special Research Projects, under the unified theme of “Modern Civilization and the Future of Humankind:
Environment/Culture/Humans,” are truly a re-inspection from an anthropological perspective of the problems which modern
civilization is facing. In concrete terms we are taking up themes such as the environment, food, cultural clashes, cultural heritage,
and also minorities and population issues.
I believe we are currently witnessing a turning point for civilization. It has been the practice until now for those who havebeen held as central to rule unilaterally over, or to study in unilateral fashion, those who have been taken as peripheral, butalready this situation is no longer permissible. Everywhere on earth, between those who have been regarded as central and those
who have been regarded as peripheral, mutual contacts and entanglements including things both creative and destructive havetaken place. In the midst of such happenings, a kind of narrow-minded nationalism has been raising its head. In such a time as
this, much more than previously the wisdom of anthropology, which has sought to gain an empathetic understanding of the
Other’s culture, will become all the more vital in my view. Instead of taking the distinctive quality of such an era as problematic,
rather we should utilize it to the fullest extent. The concept of the “Info-Forum Museum” and also the ideal of anthropology are
to provide a platform that seeks out new directions through collaborative debate and research by making Minpaku’s cultural
resources available across borders.

(Tachimoto) The inter-university research institutes were set up to contribute to universities and other research institutes, but
not all humanities fields are part of NIHU. In the midst of debate as to whether there are not even more important humanistic
fields, what is the significance of Minpaku’s existence, as a research institute for cultural anthropology, within the inter-university
research institute scheme?
(Yoshida) NIHU has institutes focusing on Japanese culture such as Rekihaku, the National Institute of Japanese Literature, andthe International Research Center for Japanese Studies, along with Minpaku and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature
which take the entire world as their object of study. We are first able to truly see ourselves when we confront the Other, and the
opposite also holds true. NIHU has a complement of institutes that research both Self and Other. That is NIHU’s greatest strength,of which I feel it can be proud. I think Minpaku exists as one of the research organizations bearing a core component of thatendeavor to understand the human condition.
When universities accumulate collections that reflect their researchers’ fields they build university museums, but they areunable to have a facility like Minpaku that can look out over the entire world. Minpaku has a lineup of researchers, researchareas, collections, and exhibitions based on its design of surveying the world as a whole. This kind of facility is unique in Asia,and only one of a very few worldwide. There are other ethnological museums in Asia, but they are museums and research
institutes taking the peoples of their own countries as their subject of study, and no other institute exists that surveys the entire
world.
Minpaku is now building a virtual museum on the Internet, which will enable free extraction from universities or from homeof cultural resource data using the exhibitions as an entry point. Materials that cannot be uploaded to the Internet because of
copyright or other issues will be converted into portable videotheque format to be available for loan. I believe it is Minpaku’s
mission as a Japanese inter-university research institute to become a global hub for the accumulation and dissemination ofcultural resources covering the entire globe.
(Tachimoto) As Minpaku has an extremely large collection of such cultural resources, I would very much like to see greater
success and energy in sharing those materials.
Professor Yoshida, thank you very much for your time today.