Otani University

Research Branding Project for Private Universities
Progress Report for the 2018 Academic Year
Number of261009
EducationalCorporation
Name of University Otani University
Title of Project
Application Type

Name ofEducationalCorporation

Shinshū Otani Gakuen

Creation of an International Buddhist Research Network and the Promotion of “HumanStudies” based on Buddhism
Type B

Grant Period

Five YearsStudent Capacity

2995 students

Participating
Organization

Faculty of Letters,Graduate School of Letters,Shin Buddhist Comprehensive ResearchInstitute,Livrary,Museum,The Eastern Buddhist Society

Project Outline

The excessive rationalization of modern society has resulted in the “sense of
meaninglessness.” Critical attempts to reexamine the early modern and modern ages
have already been made. However, it is becoming increasingly urgent to find solutions tofundamental problems concerning the environment, human rights and bioethics.
Buddhism has the potential to provide solutions to these important problems. In thisproject, we will create an international research center based on Buddhism and promote“human studies” unique to our university. We will unfold a strategic branding project formaking the world recognize once again the importance of Buddhist studies.
About a hundred years ago, Max Weber made the important point that the increasing
rationalization of modern society will bring about the “sense of meaninglessness.”
Subsequently, especially after the two world wars, various attempts have been made toreexamine modernity critically. But as if to mock such attempts at reexamination, thesecularization of modern industrial society is proceeding at a greater pace and people
are increasingly caught up in the globalized market economy. Under suchcircumstances, the problems of the “sense of meaninglessness” such as ecology, humanrights and bioethics are becoming even more severe. Moreover, the market principle haspervaded the academic world of the universities. As a result, research that are believed
to “contribute” to society in concrete ways, such as the applied sciences, have come to beoveremphasized while research in the humanities and theoretical sciences have been
curtailed. However, at present, when people are faced with the fundamental problem of
the “sense of meaninglessness” and the need to overcome it is extremely urgent, thehumanities, and Buddhist studies in particular, have become increasingly important, asit has the potential to provide answers to these problems.

Therefore, our university has made the following four points the central pillars of its
branding project. First, we will create the foundation for engaging in research from an① Aim of the project international perspective on the basis of the knowledge of Buddhism we haveaccumulated in the past. Second, we will conduct joint research with scholars from
America, Europe and Asia. Third, we will promote academic exchange among scholars
and students. Fourth, we will make Buddhism, the intellectual heritage of world,
available to society at large in the form of “human studies” unique to our university. In
other words, we will offer to the world a humanities that is based on the core spirit ofBuddhism—to face the actual problems of society squarely, to seek after the truth and toestablish a firm ground for living our lives—in the form of “human studies” unique toour university. In this way, our university, even while it will still retain the traditional
philologically-based study of Buddhism at the center of the university curriculum, will
also actively engage in studies conducted from the perspective of clinical Buddhism thatcan contribute to the fields of sociology and education, as well as studies than canrespond to the needs of society. In this way, we will create a brand image of Otani
University as a “university of human studies” having the mission to nurture an
independent person who can discover a way to live his or her life with firm resolution inmodern society.

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I. Goal and Implementation Plan concerning Branding Project[Goals to be Achieved]○Holding an international symposium○Publishing an Encyclopedia of Japanese and Vietnamese Buddhism○Participation in research activities by employing Vietnamese students as researchassistants[Implementation Plan]①“Tannish ō Translation Workshop” to be held in association with University ofCalifornia at Berkeley’s Institute for East Asian Studies and Ryūkoku University
Research Center for World Buddhist Cultures (August and March).
②Lecture on Japanese Buddhism (intensive course) by an Otani professor at Eotvös Lor
ánd University (March).
③Publication of the papers presented at joint symposium “Buddha’s Words and theirInterpretation” held with Eotvös Loránd University in the 2016 academic year.
④Press release about the publication of an Encyclopedia of Japanese and Vietnamese
Buddhism (The finished product may not be delivered until the next academic year) as acollaborative project with a Vietnamese institution⑤Hiring a Vietnamese student as a research assistant⑥Publication of the results of research in the Chinese academic journal Foxueyanjiu 仏学研究
⑦Panel presentation by the Eastern Buddhist Society at the academic conference of theJapanese Association for Religious Studies② Goal andImplementation Planfor the 2018
II. Goal and Implementation Plan concerning Branding Activities
Academic Year
[Goals to be Achieved]○Evaluation of the two years of activities and the reestablishment of quantitative goals○Creation and distribution of a pamphlet introducing the project[Implementation Plan]①Press release in Japan and Vietnam regarding encyclopedia project and hiring of theresearch assistant②Continuing publication of The Eastern Buddhist (two issues)③Creation and distribution of a pamphlet introducing the project④Continue introducing the research activities at Open Campus events and thenationwide PTA meeting.
⑤Creating a web page for this project in English. Establishing goals for numbers ofaccesses to the Japanese language page.
⑥Performing a satisfaction survey and determining the state of branding for students⑦Developing an action plan with improvements based on a review of the two years ofactivities[Standards for Determining Achievement of the Goals]
Regarding research activities, all activities other than publication will be carried out.
Regarding branding activities, in addition to carrying out all activities in theimplementation plan, the action plan with improvements based on a review of the twoyears of activities will serve as the standard.

2I. Results of Research Activities
We were able to collect and transmit Otani University's latest research on Buddhism
through the Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute and create a networkwith researchers working internationally.
Plan ① “The Tannishō Translation Workshop” was held in association with Universityof California at Berkeley’s Institute for East Asian Studies and Ryūkoku University
Research Center for World Buddhist Cultures (June and March).
Plan ② Lectures were held for six days on Japanese Buddhism at Eotvös Loránd
University between March 18 and 26, 2019.
Plan ③ A two-day international symposium with the theme "Buddhism in Practice" washeld at Eotvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, from September 17 to 18, 2018,
jointly sponsored by Otani University's Shin Buddhist Comprehensive ResearchInstitute and the Buddhist Research Institute of the East Asian Studies Institute at
Eotvös Loránd University.
Plan ④ Discussions are underway regarding the publication in the joint project with aVietnamese institution
Plan ⑤ A Vietnamese student was hired to serve as a research assistant in hopes offurthering research into Vietnamese Buddhism
Plan ⑥ Results of research will be published in Foxueyanjiu in May 2019
③ Results for the Plan ⑦ The Eastern Buddhist Society hosted a panel with the theme "Japanese2018 Academic Year Buddhism and Buddhist Studies in the Twenty-first Century and Contributing toSociety" at the seventy-seventh academic conference of the Japanese Association for
Religious Studies which was held between September 7 and 9, 2018.
In addition, researchers participated in a panel presentation at the Sixteenth Annual
Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions that was held for fourdays between June 17 and 21 at Bern University in Switzerland, presenting Otani
University's research on Buddhism at one of the largest conferences on religious studiesin Europe.
II. Results of the Branding ActivitiesPlan ② Published The Eastern Buddhist (in July and February)Plan ③ Included an article introducing the project in volume 199 of Otani University's
public relations magazine Jingen ajile (Spring/Summer 2018) to relay information about
it to current students and their families.
Plan④ Createda boothseven Open
where we introduced
thethe Kinki
area, Gifu,
andatSendai,
with aCampus
total of events
172 participants),
and at alumni
association events (total of 735 participants).
Plan ⑤ Made the English language version of the web site available online. There werea total of 1,652 views of the web site between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019.
Plan ⑦ Held three meetings of the working team for the project where we considered
the progress of the activities and possibilities for improvements.

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(Self-evaluation)
・Held a meeting of the Research Branding Project Working Team on April 24, 2019,
where self-evaluation was performed. The number of downloads of the Annual Memoirsof the Otani University Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute from theuniversity increased considerable over the 2017 academic year to 32,563 downloads andthe number of views on JSTOR (Journal Strage) increased by fourteen times to 17,824
views, which indicates that the university has been successful in relaying the results of
the research conducted here. Also, students have remarked that they learned that theuniversity is invested in performing research. Further, regarding the activities thathave not been carried out, we will evaluate the future course keeping in mind thepossibility of changing the plans.
・Self-evaluation will also be performed at a meeting of the Committee on Support for
Research and Educational Activities planned for June.

④ Self-evaluation
and Outside Reviewfor the 2018
Academic Year(Outside review)
An outside review of the activities carried out in the 2017 academic year was performedby the Outside Review Committee (consisting of Shengkai [Associate Professor, Qinghua
University, China], Professor Gandya [National University of Mongolia], Professor
Yunwen [Chinese Academy of Social Sciences History Division] and Professor Hamar
Imre [Eotvös Loránd University, Hungary]). The committee reviewed the project basedon four points: "Appropriateness of the Research Plan," "Progress of the Research,""Organization of the Research Group," and "Results of Research" and graded it using
four levels: Excellent, Good, Average, Poor. In addition, reviewers were asked to makecomments under the subheadings "Expectations for the Project" and "Advice for theProject." The grades are as follows:"Appropriateness of the Research Plan": Excellent 4, Good 0, Average 0, Poor 0"Progress of the Research": Excellent 3, Good 1, Average 0, Poor 0"Organization of the Research Group": Excellent 3, Good 1, Average 0, Poor 0"Results of Research": Excellent 3, Good 1, Average 0, Poor 0"Expectations for the Project" included:
So far, the activities and publications are still focusing on the academic research inBuddhism. However, both the mission of the Otani University and the aim of thisproject have a broader vision. The founding spirit of the university as follows: “tonurture people who can live autonomously as a member of society on the basis of theBuddhist spirit.” One point of the central pillar of this branding project is "to makeBuddhism available to society at large in the form of 'human studies' unique to ouruniversity".
I hope to see more efforts and more achievements in regarding to the role of Buddhism
in modern society, in solving the contemporary problem of "sense of meaninglessness".
"Advice for the Project" included:
・More and more broad-based collaboration with Buddhist studies centers and schools isrecommended.
・It might be more international if one or two young Chinese scholars could be involvedin this project and some articles could be published in Chinese.
The same committee will perform an evaluation again in July 2019.

The subsidy was used to defray the cost for the activities listed in “③ Results for the2018 Academic Year” (including transportation costs and registration fees for attendinginternational conferences, as well as expenses related to the publication of The Eastern⑤ Status of the Use Buddhist such as costs for printing and binding of the journal, fees for businessof the Subsidy for the consignments, commissions and advertising fees).
2018 Academic Year

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