Japanese Studies

Japanese studies or Japan studies (sometimes Japanology in Europe) is a division of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, culture, history, literature, art, music, and science. Its roots may be traced back to the Dutch at Dejima, Nagasaki in the Edo period. The foundation of the Asiatic Society of Japan at Yokohama in 1872 by men such as Ernest Satow and Frederick Victor Dickins was an important event in the development of Japanese studies as an academic discipline.

In the United States, the Society for Japanese Studies has published the Journal of Japanese Studies (JJS) since 1974. This is a biannual academic journal dealing with research on Japan in the United States. JJS is supported by grants from the Japan Foundation, Georgetown University, and the University of Washington in addition to endowments from the Kyocera Corporation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.