Institute of Japanese Studies About us
The Institute of Japanese Studies at Heidelberg University was founded in 1985 and comprises two professorships dedicated to the fields of literature and culture on the one hand, and history and society on the other. Since the founding of the Centre for East Asian Studies in 2005 and the inauguration of the CATS campus in 2019, the focus has also been on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.
Approximately ten employees work at the institute, providing further important impetus for the field of Japanese studies with their research interests and course contents. An honorary professorship, changing teaching assignments, and international research and teaching collaborations complement our offer, both in terms of our academic program and research projects.
Academic Focus
The current orientation of Japanese Studies in Heidelberg reflects the research and teaching fields of its faculty and can be broadly outlined as follows:
- Japanese literature
- Japanese history
- Politics and society of Japan
- Japanese intellectual history
- Selected aspects of Japan’s economy and culture
The boundaries of these areas are more broadly defined in the field of teaching and more narrowly in research. The Japanese section of the CATS library reflects these fields of focus, with particular emphasis on the following topics:
- Modern Japanese prose fiction
- Autobiographical literature
- Literature and social movements
- Issues in literary translation
- Women’s history and women’s literature
- History of political thought
- Theories of modernization
- Modern Japan in East Asia
- Work culture and corporate organization
Other areas, such as literature before 1600, religion, and the history of the Japanese language, are currently in development.
