Establishment, profile and fields of focus Japanese Studies in Heidelberg

The Department of Japanese Studies at Heidelberg University was founded in 1985 and has since developed into a center for diverse research on Japan. It was founded with a focus on Japanese literature and philological methodology, but questions of intellectual and social history were also included from the outset—an early sign of the interdisciplinary self-image that continues to shape the institute today.

With the appointment of a social sciences-oriented Japanologist to the second professorship in 1992, the department established the basis for an equitable combination of humanities and social sciences in Japanese studies. Since then, the institute has pursued the goal of not only allowing both perspectives to coexist, but also to combine them actively – as complementary paths to a deeper understanding of Japanese culture, history, and society.

An important milestone in the institute's history was the founding of the Centre for East Asian Studies in April 2005, together with the Institute of Chinese Studies and the Institute of East Asian Art History. As part of this reorientation, the Department of Japanese Studies was renamed the “Institute of Japanese Studies” to reflect the closer academic and organizational collaboration of East Asian studies in Heidelberg.

The thematic focus of the institute is determined by the research priorities of its teaching staff and can be roughly divided into the following areas: Japanese literature, intellectual history, history, and society of Japan. While the courses cover a wider range of topics, research projects tend to be more focused. The institute's library reflects this diversity of content, with particular areas of focus emerging in the following fields: modern Japanese narrative prose, autobiographical literature, literature and social movements, problems of translation, women's history and women's literature, political history of ideas, modernization theories, modern Japan in East Asia, working environment and business organization.