The Japan Foundation Award 50th Anniversary Messages from Previous Awardees - The Chair of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw

2002 The Japan Foundation Special Prize
The Chair of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw
[Poland]
I would like to offer heartfelt congratulations on the anniversary of the Japan Foundation Awards and take this opportunity to thank you very much for your continuous support not only for the development of Japanese language education and studies in Poland but especially for generous grants for the purchase of didactic materials for Japanese language learning and for books necessary for the research on various fields of Japanese culture. The very important contribution of the Japan Foundation was also the organization of meetings of representatives of Japanese centers in Central and Eastern Europe, during which we could share information about our study programs and the results of our research. Our Ph.D. students highly appreciated the workshops organized for them by the Japan Foundation, during which Senior Scholars evaluated their concepts of doctoral dissertations, it was also a great opportunity for them to publish articles based on their presentations in a prestigious publication also sponsored by the Japan Foundation. The Traveling Lecture Program was also extremely helpful, thanks to which it was possible to invite specialists from other countries of Central and Eastern Europe to a series of lectures, thus enriching the offer for our students. It is impossible to list all the events related to the culture of Japan organized by the Japan Foundation, or the scholarships thanks to which researchers from our region could obtain their academic degrees. I would like to express my warmest gratitude once again on behalf of the staff of the Chair of Japanese Studies, at the University of Warsaw.
Agnieszka Kozyra
Head of the Chair of Japanese Studies
Faculty of Oriental Studies
University of Warsaw
(Original text in English)
I wish to express my heartfelt congratulations on the 50th anniversary of the Japan Foundation Awards.
Our department of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw received the Japan Foundation Special Prize in 2002. It was a great honor and has become a point of great pride for all the faculty members and students. The origins of our department began with the establishment of a Japanese-language course at the University of Warsaw in 1919. Over the 104 years since that time, we have worked to promote Japanese-language education and Japanese culture within Poland. Currently, 15 teachers are responsible for the education of about 200 students.
Looking back to 1972, when the Japan Foundation was established, Poland was a socialist nation belonging to the Eastern Bloc, and there was limited freedom in daily life due to a variety of social and material limitations. Despite those conditions, the Japan Foundation supported the department through material support of Japanese-language education and by donating books. The educational environment at the university worsened significantly toward the end of the socialist period in the 1980s, with shortages of chalk for writing on chalk boards and paper for typing academic papers. As the university overall came to a financial standstill, it became impossible to purchase not only Japanese-language educational materials and dictionaries, but research books of any kind. Our only salvation in such a critical situation during this challenging time was the amount of teaching materials and research books that arrived from the Japan Foundation. There were 15 departments in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the time, but I believe that our department was the only one that benefited from such support, and, thanks to that, we have continued to maintain a top position in competitive rate of admission against all other faculties and departments at University of Warsaw over the past 10 years. As such, the university’s leadership boasts about the Japanese Studies Department as one of its leading departments.
Subsequently, with the advent of liberal democracy in what could be described as a revolution for Poland in 1989, Poland saw the collapse of socialism and began to participate together with the Western nations. This enabled our relationship with the Japan Foundation to improve to the level on a par with that of Western nations, enabling us to participate in such programs as the Invitation Program for Overseas Outstanding Students of Japanese-Language and the Training Program for Teachers of the Japanese Language, and we realized that our distance with Japan had shortened considerably. The Japanese Studies Department at the University of Warsaw became what we are today, thanks to the many other programs that supported us.
Along with the aid and donation of teaching materials and books from the very beginning of the Japan Foundation, the moral support through both the periods of socialism and liberal democracy provided by the Foundation, which was aware of the existence of our Japanese Studies Department at the University of Warsaw and helped us here on the other side of the planet, have given the teachers and students of the department immeasurable courage and encouragement. Incidentally, two of us from the Japanese Studies Department at the University of Warsaw, Wiesław Kotanski (1990) and Ewa Rutkowska (2019), have been recipients of the Japan Foundation Award.
We will continue our efforts to promote Japanese-language education and Japanese culture in Poland, and to foster new Japan researchers. We pray that the relationship between the Japan Foundation and the Japanese Studies Department at the University of Warsaw, which is a great bridge between Japan and Poland, will continue to grow and develop greatly in the years to come.
I sincerely wish for the further development and success of the Japan Foundation.
OKAZAKI Tsuneo
Professor
The Chair of Japanese Studies
Faculty of Oriental Studies
University of Warsaw
(Original text in Japanese)
※After receiving the Japan Foundation Special Prize, the name of organisation of the awardee was changed from the Warsaw University, Oriental Studies Institute, Department of Japanese and Korean Studies to the current name, the Chair of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw.
Warsaw University, Oriental Studies Institute, Department of Japanese and Korean Studies (Poland)
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