Thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of the Japan Foundation Awards

On one fine day in the early fall of 1972, the Japan P.E.N. Club invited researchers on Japan from around the world to Kyoto for the first global conference on Japanese studies. On that occasion, there was an announcement—if I recall correctly, it was given by Mr. Inoue, the Chair of the establishment committee—about the establishment of the Japan Foundation, which would work to foster a better, more accurate understanding of Japan around the world through support for research on the Japanese language, culture, history, and society in various countries. That night, a number of participants from Europe, who, despite being members of research organizations on Japan in universities in the same country, had no horizontal connections and so were completely isolated at the time, gathered in the hotel lobby and talked about the possibility of future cooperation. The following year, Prof. Richard Storry from the UK called around 60 researchers to gather at the University of Oxford, and the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) was born. In that same year, Prof. Serge Elisseeff won the first Japan Foundation Award. He was born in Russia, and, after traveling to Japan to study, he took up an active position in the Sorbonne University in Paris. In later life he laid the foundations of the Japan Institute in Harvard University in the U.S. This great man was truly a pioneer representing Japanese studies in the West, and the right person to demonstrate the traditions and role of Europe.

The Japan Foundation continued to warmly watch over and assist the still-immature EAJS long after its establishment. In 1976, it sent Prof. Nakane Chie, a social anthropologist, to give the keynote speech at the first International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, held in Zurich, Switzerland, and has sent guest speakers to every conference since then, as well as presented several Japan Foundation Awards to European researchers. However, I feel the most important was the Japan Foundation Special Prize given to EAJS in 1975. This prize meant that it was possible for EAJS to take off in the truest sense. I accepted the prize as the second elected President. The winner of the Japan Foundation Award that year was Prof. Edwin Reischauer, a direct student of Professor Elisseeff, and this was in my opinion very significant. Through this prize, EAJS was able to obtain an office on a rotating basis. In recent years the number of members has swelled to around 1,500, forming a very strong connection between Japan and Japanese studies around the world.

When I think about the Japan Foundation Awards, I can't help but first recall receiving the award on behalf of EAJS with gratitude.

It is a little embarrassing personally, as I am in the rather peripheral research field of folklore studies. To be able to receive the Japan Foundation Special Prize as well as the Japan Foundation Award despite this was of course a tremendous honor, for which I am thankful and delighted. I won the Special Prize in 1987, and memorably the winner of the Japan Foundation Award that year was my teacher, Prof. Nakane Chie, which was a heart-warming occurrence. However, rather than an acknowledgement of my own research outcomes, I believe that I won thanks to the people who taught me from the Japanese islands and in the mountain communities across the country. It is with heartfelt gratitude for those anonymous people that I pray for the further development and success of the Japan Foundation and the Japan Foundation Awards in the future.

Josef Kreiner

(Original text in Japanese)

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