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Current Program Guidelines

Programs

The Study of the United States in Japan

Through their educational system and media, the Japanese people have achieved a level of general knowledge and interest about the United States that considerably exceeds the information most Americans possess with respect to Japan. English language is taught far more widely in Japan than Japanese language is taught in the United States. Nevertheless, the formal or integrated study of American history and civilization and of its economic, social and political institutions has been a relatively recent development in Japanese universities. Moreover, opportunities for Japanese scholars to track major developments and changes in contemporary American society need to be expanded. The Commission therefore has committed itself to the development of both institutional and individual expertise in the Japanese academic community in the study of the United States.

The Commission will consider support in the following project areas:

The Commission supports programs of bilateral exchanges at the highest institutional levels of scholarly expertise in order to contribute to an understanding in Japan of important aspects of current American cultural and intellectual life, and of social, political and economic conditions in the United States. Such exchanges should foster as well an understanding of the current interdisciplinary and theoretical approaches to these subjects as practiced in the American academic community.

The Commission will consider research projects that investigate the study of the United State itself, particularly on how the Japanese acquire basic knowledge about the United States – its politics, society and economy – through both formal and informal channels, such as classroom instruction or the popular media, and how to increase that knowledge and its accuracy. The Commission will also consider proposals for assessments of the field of the study of the United States in Japan.

The Commission will consider proposals for the maintenance of the current infrastructure and the development of new infrastructure for the field. Infrastructure building involves identifying areas and niches of activity with national scope that would benefit from the attention of a small professional staff, located within a stable organizational environment, under the oversight of an expert advisory committee. Applicants with an interest in the infrastructure-building support program are referred to its full description above, under Japanese Studies in the United States.

In general, priority is accorded to projects that have gained substantial additional support from other funding sources and demonstrate strong prospect of being sustained once the Commission's initial funding is expended.