Access / Contact
Message
Establishing a Networked Research System
Director, Keio Institute of East Asian Studies
East Asia is undergoing fundamental transformation, while Japan is struggling to reform its postwar system. Japan needs to accurately observe the changes taking place in Asia and the world, and to synchronize its difficult reforms with regional and global trends.
Against this backdrop, the role of basic research in designing a stable future for Japan and East Asia has become increasingly significant. People often tend to seek simple solutions when they are overwhelmed by changes. Today's changes, however, can be grasped as integral parts of a complex system only by utilizing historical insights as the vertical axis, and global comparison as the horizontal axis. This is why historical and comparative perspectives are important in area studies.
The current times are also a period in which academics are facing the challenge of applying the achievements of basic research to the real world. We are faced with the task of building an intellectual suit of armor that protects our future from frivolous nationalism and simplistic ideologies.
This kind of comprehensive research is impossible if carried out by researchers individually. It is therefore necessary to construct an interdisciplinary and internationally networked research system that transcends national borders, while building cooperative relations with research institutes in Japan. In order to develop the Keio Institute of East Asian Studies as a central member of such a network, we are committed to make further efforts based on the accumulation of expertise from the time when the organization was called the Keio Center for Area Studies.
Therefore, we decided to launch the "East Asia Network Initiative" (EANI) as the Institute's core concept. We will further exchange analysis and research achievements with East Asian and global research institutes engaged in East Asian studies through the Internet, and thereby establish a virtual site for joint research. We also expect that multilateral joint research projects would emerge from there. Active participation in the EANI from research institutions of East Asia and the world would be greatly appreciated.
Currently, the Keio Institute of East Asian Studies, in cooperation with the Global Security Research Institute (GSEC) at Keio University, is participating in a joint project called the "Fellows Program on Peace, Governance, and Development in East Asia" jointly organized by first-class scholars from Korea University (Seoul), Beijing University (Beijing), Fudan University (Shanghai), and National Taiwan University (Taipei), with the strong leadership of Prof. Byung-Kook Kim as the director (until February 11, 2008) of the East Asia Institute in Seoul. We would like to position this as the EANI's pilot project, and one that marks the beginning of future developments.
We would appreciate all the possible support and guidance to the Keio Institute of East Asian Studies.