PRIOR TO 1963, King's College, which became the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1963, was originally part of the University of Durham. The University of Durham had a long established programme in East Asian Studies, but for the first two decades of its existence the University of Newcastle did not have any formal East Asian Studies programme. It was not until 1984 that a degree in Politics and East Asian Studies (PEAS) was created in the Department of Politics at the University of Newcastle and run by the East Asian Centre, which was then part of the Department of Politics.

James Cotton and David Goodman were the main academics behind the degree and the Centre, and recruited a new lecturer in Japanese Politics, Ian Neary. The move was given added impetus by the decision of Nissan to locate a large automobile factory in the north-east of England and this brought with it a large number of Japanese firms as suppliers. The role of Japan in the world seemed to be on the rise, and Sir Peter Parker was commissioned in 1985 to report on the state of Japanese studies in the UK with the aim of enhancing the development of Japanese studies. Interest in and funding for Japanese studies increased.

Goodman, Cotton and Neary all left Newcastle in the late 1980s to pursue successful careers elsewhere, culminating in prominent professorial positions. There was also turnover in the lecturership in Japanese politics, with two coming and leaving in quick succession, including Dr Jin Park, who left to assume a job as press spokesperson for the President of Korea. On the other hand, a chair of Japanese Studies was established in 1989 at the University of Newcastle and Reinhard Drifte was selected to fill it: he served as Director of the Newcastle East Asian Centre from 1989 to 1996. Originally, all the language teaching (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) was undertaken by staff in the East Asian Centre, but in the early 1990s the language teaching was moved to the Language Centre, a service department providing tuition in non-European languages and English for Speakers of Other Languages in the University.