THE WHITE ROSE East Asia Centre (WREAC) was established jointly between the universities of Leeds and Sheffield as one of the five centres for excellence funded by the Language-Based Area Studies (LBAS) initiative. It is the only centre with a focus on Japan and this account of it focuses on Japanese studies, although both the National Institute of Chinese Studies, based at Leeds, and the National Institute of Japanese Studies, based at Sheffield, together constitute WREAC.

This account covers the aims and activities of WREAC, especially in terms of the training of postgraduate students. It demonstrates how national funding for Japanese studies at the postgraduate level has been crucial for improving the research environment for the training of the next generation of specialists as well as for funding students to pursue postgraduate work. While the lack of funding at the postgraduate level can be a major deterrent to potential students in Japanese studies, this does not yet seem to be the case at the undergraduate level: so far recruitment has not been adversely affected by the government's decision to transfer the cost of studying at university from the state to the student with the introduction of L9,000 fees from the 2012–2013 academic year.

The early twenty-first century has seen the increasing marketization of higher education in Britain. While some praise the way the market spurs competition between higher educational institutions and helps to ensure that at least some of Britain's best institutions remain in the top tier in the global ranking of universities, others instead worry about the survival of certain subjects if universities are left purely to market forces. This is particularly so in the case of subjects with a small number of students registered for postgraduate degrees. The question thus becomes: should the state intervene in the higher education market in support of these subjects? In order to address this question the late Sir Gareth Roberts chaired the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Chief Executive's Strategically Important Subjects Advisory Group. The group's initial report, issued in June 2005, became the basis for HEFCE's advice to the Secretary of State on future policy in higher education.