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Latin American Studies in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Carmelo Mesa-Lago
Carmelo Mesa-Lago*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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The study of Latin America in Japan prior to World War II was centered on the issue of migration, but as an area study field it is a product of Japan's economic expansion and relations with Latin America in the postwar period. After the war, a new wave of Japanese migration to Latin America was soon followed by the first government-sponsored team of social scientists who studied the living conditions of immigrants in Brazil. But the principal boost to the field was provided by the phenomenal economic growth experienced by Japan and the rapid development of trade, investment, and economic cooperation with Latin America. In 1958 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took the initiative of establishing, with corporate support, the Latin American Society of Japan, whose main objectives were to gather and disseminate economic information on the region and to publish economic and business reports. As has been typical in other countries, economic ties were soon followed by an increase in university activity. In 1964, the first true area study program on Latin America was established at Sophia University; in the same year the first Japanese association of social scientists (mostly economists) working on Latin America was founded; and in the following year a Japanese association of Brazilian studies was organized. In 1967, the Research Institute for Brazilian Culture was organized at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, and the Institute of Developing Economies (which had begun its operations ten years previously as the Institute of Asian Economies) expanded its coverage to promote economic cooperation and trade with Latin America.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , 1982 , pp. 173 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

This article is the result of a visit to Japan in June 1980, financed by the Japan Foundation, to attend and address the inaugural meeting of the Japan Association for Latin American Studies (JALAS). I also lectured and had discussions at several universities and research institutions in Tokyo, Tsukuba, Kyoto, and Osaka. My gratitude goes to dozens of Japanese scholars who generously shared with me their knowledge and materials and, especially, to Professor Gustavo Andrade, S.J., Director of the Ibero-American Institute of Sophia University, who arranged my visit and made this essay possible.

References

Notes

1. This introduction is based on numerous interviews I had in June 1980 with Japanese scholars, and on the following articles: Hiroschi Mitani, “Latin American Studies in Japan,” Handbook of Latin American Studies, No. 27 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1965), pp. 457–63; Yoshiaki Nishimukai, “Latin America” (in Japanese), Ajia Keizai (Review of the Institute of Development Economics), 10:6–7 (June–July 1969):204–17; Gustavo Andrade, S.J., “Latin American Studies in Japan,” Latin American Research Review 8:1 (Spring 1973):147–56; Hajime Mizuno, “Os estudos brasileiros no Japão,” Annais, No. 8 (1974):102–12; Iyo Kunimoto, “Investigaciones y estudios históricos sobre América Latina en Japón: Situación presente y problemas,” Iberoamericana 2:1 (Jan. 1980):61–69 (originally published in Japanese in Amerikashi Kenkyū, No. 1, 1978); “Latin American Studies in Japan” (in Japanese), Annals of Latin American Studies, No. 1 (1980):3–17; Gustavo Andrade, S.J., “Los estudios latinoamericanos en el Japón,” Iberoamericana 2:2 (1980):30–42; and Fumio Nakagawa, “The Japanese Contribution to Latin American Studies,” Latin American Research Review 17:1 (1982):105–13. I follow below the format and methodology used in Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Sandra E. Miller and Shirley A. Kregar, Latin American Studies in Europe (University of Pittsburgh, Latin American Monograph and Document Series, No. 1, 1979).

2. Approximately one-fourth of all entries in Hiroschi Mitani's bibliography of Japanese works on Latin America were on migration: An Introduction to Latin American Studies in Japan (Tokyo: Raten Amerika Kyōkai, 1965), which covers the period 1880–1964; a second volume scheduled for publication in 1981 covers the period 1965–1979. Another major bibliography is Bibliography of Japanese Publications on Latin America (Tokyo: Ibero-American Institute, Sophia University, published annually since 1974). The Associação Central Nipo-Brasileira has published “Bibliografía de estudos sobre o Brasil em Lingua Japonesa,” covering the period 1908–1973. See also Martin H. Sable, “Japan,” Latin-American Studies in the Non-Western World and Eastern Europe (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1970), pp. 52–126 (covers the period 1964–1968).

3. Hajime Mizuno, La economía japonesa después de la crisis del petróleo y las implicaciones en sus relaciones con América Latina (Tokio: Instituto Ibero-Americano, Estudios Iberoamericanos, A-6, 1975); and Akio Hosono, “Economic Relations Between Latin America and Japan,” Latin America/Japan Business Cooperation Symposium (Institute of Socio Economic Planning, University of Tsukuba, Reprint Series, No. 34, 1979), pp. 228–49.

4. In 1972, Gustavo Andrade, S.J. chose 37 universities (at which he knew foreign languages were offered) out of a total of 850 to conduct a survey. He found that Spanish was the first foreign language taught in seven universities (the second foreign language in 21), while Portuguese was the first foreign language in three universities (the second in 5), very small proportions, indeed, at the national level. See “Latin American Studies in Japan,” pp. 148–49.

5. Kunimoto, “Investigaciones,” pp. 66–68.

6. I visited practically all of the major institutions in 1980, collected samples of their publications, and had interviews with their faculty and staff. Although it is my belief that the most important institutions related to Latin American studies are reviewed here, I do not pretend that this report is comprehensive.

7. Comparisons with programs in Europe and the United States are based on my Latin American Studies in Europe, pp. 171–90 and “Les études latino-americaines aux Etats-Unis: Histoire, description et problemes,” AFSSAL Informations, No. 7 (Janvier 1981):7–12.

8. Andrade, “Los estudios latinoamericanos en Japón,” p. 40; and Kunimoto, “Investigaciones,” p. 65.

9. Ibid.