ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION for Japanese Studies (BAJS) was established in 1974, and its first President was Douglas Mills, University Lecturer in Japanese at Cambridge. The Association was launched in order to promote the study of Japan both in the United Kingdom and internationally, in particular by stimulating teaching and research. The initial idea behind the formation of BAJS originated in discussions during a European Association of Japanese Studies conference, and was developed by a relatively small group of scholars working in the main centres for Japanese Studies in the UK.

Once BAJS was launched, the annual BAJS Conference was the showcase event, hosted annually by the centres of Japanese Studies around the UK, which at first were few but gradually increased. The Conference has received regular support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation to fund, in particular, the costs of bringing plenary speakers to the conferences. Funding has also been provided by the Japan Foundation, and the Embassy of Japan has also played a supportive role in the growth of the Association, with attendance in some years by the incumbent ambassador. While the Conference was a relatively small event in the initial period, attended mainly by historians (reflecting the field at the time), this soon changed as Japanese Studies in the UK began to attract new PhD students and junior scholars working across the humanities and social sciences. As the conference calendar became more crowded, the schedule was adjusted to a three-year cycle consisting in turn of the BAJS Conference, the European Association of Japanese Studies Conference, and the Joint East Asian Studies Conference (a collaborative effort by BAJS, the British Association of Chinese Studies, and the British Association of Korean Studies). In EAJS conference years, BAJS runs a one-day postgraduate workshop.

BAJS membership rose in the 1980s and 1990s as Japanese Studies flourished in the UK, and managed to maintain healthy numbers despite the closures of several centres in the early 2000s. The BAJS Council played an active role in lobbying the government against the closures, and worked with the Embassy of Japan and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to voice the concerns of the Japanese Studies community about the potential loss of muchneeded language-based expertise.