THE LATEST KARAOKE SONG

New study programmes at the Japan-Netherlands Institute in Tokyo

W. Remmelink (Director of the JNI)

The Japan-Netherlands Institute was founded in 1975 to promote
scientific and cultural exchange between Japan and the
Netherlands. Since at that time only a few pundits, such as the
futurologist Hermann Kahn, foresaw the phenomenal rise of Japan,
the decision to support the initiative for an institute showed
remarkable vision on the part of Leiden University where but a
dozen students applied themselves to Japanese studies. Now there
are hundreds of students in Leiden, and all over the world an
ever growing tribe of Japan specialists, consultants and
management gurus in and outside academia attests to the
preeminent position which Japan has attained in many fields of
activity.

ACTIVITIES

The activities of the Institute have grown apace. In the
beginning mainly concerned with the study of the historical
relations between Japan and the Netherlands, the Institute has
broadened its activities to the promotion of exchanges in all
fields of knowledge, from medicine to mathematics and from art
history to anthropology. The promotion of Dutch culture through
exhibitions and performances, and the dissemination of the Dutch
language through teaching and the publication of grammars and,
finally, a Dutch-Japanese dictionary (1994) have become almost
independent divisions of the Institute.

NEW PROGRAMMES ON MODERN JAPAN

An important gap, however, remains. The study of Japan as such,
especially the study of modern Japan, has never been an integral
part of the activities of the Institute. The Institute has always
felt that that was a field better left to the Japanese with their
penchant for propagating a 'correct' understanding of Japan, or
to the many foreign observers who have found their call in
explaining Japan to the world. On a more pragmatic level,
however, there is a definite need for more concrete knowledge
about Japan, especially for those who are no professional Japan
watchers. Given the preponderance of Japan in many fields,
particularly the economic sphere, less and less can be said or
done without taking into account the role of Japan.
Unfortunately, many things about Japan, including its language,
defy easy understanding. On the other hand, the obstacles are not
as big as they are sometimes made out to be. In order to overcome
these obstacles, the Institute has devised a new program that
offers to the non-specialist and the budding specialist alike a
thorough introduction to modern Japan and its language. According
to the present timetable this new program will start in the fall
of 1994.

NO LONGER LAUGHING ABOUT JAPANESE CARS

Although the need for such a program may seem obvious to those
who have direct dealings with Japan, the program is, in fact,
necessary for a much wider public. Sinologists have long admitted
the necessity of knowing enough Japanese to keep abreast with
developments in their field. In South and Southeast Asian
Studies, where one is already encumbered by a plethora of
languages, this necessity is still not generally felt. But just
as ten to twenty years ago most of you were laughing about
Japanese cars, which now have become indispensable to many of
you, in ten to twenty years time a better knowledge of Japan and
its language will become indispensable in Asian studies in
general.

HEAD GOOSE

I do not have to remind you that the great European tradition of
Asian Studies was as much, if not more, the result of colonial
connection, as it was of pure intellectual curiosity. Since the
Plaza Agreement of 1985 which triggered an unstoppable rise of
the yen, Japanese investment has poured into Southeast Asia at
the rate of 1,600 million US dollars in 1986 growing to 8,000
million in 1990. Asian nationalism will probably upset the neat
way in which Tokyo planners like to see the future in Asia in the
form of a flying geese format with Japan as the head goose. But
if present trends hold, for the coming fifty years Japan will
remain the head goose whatever straggling formation will follow
in its wake.

ASIAN STUDIES IN JAPAN

The history of our own disciplines has shown that research
follows the money just as eagerly, from colonial subsidies to
development aid to the International Institute for Asian Studies.
Japanese research on Asia, though not impressive in terms of
grand theses or bold ideas, has grown tremendously in terms of
quality and quantity. It will keep on doing just that, and in the
process it will involve and tie up a substantial part of local
research and researchers in Southeast Asia. You may have noticed
that local colleagues who used to stand ready for any invitation
for a congress or a joint project, have recently become less
available because of a congress or a sabbatical in Japan or
project financed by the Toyota foundation.

In many ways this is a healthy development. Despite all problems
and rankled nationalist feelings, the present economic boom in
Southeast Asia is mainly fueled by Japanese investments, and
these spared the region for the recession which hit other parts
of the world. In the same way Japanese research and research
funding can act as a catalyst on Asian Studies. However, we will
no longer be able to view the region in isolation from Japan. The
economist will need to know what they are thinking and deciding
in Tokyo, and the child psychologist will have to have knowledge
of Japanese cartoons. The knowledge of Japanese software will
become increasingly important. The hardware we know already as
we hitch a ride on a Toyota hardtop to the last lost tribe in the
forest. But as we outrun the Japanese chainsaws which are felling
the trees and the Japanese concrete mixers which are filling the
holes for the next shopping mall, we are now bound to find the
chief of our tribe being interviewed by a Japanese linguist,
while he croones at night the latest karaoke songs from Tokyo
(probably to the disgust of the Japanese linguist). Without a
good knowledge of Japan and to a certain extent its language, the
baby Krishna which the International Institute for Asian Studies
is supposed to tend, might turn out to be a Japanese cuckoo
without you ever knowing it.