Permanent office in Leiden
20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE
STUDIES

Twenty years after its foundation, the EAJS opened its own
Permanent Office on April 1, 1994. It occupies four rooms of a
two-storey building in Doelensteeg 2, Leiden, the Netherlands.
For the time being, it will be staffed by the director and one
secretary; the initial budget for a period of five years being
provided by The Japan Foundation. The legal foundation of the
office has not yet been discussed. As the name of the office
and the titles of its staff will depend on the legal
classification, the official announcement of the office's
establishment will mark its starting point. Then the office
can commence carrying out its specific duties.

By Heinrich Menkhaus

As I have only recently been appointed as Director of the
Permanent Office of the EAJS, namely on July 1, 1994, I would
like to give my personal views on how the office should
function.

ACTIVITIES
First of all, the office will deal with the general affairs of
the EAJS itself. It will file the documents, keep the list of
members up-to-date, send out annual invoices for membership
fees, arrange for the general and Council meetings, and
perform other tasks as specified by the Articles of
Incorporation.
As a general principle, the activities of the office will be
accessible to all persons and institutions doing research on
Japan in the geographical area that is known as Europe. They
will not be restricted to so-called Japanologists. Although
this is not the place to argue about the meaning of the term
"Japanese Studies", it is clear that the office should reach
out to all who engage in disciplinary studies on Japan. This
is particularly necessary for the Humanities and Social
Sciences, including law, economics, sociology, political
science, history, anthropology, linguistics, etc. The question
remains, however, whether the scope of this reaching out
should also include the natural sciences. In particular the
office will be active in the following areas:

CONFERENCES
So far there have been six triennial conferences of the EAJS.
The seventh, which this anniversary volume commemorates, was
held in August 1994 in Copenhagen. These conferences have all
been managed by the Council of the EAJS in co-operation with
the local university institute for Asian or Japanese studies.
In future, the local organization will mainly be supported by
the Permanent Office. The present three-year cycle was
discussed, and a change to specific themes for each conference
and the subsequent publication of the contributions is
envisioned.

PUBLICATIONS
The EAJS Bulletin has been published since June 1973 and has
been edited by members of the Council. The name will be
changed to 'EAJS Newsletter', and it will be edited by the
Permanent Office. It will probably appear twice a year, and
its contents will be the same as those of the preceding
editions.
A new periodical, the EAJS Journal, is being discussed by the
Council; the journal will publish scientific research on
Japan. However, in what European languages contributions can
be made and the number of issues and pages per year are still
to be discussed.
Further into the future, the EAJS should think about adding a
series of monographs and bibliographies to its list of
publications.

SURVEY
For a number of years several institutions have published
directories of Japanese Studies in Europe. Foremost among them
is The Japan Foundation, which began with a directory of
'Japan Specialists in the United Kingdom' in 1981, followed by
a compilation for the USSR and Eastern Europe in the same
year. Some other European countries were covered in the 1985
volume 'Japanese Studies in Europe'. The directories for the
United Kingdom and the USSR and Eastern Europe saw new
editions in 1988 and in 1984 respectively, and the latter was
updated again in 1986. The 1985 volume was translated into
Japanese in 1987. A directory solely for the USSR was 
published as an update in 1990. The Fukuoka Unesco Association
has also assumed the task of compiling information on Japanese
Studies institutions in Europe. They are included in the
volume called 'Overseas Japanese Studies Institutions', which
saw its fourth revised edition in 1994. Finally, the
International Research Centre for Japanese Studies
(Nichibunken) in Ky“to is preparing a directory of Japanese
Studies institutions, including those in Europe.
The EAJS Permanent Office will have to combine these different
overviews, include some new countries where Japanese Studies
have been recently established, and update the information to
publish a new edition of 'Japanese Studies in Europe'in the
directory series mentioned above. This will be done in close
co-operation with The Japan Foundation, which is currently
working on a new questionnaire. After being revised to reflect
the European situation, this will be mailed through the office
to more than 2000 persons and institutions already known at
the beginning of 1995. If necessary, the Permanent Office will
assist in the completion of the questionnaire; it will also
contact the addressee after the questionnaire has been
returned if some questions have been left unanswered or if
additional information is required.

DATA BANKS
The office is planning to engage in the formation of data
banks. These should include up-to-date information on European
institutions and researchers dealing with Japan, all
grant-giving institutions which provide scholarships for
Europeans to research on Japan, Japanese language training
institutions (as the language is the most important tool for
research on Japan) and publications on Japan in Europe. On
some of these subjects - for example grant-giving and Japanese
language institutions - data have already been processed so
that the office can base its work on the data obtained.

COLLECTIONS AND CONTACTS
The office should keep information pamphlets available from
all Japanese Studies institutions. Therefore it requests all
national institutions, national associations, or EAJS
offshoots to provide their latest newsletters and such back
numbers as are still available. These collections should
enable the office to co-ordinate European research on Japan in
terms of providing the necessary information about what
research has been done in a given field and what remains to be
done.
The EAJS Permanent Office will maintain close contact with
Japanese Studies organizations in other continents, with
national research institutions regardless of whether they
conduct Japanese Studies or not, and, of course, with
political institutions. 

CONCLUSION
It will take time before the Permanent Office will be
completely functional in the ways outlined above, and some
activities might not be possible due to lack of funds.
Nevertheless, the office is open to proposals for additional
activities. Most tasks will require the staunch support of
those dealing with Japanese Studies in Europe; the Permanent
Office would therefore be greatly obliged to all members of
the EAJS, the national associations, and the EAJS networks and
workshops, for providing information on activities and
projects on a regular basis.

[Source: 20th anniversary EAJS. Past, Present and future of
the European Association for Japanese Studies, 1973-1994. pp
67-70]

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Dr Heinrich Menkhaus
or Kasia Cwierta (Secretary)
European Association for Japanese Studies
Doelensteeg 2
2311 VL Leiden
Tel: (+31)-71-27 7267/127806
Fax: (+31)-71-124244
-n