Introduction to research content

Japanese

It has been some time since the depiction of history for legitimate ethnic groups and nations has been examined critically, but the time for unquestioningly accepting social history, economic history, and network theory is over. What is required now is not to document history but to evaluate the violent conflicts－“friend-enemy conflicts” according to Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political －among those who have led history and to unveil the shadow cast on modern society. Our team invites active scholars with perceptive insights in modern society and politics to join us with an aim to uncover the reality of conflict in world history through dialogue.

This research team studies cinematic adaptations of works of English literature, using theoretical perspectives to analyze specific works. We discuss differences between films and the works they are based on, consider interpretations that are implied in the films (how differences occurred, how new meanings have emerged), and study a film’s fidelity to the original work.

The members of our team aim to add depth to our interdisciplinary research into works in literature, film, music, performing arts, and fine arts from many different countries. We also seek to make the results of this research accessible to the general public, so that as many people as possible will be aware of the significance of culture in society.

In the previous team’s activities, various lesser-known pieces of 17th century English poetry were selected and carefully analyzed, with a focus on their cultural significance and on aspects of the preromantic tradition. Building on the results of that work, our new team aims to continue and further develop the line of study. First, we will expand the range of works for analysis to include: (1) genres dealing not only with poems but also plays, novels and criticism, and (2) periods covering the 17th century to the early 20th century. At the same time, we try to deepen our understanding of the basis from which what is now commonly called “modern” was generated and formed, not through abstract ideation but through close analysis of individual texts.

We will critically explore the possibilities of American literary study which has recently been expanding its scope, owing to the development of such new critical approaches and concepts as transpacific studies, transatlantic studies, hemispheric thinking, and planetarity.

We conduct theoretical and empirical research on various aspects of linguistic knowledge (including morphology, syntax, phonology, and semantics), examining the acquisition and use of that knowledge as a native language, second language or heritage language, and investigate whether any potential similarities and/or differences exist among these different populations.

The aim of our research team is to examine the changing political, economic, social, and cultural contexts and histories of the Americas in a rapidly globalized world.

The rise of feminist criticism in the late 20th century brought to critical attention many excellent women poets whose importance had been largely ignored or underestimated. Since then, critics have studied the literary value of their works and their significance within the socio-historical context. However, the history of such research is still short, and there remains much to be done before we have a full understanding of the value and significance of the works of women poets. This research team focuses on eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain, which produced many excellent women poets: by reading and appreciating their works, and clarifying their literary and socio-historical significance, we hope to contribute to the construction of a new canon.

In recent years, problems of mental health in Japan have increased in complexity for all generations, and many of them remain unresolved. In children, the effects of anxiety, depression, and trauma become evident, while in adults, we see the addition of personality pathology and addiction, much of which present challenging issues. The purpose of this research is to address empirically various mental health problems among different generations and to explore and examine clinical psychology solutions.

The development of technology including digital ICT is making the boundary between reality and fiction, nature and artificiality, as well as human beings and machines ambiguous. In this research, we seek to elucidate the essence of change now underway with the key concept “reality”, and consider philosophically how this change affects our view of the world and way of being.

The main aim of our research team is to inquire into the rich and diverse universe of short stories and analyse individual stories from a historical and/or theoretical point of view. We focus on stories written in English as the object of our research at present, but we are also considering the addition of some non-English short stories for comparison. Moreover, since short stories are often used in the classroom, we are planning to study their effective use in teaching.

In recent years, methods in psychological research have extended beyond existing approaches in experimental psychology and neuropsychology to include functional brain imaging techniques. We discuss mutual connections among these approaches and explore possibilities for a unified comprehensive model in future psychological approaches to higher brain function.

To elucidate the knowledge that polyglots, including bilinguals and multilinguals, have about the languages they speak, our team conducts interdisciplinary research on their linguistic behavior in terms of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and also on such factors as psychological processes, social and cultural background, and identity, with a focus on both the acquisition and the loss of this knowledge over time, as well as the influence of formal education.

The United States has had a major influence on the world since the beginning of the 20th century. We examine America not only from political and economic points of view, but also from the viewpoint of such “soft power” as language and culture. Fundamentally, this research recognizes that the exploration of various cultural elements such as literature, paintings, image arts, and education is important to gain understanding of contemporary America.

To perform accurate analyses of diversification in Chinese culture, we bring together a broad range of individuals from experts to young researchers and extend our investigations across a variety of disciplines, including languages, literatures, and the arts.

The objective of this team is to develop more accurate measurements of linguistic information in a second language through experimental research. Since linguistic information is processed in the brain and difficult to observe directly, tasks (e.g., question/problem) must be given to learners to infer as explicitly as possible the mechanisms of linguistic information processing they engage in. However, subsequent processing is expected to differ depending on what kind of task is used. In this research we focus on task differences in order to clarify relationships with language processing. Based on the findings from our experimental studies, we will assess task differences to contribute to more accurate measurement of linguistic information. The outcomes of this research are expected to guide the development of more effective instruction, teaching materials, and testing.

It was Spain that drove the globalization of the 16th century. The Spanish discovered and conquered America and took control of East Asia as far as the Philippines. The importance of the Spanish-speaking world has not waned since the United Kingdom and the United States took the lead in globalization, and has even increased in modern times. The aim of this research team is to study the history and culture of the Hispanic World.

We explore gender representation as well as social and cultural engagement with gender and sexuality by examining theories of gender/sexuality and analyzing works of art, literature, film, and the performing arts. At the same time, the treatment of gender and sexuality representation in educational practice will also be examined.

The "Berlin Anti-Semitism Controversy" was a dispute over the so-called "Jewish Question" that took place between 1879 and 1981. The controversy involved many scholars, intellectuals, and politicians following the treatise on anti-Semitism by the historian Treitschke and has contributed significantly to many of today's problems with immigration and refugees, as well as the problems of exclusionism. This team would like to elucidate a complete picture of the controversy, which has not been fully recognized in Japan.

The 16th century was a time of great flowering in art and culture. This was, the period of the Renaissance in Europe as well as the Nanban trade in Japan. Scratch the surface of these highly aesthetic cultures, however, and the century is also revealed to have been a dark age of fear, characterized by armed conflict and killing, as seen in the European Wars of Religion and in the execution of heretics. In what form did the spirit of tolerance emerge to counter the intolerance that prevailed on this dark side of society? What did it achieve? Our research focuses on the 16th century, primarily in reference to Europe, which we believe will uncover issues that hold importance for people of the 21st century, when the spirit of tolerance is at risk of being forgotten.

With increasing numbers of foreigners living in Japan and a growing demand for Japanese language skills overseas, Japanese language education has become increasingly interdisciplinary. However, its position both within social contexts and as an academic discipline has remained unclear. With this in mind, our team will examine and address issues such as multicultural coexistence, policies of globalization, learning activities used in and outside of schools, teachers’ practices, and the living environment of international students in both theoretical and practical terms, with an aim to reorient the academic objectives of Japanese language education beyond the simplistic view that “Japanese teachers teach Japanese to foreigners.”

Drawing on the Pygmalion myth of Greek mythology as a starting point, we will examine its forms of representation in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion and extended variations that have developed over the years in various art forms, in order to understand the universality of its theme. We will focus on the social class system, socialism, phonetics, feminism and other relevant issues depicted in Shaw’s play. In studying a wide range of variations of the myth, the team seeks to create an interdisciplinary forum with the help of experts from many fields.

With "modernism" as the guiding keyword, this project will study the latest research on British literary and cultural history taking place in Britain and the U.S. as well as multifaceted discussions on styles of expression in literature, journalism, architecture, photography, and painting that have developed in Britain since the early 20th century. In addition, we will analyze the process by which intellectuals who either emigrated or were exiled to Britain brought about various influences and changes in British cultural representations.

In this project, we conduct fundamental research on stress, promote the development of stress management programs, and examine psychological and social factors affecting mental health maintenance.

Today, recognizing that we are at turning points in various ways, we aim to develop research that considers many controversial subjects, such as identities and networks in different regions and periods in world history.

This research team aims to study the concepts of plurilingual and pluricultural competence, as well as the state of higher education, with a focus on nurturing learners who can communicate effectively across languages and cultures.

This team undertakes cognitive psychology research to understand consumer behavior, aiming to generate knowledge with a view to applications in the wider world.

The team aims to examine the development of pragmatic competence among children with developmental disabilities, those whose native language is Japanese and children who acquire multiple languages, including Japanese. The team also seeks to elucidate the developmental relationship between language and pragmatic competence leading to considerations of effective teaching strategies and interventions.

Citizen science is any activity that involves the general public in scientific research in collaboration with professionals. Citizen practice refers to a practical activity, such as support based on results obtained by the public through citizen science.
This research team builds a multilayer network, with the general public in the first layer. The second layer, made up of potential workers, are member of the public who do not currently work although they have the qualification to be a nursery nurse or nurse. In the third layer are professionals belonging to universities, businesses, or government.
Regarding the isolation and loneliness among young people, nurturers, and older people that have deepened due to the impact of coronavirus, as well as related mental health problems that have been exacerbated, the third layer of professionals will create survey plans and develop citizen science based on the survey, which will be conducted by the first- and second-layer public. The results are expected to elucidate the mechanisms of the occurrence of isolation and loneliness. In addition, based on the results of the survey through the above-mentioned citizen science, the third layer professionals will consider intervention methods to reduce and prevent isolation and loneliness. In addition they will develop citizen practices in which the first and second layer public will intervene in support of individuals who suffer from isolation and loneliness.

In Les Fées au Moyen Age published in 1984, Laurence Harf-Lancner, a researcher of medieval French literature, picked up Morgane and Mélusine as typical fairies to classify medieval European fairy tales into two types. Morgane, a half-sister of King Arthur, is a fairy who takes a human man away with her to another realm, and Mélusine, a founder fairy of the house of Lusignan in France, transforms herself into a different creature and disappears when her husband breaks a taboo. This study will refer to the classification made by Harf-Lancner, expand to not only medieval Europe but also from the ancient to the modern period, and illuminate the transformation of fairy characters from an interdisciplinary perspective based on literature, history, mythology, ethnology (folklore), and art history.

We explore the various face-body interactions in art and performance, focusing on the interactivity of face and body.The project focuses on the process of accepting physical or psychosocial pain in art and performance. We will therefore continue to develop our research into interoception and emotionally based relationships.

From the 19th to the 20th century, the mutual relationship between Japan and China was an important ideological and political issue in their pursuit of ways for modernization. Both Westernization and Pan-Asianism were major trends in Japan, while Japan became a model as well as a threat to China, which encouraged the intellectual exchange between the two countries through translation and studying in the other country. Our research project will examine what kind of “modernity” Japan and China sought from multifaceted perspectives, also considering Taiwan, which became an intermediate region between the two countries, and the West, which greatly influenced East Asia.

While archeology and history have a common goal of reconstructing the history of human society, there are significant differences in the historical materials to be examined and research methods. Historians and archaeologists will genuinely collaborate on research and broaden each other's possibilities. To this end, we will deepen the traditional research methods of history and archeology. Beyond these two fields, we will actively promote natural scientific analysis, as well as collaboration with anthropology, ethnology, and folklore. Our aim is to establish an interdisciplinary research field for cultural-historical reconstruction that illuminates the traces of people in the Japanese Archipelago.

In 20th-century East Asia, the acceptance of Western liberalism enabled people to assert their freedom from despotic rule and resist conscription. The principle of individual inviolability was enshrined in the constitutions of nations.
However, history reveals that civil liberties are often suppressed when economic and military priorities dominate a nation's system. Even in the 21st century, some nations in the world don't have freedom as a fundamental human right. Moreover, in East Asia, there are indications that freedom is on the decline. This study traces the development of liberalism in the East Asian region from the 19th century to the present. Rather than merely evaluating East Asian liberalism by the degree to which it has adopted and mirrored Western liberalism, we seek to actively explore its relationship with the political, economic, and religious traditions before the 19th century.

In recent years, correspondence education has gained increasing prominence, especially in the rapidly growing number of students at correspondence high schools and correspondence universities.
Among the recent applicants to correspondence universities, the number of younger individuals has noticeably increased. This trend indicates a shift in expectations compared to traditional lifelong learning. Additionally, many newly established correspondence universities possess different characteristics from the conventional ones.
The purpose of this group is to analyze data from a questionnaire survey conducted on students at correspondence universities and to interview faculty members and administrative staff at correspondence universities to clarify the actual conditions of the students' motives for enrollment, university adaptation, and career development.

Amid the global acceptance and tensions surrounding diversity in race, gender, religion, and ideology, our objective is to explore, both synchronically and diachronically, how linguistic and cultural diversity should be perceived and described. By focusing on each researcher’s area of expertise, we aim to conduct empirical analyses that clearly illustrate specific cases and examples.
Our research team is committed to respecting diversity and actively embraces traditional linguistic studies in syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and phonetics, as well as conventional research on various languages. Furthermore, we engage in studies on language education and acquisition related to English and Japanese, along with research on foreign language cultures.

Spanish is one of the world's most widely spoken and studied languages. Its special status in Japan stems from the history of Japanese emigration to Latin America and the presence of their descendants. This research team explores how Spanish can be taught and learned in Japanese universities and how learners can apply their skills to their lives and careers, examining educational methods that meet modern societal and individual needs.