What is it like to be a philosopher in Japan?

This is the twenty-third installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. 

This guest post is written by Katsunori Miyahara (lecturer at the Center for Human Nature, AI, and Neuroscience at Hokkaido University) and Kengo Miyazono (associate professor of philosophy at Hokkaido University). 

1. General information

Japan is an island country in East Asia with a total population of about 126 million. The country long retained a feudal system before undergoing a rapid modernization process at the end of the 19th century, when a historic event known as Meiji Restoration took place and the Tokugawa Shogunate––the last military government which dictated the country for almost 400 years––was replaced by the new Meiji Government.  A modern education system, heavily influenced by European (especially French) and American systems, was introduced to the country in the same period. This involved the foundation of the oldest modern national university in Japan, The University of Tokyo, in 1877.

Currently, higher education in Japan is provided primarily––though not exclusively––by universities and junior colleges. Unlike many other countries, the Japanese school calendar starts in April and ends in March. Typically, the first semester runs from April to July (or early August), which is followed by the summer holiday, and the second semester resumes in October and ends in February.

There is a winter break between the end of December and the second week of January, which many regard as the New Year’s holiday rather than the Christmas break. In a standard undergraduate program, students have 4 years to graduate from a university and 2 years to graduate from a junior college. For postgraduate education, standard Master programs are designed to be completed in 2 years and Doctoral programs in 3 years. In philosophy, however, it is not uncommon for students to extend their period and spend much longer than this in graduate school (or at least, it was common for students to remain in graduate school for long periods until about 5-10 years ago).

2. Philosophy in Japan

Western philosophy was properly introduced to Japan in the latter half of the 19th century when the country was forced to open its border to foreign countries after adopting the isolationist “closed country” policy for over two centuries.

Although philosophical thinking was not entirely foreign to the Japanese intellectuals before this, the modern term for philosophy, tetsugaku (哲学), which roughly translates as “the learning of the sages” in letter, was a neologism coined during this period by the progressive Enlightenment scholar Nishi Amane (西周, 1829–1877) (Maraldo 2019). Nishi and other scholars of this period also coined new terminologies for a variety of Western philosophical terms, such as kansei (感性, “sensibility”), kinou (帰納, “induction”), en-eki (演繹, “deduction”), kan-nen (観念, “idea”), and gainen (概念, “concept”).

Many of the terms coined during this period are still in use in contemporary philosophical discourse and some have even made their way into the common lexicon. Outgoing from this introductory phase, Japanese philosophy reached its first peak in the beginning of the 20th century as it produced original thinkers such as Nishida Kitaro (西田幾多郎, 1870-1945), Watsuji Tetsuro (和辻哲郎, 1889-1960), and Kuki Shuzo (九鬼周造, 1888-1941). But, instead of presenting the historical development of 20th-century Japanese philosophy––readers interested should look into the SEP entry on Japanese Philosophy (Kasulis 2019) and The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy (Davis 2019)––let us skip a century or so of development and describe the contemporary situation of philosophy in Japan. 

 

The three overarching philosophy societies in Japan are The Philosophical Association of Japan (日本哲学会), The Japanese Society for Ethics (日本倫理学会), and The Japanese Society for Aesthetics (美学会). They are also the largest societies in terms of size, each having 1354, 943, and 1300 registered members (Online directory of academic societies, https://gakkai.jst.go.jp/gakkai/). There are also many philosophical societies with a more specific focus, which are generally smaller in size than these three, the only exception being Japan Association of Bioethics (生命倫理学会) which has 1160 members. Not all professional philosophers in Japan are members of these societies, but this roughly represents the size of the professional philosophical community in Japan. By comparison, APA has more than 7000 members in total; the most comprehensive psychological society in Japan, The Japanese Psychological Association (日本心理学会), has almost 8000 members. 

If we look beyond academia, philosophy seems to be a popular genre among the general readership, as many philosophy books have become best sellers in the last couple years. This includes books such as the Japanese translations of authors like Michael Sandel, Markus Gabriel, and Shelly Kagen.

In general, Japanese philosophers have been enthusiastic about producing Japanese translations of Western philosophical texts, ranging from ancient classics to contemporary cutting-edge research, since the introduction of Western philosophy into the country.

This enthusiasm can be seen in how we can occasionally find translations of niche texts that are probably not so often translated into other languages. An interesting example, which recently came under the spotlight, would be Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’ memo on countermeasures to the plague addressed to Duke Ernst August, a text that suddenly regained its relevance due to the COVID-19 pandemic more than 300 years after it was initially written. On a somewhat different note, The Philosopher’s Path (哲学の道 tetsugaku no michi) in Kyoto, where Kyoto-school philosophers, like Nishida and his disciples, are said to have taken strolls and meditate in the past, is a popular tourist destination.

A question we have been asked several times before is whether continental or analytic philosophy is more popular in Japan. In the first half of the 20th century, philosophers in Japan mostly engaged with works in the so-called continental philosophical tradition. In particular, Japan was one of the earliest adopters of phenomenology outside Europe––phenomenologists among the readers will know that Husserl even wrote a series of papers specifically for a Japanese journal, Kaizo (改造), in the 1920s, now known as the Kaizo articles. However, it is probably fair to say that this bias towards continental philosophy has largely dissolved by now. In fact, Philosophy of Science of Society, Japan (日本科学哲学会), which is a society for anglophone/analytic philosophy, has 529 members, having more members than The Phenomenological Association of Japan (日本現象学会), the main phenomenology society that includes 423 members. Ancient philosophy also seems equally popular, seeing as to how The Classical Society of Japan (日本西洋古典学会) has 420 members.  Medieval philosophy lags slightly behind, as one can glean from the fact that The Japanese Society of Medieval Philosophy (中世哲学会) has 240 members. 

In general, there is much interaction in Japan between people working in different areas and traditions of philosophy, and across the so-called analytic/continental divide (if we can still talk about such a thing). We speculate this may be because of the relatively small size of the entire philosophical community in Japan. This general trend is somewhat reflected in the arrangement of our own institution, Hokkaido University. Our philosophy department (department of philosophy and religious studies) has eleven faculty members, whose main research areas are applied ethics, German philosophy, French philosophy, logic, ancient philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, Indian philosophy, Christianity, and Buddhism. Just like in many other Japanese universities, there are philosophers outside the philosophy department as well, such as philosophers of art in the aesthetics department or philosophers of science in the School of Science. Other philosophers belong to liberal arts programs and research centers. One of us teaches at the Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience (CHAIN), a research and education center focused on interdisciplinary studies of mind and cognition. 

3. Opportunities in Japan

Pre/Postdoctoral Opportunities: JSPS offers a variety of fellowships for graduate students and early-career researchers from abroad. The main postdoctoral opportunity is the Standard Program (up to 2 years). Short-term programs, such as the Summer Program (2 months) or Short Program (up to 1 year), are available for both PhD holders and graduate students. 

Invitation Opportunities: There are some invitational opportunities for those with a position at home institution as well. For example, JSPS offers Invitational Fellowships for Research in Japan; Short Term (14-60 days) and Long Term (2-10 months). 

The opportunities above require applicants to find a host at an institution in Japan. If you are interested in one of those opportunities but do not know any particular person who can be your host, you can search at Researchmap and KAKEN database. Some institutions provide lists of potential host researchers on their website. For example, a list of potential hosts in philosophy at CHAIN is available here.

Faculty Positions: Job advertisements in Japan are posted on JREC-IN. Philos-L or PhilJobs are rarely used. In the past, there weren’t many faculty positions available for those without Japanese language competency. Recently, however, more opportunities arise for those who are not fluent in Japanese, especially at international liberal arts colleges, such as Akita International University, where English is the main teaching language. Some research institutions, such as Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology or CHAIN at Hokkaido University, offer research/teaching positions for those without knowledge of Japanese as well. 

   It is not very easy to estimate the average teaching load in Japan because many complicated factors must be taken into account. Just like other countries, teaching-oriented positions (in teaching-oriented universities) have a heavier teaching load than research-oriented positions (in research-oriented universities). Very roughly, faculty members in Japanese universities spend 20-30% of their working time for teaching-related activities, according to a national survey. In general, teaching is regarded as very important in Japanese universities, which is related to the fact that course buyout is very rare (although there were some new developments recently). 

4. Research Fellowships and Fundings 

Students and researchers in Japan are eligible for fellowships and funding opportunities, many of which are provided by JSPS. JSPS stands for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (日本学術振興会), which is a semi-governmental funding agency in Japan. Its name includes “Science” (科学), but it also supports the humanities and social sciences in addition to the natural sciences. 

Predoctoral Fellowships: Graduate students in PhD programs in Japan can apply for JSPS predoctoral fellowships under two schemes, DC1 (3 years) & DC2 (2 years). Since funded PhD programs are very rare in Japan, the role of JSPS predoctoral fellowships is essential. The average selection ratio is around 20%. 

Postdoctoral Fellowships: JSPS also offers postdoctoral fellowships (PD, RPD, and CPD). PD (2 years) is the most popular postdoctoral fellowship in Japan. The average selection rate for PD is 15-20%. Overseas research fellowships enable postdoctoral researchers to conduct research outside Japan.  

KAKENHI: One of the main functions of JSPS is to offer Grants-in-Aids for Scientific Research or KAKENHI (科研費). There are many funding schemes with different amounts, selection rates, and conditions. Huge grants are mainly provided to scientists, but philosophers can also receive some relatively big grants (big enough to hire postdoctoral researchers). All recipients and their projects are searchable at the KAKEN database. KAKENHI applications can be prepared in English. 

We thank Richard Stone for his input

Comments

[Benedict Eastaugh]

Thanks to the authors for this very useful post.

PhD students in logic or logic-related areas like the philosophy of mathematics, and who are interested in potentially applying for jobs in Japan such as JSPS postdoctoral fellowships, should be aware that there is a flourishing community not just in philosophy and philosophical logic, but in mathematical logic—especially proof theory, computability theory, and set theory. There are even some glimmerings of engagement between anglophone philosophy of mathematics and Japanese philosophical movements, e.g. Akiyoshi & Arana (2019).

Akiyoshi R. and Arana A. Takeuti's proof theory in the context of the Kyoto School. Jahrbuch für Philosophie das Tetsugaku-Ronso, 46:1–17, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/244296

[Kengo Miyazono]

Thank you for the follow-up Benedict!