Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology

With a membership of approximately 2,100 scholars and students, the Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology (JASCA; Nihon Bunkajinrui Gakkai) is one of the largest anthropological organizations in the world. The JASCA's main purpose is to promote research on human culture(s) in cultural anthropology, social anthropology and ethnology.

Concerning its history, the academic society referred to as the Nihon Minzoku Gakkai (the Japanese Society of Ethnology) first was established in 1934; it later was converted into a foundation through a donation obtained from Keizo Shibusawa, a banker, scholar and patron of ethnological studies. In 1942, it was reorganized as the Association of Ethnology (Minzokugaku Kyokai).

After World War II, postgraduate courses in cultural and social anthropology began to be offered in several universities, and the Association of Ethnology flourished through its interdisciplinary cooperation with other fields. In 1964, the Japanese Society of Ethnology was newly established as an academic wing of the Association, and it took over some of the academic functions, including the publication of the Japanese Journal of Ethnology (JJE; Minzokugaku Kenkyu). Soon after, the Association of Ethnology as a foundation was renamed the Shibusawa Foundation for Ethnological Studies (Minzokugaku Shinkokai), and it ran its own Program in cooperation with the JSE. The Shibusawa Foundation was reorganized in 2000 as a charitable trust, namely the Shibusawa Fund for Ethnological Studies (Shibusawa Minzokugaku Shinko Kikin). One of the Fund's activities is to award the Shibusawa Prize each year for the best work in ethnological and anthropological studies by a scholar under 39 years of age.

In 1968, the JSE hosted the Eighth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in Tokyo and Kyoto in cooperation with the Anthropological Society of Nippon, whose members mostly were physical anthropologists. The two societies also hosted the Inter-Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in Tokyo in Sept 2002.

In April 2004, the JSE changed its official designation to the “Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology (JASCA; Nihon Bunkajinrui Gakkai)” and its journal was renamed the Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology (JJCA; Bunkajinruigaku).
In order to promote ethnological and sociocultural anthropological research in Japan, the JASCA presently undertakes a number of activities, some principal features of which are described below.

The JASCA/JSE has been publishing the JJCA/JJE four times a year in Japanese, with a summary in European languages attached to each article. The 69th volume (four issues) was published in 2004. In 1998, the publication of a new English journal, namely the Japanese Review of Cultural Anthropology (JRCA), was started with the purpose of reviewing the works of the members written mostly in Japanese, for the benefit of the international academic world. The JRCA has now become the official English journal of the Society, and it has been integrated into the JJCA/JJE as a supplementary issue.

The JASCA holds its annual meeting in spring, and a couple of hundred papers are presented as a part of group sessions and as individual papers. The JASCA also sponsors workshops held in several regional blocks that provide opportunities for the presentation of new ideas, reports on the results of fieldwork and the exchange of information. The JASCA regards international cooperation with the ethnological and anthropological societies in other countries as important. Accordingly, it has forged a partnership with "Anthropology of Japan in Japan (AJJ)," an association made up mainly of Western anthropologists residing in Japan.

* Extract from the column "Global Colleagues" in Anthropology News Vol.43, no.8, p.10 (November 2002), partially revised and updated. AN is the Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association.

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Contact info

Secretariat 2-1-1-813 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0073, Japan
phone: 81-3-5232-0920, fax: 81-3-5232-0922

email: hoya@t3.rim.or.jp
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jasca/