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About Us |
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Greeting from the Director
The Institute of International Relations was founded in 1989 in response
to the establishment of the College of International Relations in 1988.
Since then, the institute has contributed its perspective of academic regional
studies to significant issues arising from the pursuit of sustained growth
in the world economy and permanent peacebuilding in the international society,
and has extensively released its research findings to societies for promoting
the university's internationalization.
In the early years of its foundation (1990s), we promoted US–Japan studies
and research to focus on the formation of the Asia-Pacific economic block
in cooperation with the School of International Service (SIS), American
University. We have also tied up with the Kyoto Museum for World Peace,
Ritsumeikan University since its establishment in 1992, to make studies
on peace and arms reduction a fundamental aim of the institute.
At the beginning of the 21st century, we shifted our focus to East Asia,
which continues to develop significantly, and analyzed the Korean Peninsula
situation, which still has flashpoints and presents an unclear path toward
reconciliation. A wide array of research-related activities has been conducted
on issues in East Asia. Of these, the most noteworthy is hosting a series
of expert meetings on these issues. This series comprised two sessions
in the span of 10 years; approximately 20 books related to Asian studies
were published. Because of our dedicated efforts, our institute, as the
center of Asian studies in Japan, has earned high acclaim from both home
and foreign countries.
However, although Asia has become a focus of world attention and of our
research themes, Japan’s presence during the last 10 years of the 20th
century has diminished, and the prospect of its recovery has yet to be
depicted even after the first decade of the 21st century.
In such a situation, I was appointed as the director of IIRAS starting
in April 2011. It was an unexpected announcement because my research focuses
on neither western nor developing countries; instead, it focuses on Japan.
Needless to say, Japan's current challenges are significantly different
from the ones we were confronted with during the rapid growth period in
the 1960s and early 70s when Japan was striving to catch up with the West.
Since its foundation, our institute has broadened its horizons toward
the world and pursued global issues from the viewpoint of regional studies.
Expertise, human network, and other research sources have been accumulated
to reconsider Japan's situation after the massive earthquake as an appropriate
subject for regional studies from the global perspective. In coordination
with all our ongoing research projects, we will continue to unflinchingly
take on the challenges that Japan encounters and that the world foresees.
I sincerely request your continued support and cooperation in our research
endeavor.
Nobuaki Takahashi
Director,
Institute of International Relations and Area Studies
Ritsumeikan University
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