뉴스레터

Korean Association for Japanese Thought

The Korean Association for Japanese Thought was founded in 1997 with the aim of pursuing comprehensive inter-disciplinary research on the history of Japanese thoughts for the first time in Korea, with the founding members including late Song Wui-chil (Japanese philosophy and Confucian philosophy, Kyungpook National Univ.); Lee Gi-dong (SungKyunKwan Univ., studied in Japan); Ha Woo-bong (History of Korea-Japan relations during Joseon period, Chonbuk National Univ.); Jeong Hyeong (Japanese literature and history of Japanese culture, Dankook Univ.); Heo Woo-seong (Japanese philosophy and Buddist philosophy, Kyunghee Univ.); Park Jin-woo (Japanese history, Sookmyung Univ.); Park Kyu-tae (Japanese religion, Hanyang Univ.); and Choi Jae-mok (Yeungnam Univ., studied in Japan). Professor Ji Myong-gwan, who represents the Korea-Japan research, serves as an adviser for the Association which has more than 200 researchers as members. Researchers of six divisions (philosophy & thoughts, history & anthropology, language & literature, society & culture, politics & economy and religion & folk customs) gather together and produce creative and future-oriented academic results.

The Association submitted its members' papers to the quarterly journal "History of Japanese Thought" which printed the theses on all its pages under the name of "Korea's Research on Japan in September 2001. It is very rare that Japan's leading academic journal covered the research findings of Korea's association on its entire pages. Japan Research Center at Harvard University elaborately introduced the Association's activities in April 2001.

In the meantime, the Association has held 25 seminars so far with one in the spring and one in the autumn every year. It has continued academic debates over various themes centering on Japanese thoughts, ranging from the history of orthodox thoughts to cultural contents, from nationalist thoughts to two faces of modern Japan. And it has sought to promote joint discussion between Korea and Japan by inviting Japanese scholars to participate in the debate.

Continuous search for the ideological basis for an East Asian community

Specifically, the 23rd conference held in November 2008 under the theme of "Memory of war and peace thoughts as a cure of it," provided a discussion to find an ideological basis for creating a community in East Asia of the 21st century. With the support of the Northeast Asian History Foundation, this year's meeting will be held on November 28, 2009 under the theme of "Searching for ways to promote peace in Northeast Asia and recognizing the other" to examine how to realize the vision on peace in Northeast Asia through going beyond nationalistic conflicts.

In addition, the Association has published 16 editions of "Japanese Thoughts" with one in June and one in December every year. Its academic status is acknowledged with its journal approved by the National Research Foundation of Korea. "Japanese thoughts viewed through disputes" (SungKyunKwan University Press), co-translated by the Association's 15 in 2001, is appreciated as the most important translated book in the field of Japanese thoughts.

The role and aim of the Association is to strive for comprehensive inter-disciplinary research on a wide range of history, literature, philosophy, politics and society. The conference offers a venue for a creative academic discussion with researchers on diverse fields such as Japanese literature, Japanese history, Japanese politics, Japanese philosophy and Japanese religion taking part in the broad framework of the history of thoughts. One can see that various disciplines converge into one as the researchers break the boundary of their own discipline and pay attention to the research area of other disciplines.

Furthermore, the Association has many scholars who have conducted thorough research on Japan after majoring in the study of other areas, so it provides a general range and quality of discussion and creats a free atmosphere. In other words, it offers a venue for a tolerant debate in which one can go beyond the boundaries of other disciplines and freely say daring words. This place for serious and free discussion is always open. We welcome researchers who can raise new consciousness about Japanese thoughts.