Japanese Studies in China at the Turn of the Century ：：：Efforts and Prospects Jiang Lifeng and Yang Dongliang In 2008, the third survey of “Japanese Studies in China” was done by a cooperative effort of Chinese Association for Japanese Studies, Institute of Japanese Studies, Nankai University, and Japan Foundation. In April, 2009, the “Survey Research Group” invited experts in various fields of Japanese studies all over China to meet at a symposium on “Retrospective and Prospective of Japanese Studies in China” in Beijing, sponsored by Beijing Center for Japanese Cultural Exchange of Japan Foundation, for an assessment of recent development of Japanese studies in China. Based on the basic data from the third survey and reference from the assessment of experts at the symposium, this paper tries to provide a quantitative analysis and a synoptic overview on development and current situation of Japanese studies in China since 1997 in comparison with the second survey. I. Change of Research Teams and Configuration of Resources Because of more strict limits and lesser information sources, Information from 8 provinces and regions such as Jiangxi,Anhui,Hainan,Guizhou,Yunnan,Xingjiang, Tibet and Qinghai and special areas such as Taiwan, Hongkong and Macao have not been included in the survey. By April of 2009, the survey had received valid questionnaires from 104 research institutions and 1,092 researchers, 37 institutions and 168 researchers are lesser than those of the second survey because of more strict limits and lesser information sources. This statistics basically reflects the reality of research institutions, but little below the real number of researchers. Generally speaking, institutions have been over 100 and researchers have been over 1000 is now the present situation of Japanese research team in China. The survey shows that there have been remarkable changes in structure of researchers of Japanese studies and in configuration of resources in China in the decade. I. Research Teams of Professional Rejuvenation with Higher Degree and Diversity of Knowledge Structure The professional rejuvenation is the most important development of Japanese 1 studies in China in the decade. The first generation of experts of Japanese studies in new China has done substantial performance and had students home and abroad, but most of them are retired and some of them even have passed away. The second generation of experts of Japanese studies trained before the Great Cultural Revolution has still very active in terms of academic research and writing, but most of them have retired. It is the third generation of experts of Japanese studies graduated in the 1980s after the Great Cultural Revolution that is the backbone of Japanese studies in China currently. The fourth generation of experts of Japanese studies is emerging in various fields of Japanese studies. So, generally speaking, professional rejuvenation is one of the most remarkable characteristics of research team of Japanese studies in China either in comparison with the other generations or with those in other countries in terms of age structure. For example, the age structure now is 9% below 30, 26% between 30 and 39, 30% between 40 and 49, 22% between 50 and 59, and only 7% over 60 (including retirees), which is a decline of 36% in comparison with the second survey when there were 452 over 60. One of the problems resulted from the rejuvenation is that there will be a shortage of talent in terms of age structure due to the close of university during the Great Cultural Revolution. There will be only a few serving experts over 60 after most of the second generation experts are retired. Another characteristic of research teams in the survey is that most young scholars have got higher degrees. There were only 52 scholars in Japanese studies with Ph.D. degree according to statistics a decade ago and the number is sevenfold in this survey, reaching 370. Major institutions of Japanese studies in China have most or all of their staff with Ph.D. degree. This development in terms of education degree shows that staff of Japanese studies in China is more professionalized and its overall quality and comprehensive strength have been greatly increased in the decade. There is a remarkable trend of diversity of knowledge structure shown in the third survey. Educational backgrounds of serving experts are much more different from those of the first and second generations. The vast majority of scholars under the age of 40 have long-term or short term education or research experiences in Japan. They have a better master of Japanese and some of them are even good at more than two foreign languages. There are even some compound talents with various degrees of other fields of sciences. So there are many young scholars who are trying to approach Japanese studies with new theories and perspectives of modern western humanity and social sciences and they have done excellent works on new perspectives, new approaches and field expanding in Japanese studies thanks to increasing improvement of academic research conditions. II. Distribution of Researchers Researchers of Japanese studies in China are mainly working in four major 2 systems: university, research institution of social sciences, governmental research institution and social media. Not taking into account of individual researchers in society, among all the researchers of Japanese studies in China, around 70% are professional researchers and teachers at university research institution and special college(Less than 100 are teachers mainly doing research among the 811registered researchers of Japanese studies at universities in this survey ). 10% are researchers at Chinese academic of social sciences and provincial and municipal academics of social sciences, 10% researchers working at research institutions of relevant national ministries, province and city, and 10% researchers in media system such as press and publication. Researchers are distributed into different fields of Japanese studies in the order according to their proportion in number, Japanese language and literature (43%), Japanese history (18%), Japanese economy (14%), Japanese politics and foreign relations (12%), Japanese philosophy and thought (5%), Japanese education (2%), synthetic Studies of Japan (2%), and others (4%). In comparison with the second survey, there is an increasing number in language and literature and a decline in those of history and economy, and there are not many changes in other fields. The direct reason for the increase of scholars in language and literature is the increasing demand for teachers of Japanese language and researchers of Japanese studies due to the rapid increase of Japanese language section at university. Geographical distribution of research force is still the same, mainly concentrated in the three municipalities directly under the central government, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and the northeast region with an increase of research force in North China, East China, South China and Central China, but remaining the same in relatively weak region of northwest China. III. Organizational Configuration of Human Resources Research resources include researcher, research facilities, research materials, professional academic periodicals, research funds, etc. Among them, researcher is no doubt the core resource. In modern society of information explosion and research specialization, it is hard for an individual researcher to undertake a large research project. So, it is a worldwide challenge to find the best way to realize a highly efficient configuration of human research resources. In China, there are three patterns of organizational configuration of human resources in Japanese studies: first, substantial research institution, less than 10 in China(For example, Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Japanese Studies, Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, College of Japanese Studies, Nankai University, Center for Japanese Studies, Fudan University, Institute of Japanese Language and Culture, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Institute of Japanese Studies, Institute of Japanese Studies, Northeast Normal University, Institute of Japanese Studies, Liaoning University, etc.), and may be around 20 if 3 sections of Japanese studies in synthetic research institutions are included; second, nominal research institution, which is actually a horizontal association, a organization of colleagues in the same field without fixed staff, many research centers are such kinds of organization. some of them are very famous and active home and abroad such as Center for Japanese Studies of Beijing University, but most of them are not very active in terms of academic activity; third, national and regional specialized association, 7 national associations of Japanese studies( such as Chinese Association for Japanese Studies, China Japanese History Association, Chinese Society of Japanese Economic Studies, Chinese Association for Japanese Philosophy, Chinese Association for Japanese Literature, Chinese Society for History Studies of Sino-Japanese Relations and Chinese Association for Historical Studies of Resistance War Against Japan), 5 provincial and municipal associations, more than half of researchers of Japanese studies joining at least one of them as they providing platforms for national academic exchanges in holding annual academic conference as well as symptoms of special themes in Japanese studies periodically. During the period of the second