KOREA FOUNDATION

First, congratulations on your recent appointment as Director of the Center for Contemporary Korea Studies. Would you please introduce your Center as well as its primary goals?

The Center for Contemporary Korea Studies at Keio University is one of Japan’s premier institutes involved with Korea-related research, which was established in 2009 with support from the KF and the Japan Foundation. Over the years, the Center has consistently organized various research projects, symposiums, seminars, and research societies.
  I started as the Center’s Assistant Director, organizing and coordinating various projects, and then was appointed as the Director this past April. Our efforts are focused on aggressively promoting the Center, along with strengthening our international networks through joint projects in cooperation with overseas Korean Studies scholars and research institutes.

What differentiates the Center for Contemporary Korea Studies at Keio University from other institutions of this kind in Japan?

Firstly, Keio University has a rich tradition that goes back over 150 years, as it was established in 1858. The school also maintains deep ties with Korea, having accepted Korean students since it first opened.
  Yet the Center’s most exceptional strength is its multilateral approach to examining real-life issues facing Korean society. We specialize in the social sciences and thus undertake studies that look into the politics, international relations, economics, and sociology of modern-day Korea. We also conduct research on North Korea so as to broaden awareness of key security issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula.
  Lastly, the Center for Contemporary Korea Studies forms cooperative networks to bolster international research collaboration, and publicly organizes numerous symposiums, seminars, and research societies. We thus provide an “open platform” to facilitate more comprehensive research on Korea.

What are some of the projects that the Center has undertaken in cooperation with the KF?

Since the establishment of our center we’ve consistently engaged in a variety of projects under KF support. I’d like to cite an early project that involved over 30 researchers from both countries as an especially important endeavor. We conduct three joint projects with the KF, every two years, and have jointly published three manus: “East Asia and the North Korean Issue: A Turning Point”; “Korea’s Low Birth Rate, Aging Population and Social Polarization”; and “A Comparative Study of Korean and Japanese Political Systems.” The project was a great success, as it forged the collaborative foundations for academic exchange among Korean and Japanese researchers.

What do you believe would be helpful to upgrade Korean Studies and energize Korea-related research efforts, at Keio University as well as other Japanese universities?

Korean Studies research in Japan is at a world-class level, but with a majority of these studies and findings being published in Japanese, I don’t think there is much distribution overseas. With this in mind, we need to publish more research not only in Japanese, but also in Korean and English, and invest more resources into joint international projects.

What kind of initiatives will your Center be pursuing in the future?

As we embarked upon 50 years of renewed Korea-Japan relations, I detected the need for a new policy-related and scholastic infrastructure to build future partnerships between our two nations. In the spirit of this endeavor, we plan to move forward with the Korea-Japan Future Vision Cooperative Project, held in conjunction with the KF, starting this fall. This project is meant to foster talented young people who are eager to investigate the social and economic issues that affect both nations, as well as to build a broad network for the next generation of researchers. I anticipate that this project will bring to fruition all the work that our Center and the KF have invested toward reinforcing Korea-Japan academic exchange and forming collaborative research societies.

KF Tokyo Office