The Growth of Canadian Studies in Japan*

（日本におけるカナダ研究の概況）

Kensei Yoshida**

SUMMARY IN JAPANESE：日本における本格的なカナダ研究は、1970年代に始まったといってよい。その要因として、ピアソン外相のノーベル賞受賞に象徴されるカナダの平和維持活動、連邦結成百周年を契機とするモントリオール国際博などの行事や国民的アイデンティティの模索、いわゆるケベック危機、そして対日関係の進展、トルドー首相の出現や中国承認に見られる独自外交などによって、カナダへの関心が急速に高まったことがあげられる。

それまでも、柏村桂谷『北米・実地踏査』（1913）、中山訊四郎『加奈陀之宝庫』（1922）、日本外務省編『加奈陀自治領事情』（1935）、世界経済調査会編『カナダの研究』（1963）、中屋健一・斎藤真・嘉治元郎編『現代の世界１　北アメリカ、オーストラリア、ニュージーランド』（1970）といった出版物や、日系移住者の体験記、観光案内などがなかったわけではない。また、カナダに関心をもつ研究者もわずかながらいた。

しかし、日本のカナダ研究が長足の進歩をとげたのは、1970年代に入ってからのことである。まず1974年の田中・トルドー会談で、カナダにおける日本研究、日本におけるカナダ研究の推進が決まって、筑波大学にカナダ人客員教授がおかれるとともに、さまざまなカナダ研究助成策が講じられた。とりわけ、1977年に日本カナダ学会の前身・日本カナダ研究会が創設されたことが、その後のカナダ研究の発展につながった。研究者の関心は蒲生正雄編『海を越えた日本の村』（1962）に代表される日系移住者に関する研究や日加（経済）関係に関する調査報告、そして観光案内を中心とするものから、カナダの歴史、経済、地理、対外関係、連邦体制、多文化主義、ケベック問題、労働法、憲法、社会福祉、文学…へと広がり、研究内容もそれなりに深まりを見せた。カナダ講座を設ける大学やカナダを講義に取り入れる研究者も増えた。

とはいえ、日本におけるカナダ研究はまだまだきわめて若い分野である。日加関係や日系移住者、あるいは先住民族の研究などに一次資料を使った先駆的研究があり、また一部の研究者が本格的にカナダと取り組んでいるものの、全般的には未だに「翻訳」時代の段階を超えていない。カナダ政府のさまざまな助成策によって、多くの研究者が現地留学や現地調査研究の恩恵に浴し、また研究書の出版も支援されており、それがカナダ研究の質的・量的向上に質していることは間違いない。しかし、例えば政府留学生の帰国後の活動や研究調査の期間などに問題がないわけではない。カナダ研究者の活躍現場の狭さや日本における資料入手の困難さ、といった隘路もある。今後は、カナダ政府の助成策なしにどれだけカナダ研究が発展し得るか、そして日本のカナダ研究がいずれカナダでも出版に値するレベルに達し得るか、というのが大きな課題であろう。

There have been many significant developments in the field of Canadian Studies in Japan since the 1970s when a small group of academics formed what eventually became the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies (JACS). This growth has been so impressive, in terms of both quality and quantity, that it is now difficult to imagine that Canadian Studies, as an academic subject, was virtually nonexistent in Japan until 20 years ago. While translations and adaptations of Canadian books and papers constitute the majority of Japanese works related to Canada, new material based upon field studies and original research and analysis is now being increasingly produced.

HISTORY

Before World War II, few serious books about Canada were available in Japan, other than various official surveys or reports prepared by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its posts in Canada, plus a small number of stories about Japanese emigrants in Canada, often including their personal observations, Kunpei Matsumoto’s 1903 book Beifu-Oun-Roku (American Winds, European Clouds) which was based on former Prime Minister Hirobumi Itoh’s earlier trip to North America and Britain, Keikoku Kashiwamura’s North America: A Field Survey (1913), Tamiji Naito’s The World Through a Camera: Canada and Latin America (1916), Jinshiro Nakayama’s 2,037-page Kanada-no-Hoko (A Canadian Encyclopedia) (1922), and Takashi Ito’s The Canadian Federation (1941) provided the first descriptions of Canada to Japanese readers. These were supplemented by highly specialized publications such as Canada’s Steel Industry by Manabu Sano (1919) and Establishment of a Central Bank in Canada: Its Process and the Problems Encountered (1935) by Teruo Nishimura.

In the immediate postwar years, Japan was so preoccupied with the United States that Canada received very little attention. But with the improvement of trade relations, interest in Canada began to grow. In his essay Land of Canada and Friends of America (1954), Kotaro Tanaka, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, described Canada’s political system and constitution. On a more popular level, A Country Called Canada (1955), by Ryozo Azuma, provided a general, if occasionally impressionistic, view of Canada’s geography, history, society and relations with Japan. It remained one of the most popular books about Canada for nearly two decades. In 1963, the Institute of World Economy published The Study of Canada, perhaps the first objective and comprehensive review of Canada’s various aspects, particularly its economy, industry and relations with England and the United States, ever to come out in Japan. Another, less well-known, book was Canada (Life World Library Series, 1964) which was translated by Seijiro Yoshizawa, a former Japanese Ambassador to Canada. Yoshizawa also contributed a chapter about Canada and its relations with Japan to North America, Australia and New Zealand: Modern World 1 in the Area Studies Lecture Series (Tokyo: Diamond, 1970). Takeo Miyake published The Canadian Economy in 1968. Other than these few titles and surveys by government and trade institutions such as the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), only illustrated coffee-table publications and travel books, which helped to promote Canada’s image as a “country of forests and lakes,” were commonly available.

Indeed, until the 1960s and early 70s, serious interest in Canada was limited to a small number of diplomats, researchers, businessmen and travel writers. Canadian Studies, as such, remained in an embryonic stage. Gradually, however, several Canadian authors were introduced to Japanese intellectuals through translations of their works. The most notable examples included George Woodcock’s two-volume Anarchism (1968), Northrop Frye’s The Modern Century (1971), The Critical Path: Essays on the Social Context of Literary Criticism (1974), The Educated Imagination (1969), and Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1980), and The Scalpel, Sword by Ted Allan and Sidney Gordon (1974). Important historical and philosophical works about Japan by E. H. Norman[1] also appeared in translation. Although these books probably had little direct impact in Japan on the development of Canadian Studies per se, they contributed to the growing interest in Japan as a result of the fact that the authors (and the subject, in the case of The Scalpel, Sward) were Canadians. Seymour Lipset’s Revolution and Anti-Revolution (1972), which discussed major sociological differences between Canadians and Americans, was one of the most important books dealing with Canada to be translated into Japanese during this period.

TURNING POINT

The turning point in the development of Canadian Studies in Japan occurred in 1977, when JACS’s predecessor, the Kanada Kenkyu-Kai (Association for Canadian Studies), was organized. The same year saw the publication of five scholarly articles about Canada in The Kokusai Mondai, a monthly magazine published by the Japan Institute of International Affairs (which began to publish a series of pamphlets on Canada for the Japanese Foreign Ministry around 1970). These essays covered Canada’s relations with Japan, federalism, politics and government, foreign relations, the economy and race relations. Subsequent publications of note included the translation of three textbooks for Japanese university students: The Pelican History of Canada by Kenneth McNaught, The Canadian Economy: Structure and Development by Ian M. Drummond, and, in 1978, How Are We Governed? by J. Ricker and J. Saywell. The Canadian Government subsidized these textbooks which were distributed to many Japanese academic institutions and scholars. They became essential reading for both Japanese-Canadian specialists and their students and, in many respects, provided the cornerstone for the development of Canadian Studies in Japan. Also in 1977, the four-volume Complete Writings of E. H. Norman were translated by Genji Okubo and published by Iwanami Shoten.

Between 1978 and 1982, a number of other important books about Canada were translated, including J. M. S. Careless’s Canada: A Story of Challenge, John Saywell’s Canada: Past and Present, Paul Blanchard’s Le Canada Français, and Introduction to Canadian Politics and Government by W. L. White, R. H. Wagenberg and R. C. Nelson. Two historical documents were translated, with extensive annotations, during this period: Ranald MacDonald’s Japan, Story of Adventure of Ranald MacDonald, First Teacher of English in Japan, A. D. 1848-49 and Jacques Cartier’s The Voyage of Jacques Cartier.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

Several factors explain this growing interest in Canada. E. H. Norman, considered by many Japanese intellectuals to have been a particularly astute and sensitive Japanologist as well as a highly capable diplomat, inspired a number of Japanese scholars to become interested in his (and his Methodist missionary family’s) role in Japan and his country as well. In addition, this period followed Canada’s widely-publicised international peacekeeping activities, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Lester Pearson in 1957, Canada’s Centennial and the World Exposition held in Montreal in 1967 and the Quebec crisis of 1970. The 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese emigrant in Canada took place in 1977, and the 50th anniversary of Japan-Canada diplomatic relations in 1979 resulted in further publicity about Canada. With the election of the colourful and charismatic Pierre Trudeau and his “Third Option” foreign policy, as well as the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, Canada began to attract much greater attention among Japanese scholars. Trade relations between the two countries had developed enormously. In every respect, Canada waited to be studied more carefully.

This emerging interest was stimulated by the Report of the Commission on Canadian Studies (commonly known as The Symons Report)[2] and a joint communique issued in Ottawa by Prime Ministers Tanaka and Trudeau in September 1974. The communique committed each government to donate $1 million for the promotion of Japanese Studies in Canada and Canadian Studies in Japan. This step paved the way for Canada’s Department of External Affairs to establish a Canadian Studies course at Tsukuba University and Keio University in 1976. Funds became available for the translation of the three university-level textbooks already mentioned, as well as a number of scholarship and research programs for Japanese graduate and postgraduate students. These included the Faculty Enrichment Program, and a book donation program to the National Diet Library and selected universities in Japan. External Affairs also contributed to the establishment of the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies.

These efforts produced some highly rewarding results. Successive visiting professors, from Vivian Nellis of York University to Jack Schultz of Mount Allison University, have lectured at Tsukuba and Keio Universities, as well as International Christian University, Tokyo University, Sophia University, and many other Japanese institutions. They have also served as resident advisors on Canadian Studies and as a convenient link with the Canadian academic community for Japanese researchers. One result is that Tsukuba now has several “Canadianists” in its area studies and other programs. The “seed” was considered to have developed so much that, in 1988, External Affairs transferred responsibility for the visiting professor program to the Japanese Ministry of Education. The translation of textbooks on Canadian history, politics and economy provided Japanese researchers interested in Canada with the first authoritative books in their own language and helped to spawn many valuable papers and books.

The various other government-supported programs have given many Japanese researchers the opportunity to visit Canada to make firsthand observations, gather research materials, establish contact with Canadian academic institutions and scholars and develop Canadian-content courses, or hold study sessions. These visits and seminars have led to the publication of a considerable number of papers. The book donation program has made Canadian reference materials and books available to Japanese researchers. No doubt, these programs have contributed substantially to the development of Canadian Studies in this country.

JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR CANADIAN STUDIES

The establishment of the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies (JACS) was significant in many respects. It provided a focal point to more than 100 Japanese researchers studying particular aspects of Canada in isolation or in small groups scattered throughout Japan. Many of them had considered (many still do) Canada only as a marginal extension of their primary specialties.

The birth of JACS provided a central organization. With a current membership of about 250, the Association now holds an annual conference and a number of regional study seminars. Its Annual Review of Canadian Studies, inaugurated in 1979, gives them a forum for academic discussions about Canada or Canada-Japan relations, and its Newsletter describes the various activities of the Association and its four regional chapters. JACS has published a collection of academic essays, entitled Various Issues in Canadian Studies (1987), Introduction to Canadian Studies (1989), and a three-volume bibliography of Japanese books and papers on Canada. A group of JACS members in eastern Japan has also compiled a bibliography of foreign-language books on Canada in their collections. Moreover, the Association has established a research award for outstanding papers by students and young scholars.

TRANSLATION STILL ACTIVE

As observed, with the exception of a few pioneering works such as The Study of Canada, Canadian Studies in Japan essentially began with a series of books translated from English or French into Japanese in the 1970s and the early 1980s. Even today, works of translation abound: Hugh L. Keenlyside’s Memoirs of Hugh L. Keenlyside: Hammer The Garden Bay (1984), Ramsay Cook’s The Maple Leaf Forever (1984), F. Henry Johnson’s A Brief History of Canadian Education (1984), Marcel Mauss’s Essai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétés Eskimos: Etude de morphologie sociale (originally published in 1906), Politics, Law and the Constitution: The Canadian Experience by John Saywell (1987), John W. Holmes’s Life with Uncle: The Canadian-American Relationship (1987), Approaches to Canadian Politics edited by John H. Redekop (1989), and C. B. Macpherson’s Democracy in Alberta (1990). These translations have provided important resources for Japanese students of Canada. (Although, strictly speaking, not falling under the category of Canadian Studies, the following translations of Canadian books are also worthy of note: John O’Neill’s Sociology as a Skin Trade: Essays Toward a Reflexive Sociology (1984), Institutional Case of the Mentally Impaired Elderly by Jacqueline Singer Edelson and Walter H. Lyons (1986), several books by Marshall McLuhan such as The Extensions of Man and The Gutenberg Galaxy, R. Murray Schafer’s The Turning of the World (1986), and several books on Glenn Gould including Tom McGreevy’s Glenn Gould Variations and Geoffrey Payzant’s Glenn Gould: Music and Mind.

BOOKS AND PAPERS BY JAPANESE RESEARCHERS

Compared with the number of translated works, the number of original books about Canada by Japanese is relatively small, although it has been growing in recent years. However, a large number of papers have been published on subjects ranging from multi-cultural education to labour law, local government and literature. Few generated much interest beyond a small circle of experts in the respective fields. Nor is the academic standard of these works considered sophisticated enough for them to be published in Canada, with a few notable exceptions concerning Japanese Canadians and Canada-Japan relations.

Among these exceptions are several books and papers by the late Prof. Nobuya Bamba, who was instrumental in establishing the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies, and Prof. Yuko Ohara, a leading Japanese authority on Canadian history and historiography. In addition to acting as supervising editor of the Japanese version of The Pelican History of Canada and co-translator of How Are We Governed?, Bamba wrote or edited several other works, including International Politics of Identity, a chapter of which analyzed Quebec question, Canada: A Country of the 21st Century, Diplomacy of Middle Powers, and Political Science Series IV: International Relations and General Survey of Canadian History. Among his many papers on Canada are: “Development of Canada-Japan Relations,” “An Introduction to Canada-Japan Cultural Exchanges: Canada Methodist Mission and Japan’s Meiji-Era Thinkers,” “Japanese Occupation and (E. H.) Norman,” “Canada’s New Identity,” and “From Big-Power Diplomacy to Cooperative Diplomacy: Middle Powers Such as Canada and Japan Should Cooperate.”

Yuko Ohara, translator of Ramsey Cook’s The Maple Leaf Forever and co-translator of The Pelican History of Canada and Careless’s Canada: A Story of Challenge, has written Modern History of Canada and co-authored The General Survey of Canadian History which is still regarded as one of the best introductory books about Canada available in Japanese. It covers Canada’s history from the time of New France and outlines various postwar issues such as the search for a national identity, Quebec, regionalism and the country’s economic development. Ohara has also produced a number of important analytical papers, including “The Decision on the ‘National Policy’ and John A. MacDonald,” “National Policy and the American System: A Preliminary Comparative Historical Study of Canada and the United States,” “Canada’s Role in the Abolition of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and Japan’s Reaction,” “‘National Policy’ and the Development of Nationalism in Canada’s Historiography,” and “A Case Study: Separatism in a Modern Country”.

Other highly qualified observers of Canada include Prof. Tamio Okamoto who has written extensively about Canada’s welfare system and recently co-authored Canada’s Social Security. In 1973, Prof. Masahiro Kuwahara co-authored Development of Public Service Labour-Management Relations: The Situation in the U. S. and Canada and in 1985 wrote Operating Standards of Sexual Employment Equality Laws in Canada, the United States and Japan. He and his colleague at Niigata University, Prof. Teruhisa Kunitake, have been particularly interested in Canadian labour relations and labour law. In 1989, Prof. Kunitake produced Canada’s Labour Relations and Law, a comprehensive historical and constitutional analysis of Canada’s labour relations and federal labour laws. Prof. Katsumi Ito’s Study of the French Canadian Question: Minority Problems and Their Challenge to the Canadian Federation (1973), based upon his Ph.D. dissertation, was perhaps the first academic study of the Quebec situation by a Japanese. Prof. Tadayuki Okuma, who recently joined the faculty of Hiroshima Shudo University from the Japan Institute of International Affairs, has been closely following Canada’s economic and diplomatic relations with the United States and the rest of the world.

Prof. Kazuo Kimura of Tsukuba University, who has long been interested in Canada’s economic history, particularly in connection with 19th century British imperialism, has written an important analytical survey of Canada from the 1840s to the 1890s under the title The Birth of the Dominion of Canada (1989). Prof. Reiko Sekiguchi of the University of Library and Information Service has written extensively on multiculturalism and multicultural education. She edited Interdisciplinary Study of Canada’s Multicultural Education (1985). Her more recent work includes Canada and Japan: A Comparison of Life Culture (1990), a study of Canadian women at different stages from birth to death. Prof. Tsuneo Ayabe of Tsukuba University has co-authored and edited two important books. One of them, Study of Canada’s Ethnic Cultures: Multiculturalism and Ethnicity (1988), is based upon field surveys by Japanese and Canadian anthropologists. More about Canada (1989) analyzes Canada’s history and geography, social and cultural make-up, education, politics, economy and relations with Japan.

Prof. Masako Iino of Tsuda Women’s College, who has produced numerous academic papers on Japanese Canadians, has co-written Mutual Hostages (University of Toronto Press, 1990) with Prof. Jack Granastein and others. This book deals with Japanese Canadians in Canada and Canadian civilians and prisoners of war in Japan during World War II. Prof. Hideaki Iizawa of Yamagata University has written a number of papers on Canada’s economy and economic policy. Prof. Yutaka Takenaka of Caritas Women’s College has a special interest in the history and culture of French Canada.

Other major works of study on Canada by Japanese researchers include: Introduction to Canadian Commercial History (1981) by Prof. Jiro Toyohara, American and Canadian Geography (1985) by Prof. Yasuo Masai, General Overview of Canadian Law edited by Akio Morishima and Kenneth Lysyk (1982), Ecology in Canadian Forests by Satoru Kojima (1986), To Know Canada by Kensei Yoshida, John Saywell and Suzanne Firth (1985), Contemporary Quebec: French Culture in North America by Shigeyasu Osabe, Koji Nishimoto, Yoichi Higuchi, et al (1989), Political Analysis of Canadian Federalism with Special Reference to Intergovernmental Grants (1985) by Mikiko Iwasaki, Structure of the Canadian Society by Mitsuru Shimpo (1989), and Group Rights, Democracy and the Plural Society by Hiroaki Kato.

Other specialists of note include: Junko Kobayashi (education), Satoru Osanai and Kenji Suzuki (law and the Constitution), Kohei Murai (divorce laws), Toshikazu Suzuki (language rights), Toshio Sakamaki (cooperation laws), Sadayuki Sato (economy), Hideo Sato (U.S.-Canada-Japan economic relations), Takeshi Yamaguchi (geography and resources development), Fumio Nakawaga (multiculturalism and inter-racial relations), Masahide Uchida (Canadian Methodists in Japan), Jiro Toyohara (economic history), Akira Tabayashi (agricultural geography), and Tetsuro Sasaki (cooperative movement in Nova Scotia).

Over the years dozens of papers have been presented at JACS conferences and study sessions and published in the Annual Review of Canadian Studies. As mentioned earlier, in 1977 The Kokusai Mondai published five scholarly articles on Canada, while the Japan Association of International Relations featured the “Historical Evolution of Canada-Japan Relations” in its 1985 issue of International Relations. The National Institute for Research Advancement devoted an entire issue of its magazine, NIRA, to “The Future of Canada and Japan” in 1988. “Recent Policy Issues in Canada” was the publication’s theme in 1989.

Some of the above books and papers exhibit an especially high level of scholarship and insight. Professors Bamba and Ohara, in particular, have contributed greatly to improving the standard of Canadian Studies in Japan, both in their respective areas of specialization and in other fields.

Generally speaking, however, with the exception of Japan-Canada relations and the history of Japanese Canadians, and works by several specialists in other fields, Japanese research has fallen short of the standards that would qualify for publication in Canada.[3] Many articles are little more than adaptations of Canadian publications without much new insight or analysis to offer. Some researchers, out of affection for Canada, have even painted overly biased and romantic pictures of the country.

JAPANESE CANADIANS AND NATIVE STUDIES

In contrast, many excellent, original surveys about Japanese Canadians and native Canadians have been produced. This tradition began in 1962 when a group of Japanese and American social scientists published A Japanese Village That Moved Overseas, a highly praised socio-cultural field study of Japanese Canadians in Steveston, British Columbia. This was followed by Indians in the Far North (1965), based on on-site observations of the Hare Indians by the anthropologist, Hiroko Sue (Hara); Canadian Indians: A Dying Minority People, a description of the social changes taking place among Indians on reserves by Mitsuru Shimpo (1968); and Canadian Eskimoes, a detailed documentary of the lifestyles of the Inuit by journalist Katsuichi Honda (1972). Takashi Irimoto’s studies of native ways of life and folklore are described in the book, From the World of Canadian Indians (1983). Hiroshi Miyamae documented his life with Indians on reserves in two separate books published in 1983.

Not surprisingly, within the area of Canadian Studies, Japanese researchers have demonstrated special interest in the subjects of Japanese Canadians and Canada-Japan relations. Substantial literature on Japanese Canadians had been produced before the war, either by emigrants such as Jinshiro Nakayama or by the Japanese-Canadian newspaper Tairiku Jiho (Continental Times). After 1945, discrimination against Japanese in Canada was the focus of much study. Prof. Mitsuru Shimpo of Waterloo University has written extensively, and sympathetically, about this situation in As if Chased Away with Stones: Social History of Japanese-Canadians (1975), History of Discrimination against Japanese Emigrants (1985) and several other books and papers. Profs. Masako Iino and Hiroko Takamura have written several, more objective papers on Japanese emigrants to Canada. Others have studied the demographic and social impact of emigration on Japanese villages or analyzed the history and content of Japanese-Canadian newspapers and Japanese-Canadian literature. Writer Miyoko Kudo has documented the experiences of Japanese Canadians in books such as The Yellow Soldiers and The Picture Brides.

While no definitive study of Japan-Canada relations is available, the subject has been surveyed extensively from several angles. The May 1985 issue of International Relations included eight related articles, many of them based upon original research: “The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation and the Japanese Emigration Problem in Canada” by Masako Iino, “John Wesley Dafoe and Japanese-Canadian Relations during the 1920s” by Yuko Ohara, “Canadian-Japanese Trade Conflicts during the 1930s and the Japanese Motion for Invoking Trade Protection Law” by Tokushiro Ohata, “Canadian Attitude toward the League of Nations during the 1930s” by Yoshiro Unno, “Canada and the Pacific War” by Hiroaki Shiozaki, “Universalism in Canadian Foreign Policy and Japan: Canadian-Japanese Relations 1946-1968” by Tadayuki Okuma, “Prime Minister Trudeau and the Development of Canadian Relations with Japan and the Pacific” by Takamichi Mito, and “Canadian Political Dynamics and Canada-Japan Relations: Retrospect and Prospect” by John Saywell. As already mentioned, Prof. Bamba has written a number of articles on Canada-Japan relations, including the contributions of Canadian Methodist missionaries in the early 19th century and, more recently, concerning economic and political ties.

LITERATURE

Japanese research in the field of Canadian literature deserves special mention. Although few Canadian novels have been translated into Japanese,[4] there is growing interest in Canadian literature among specialists in English or American literature. A group called the Canadian Literary Society of Japan has been meeting regularly since 1982 and publishing Studies in Canadian Literature annually since 1986.

The pioneer in the field is Keiich Hirano, a Canadian-born professor of literature who started teaching Canadian literature at the University of Tokyo in the 1950s. He was one of the first Japanese who introduced this subject in academic journals during the 1960s and early 1970s. As a result, Japanese readers and critics were exposed to a wider selection of Canadian literature.

In 1983, Prof. Hirano co-authored Literature of Commonwealth Countries and, in 1986, Anthology of Canadian Short Stories. Prof. Noboru Watanabe, who translated Our Nature—Our Voices by Clara Thomas in 1981, has written about E. Pauline Johnson, Margaret Laurence and other Canadian novelists. Prof. Toshiko Tsutsumi has written a number of papers on Margaret Lawrence, Alice Munro, Joy Kogawa, W. O. Mitchell and others. In 1982, Prof. Akira Asai published An Introduction to Canadian Literature and 1985, Modern Canadian Literature: An Overview, Writers and Their Works, References. Also in 1985, Asai co-edited, with Prof. Kinya Tsuruta of the University of British Columbia, Cherry Blossoms and Maple Leaves: Comparative Study of Japanese and Canadian Literature. A pioneering work in the field, this book includes contributions by six Japanese and nine Canadian scholars. Ryosei Minami has shown a particular interest in George Ryga, Kenji Tamura in Suzanna Moodie and Akio Chida in Hugh MacLennan.

While most Japanese experts on Canadian literature have focused on such themes as the Canadian search for national identity, national and individual survival, regionalism and ethnic consciousness, Cherry Blossoms and Maple Leaves was an interesting departure. Not only did it result from the collaboration of both Japanese and Canadian researchers, but the contributors made an effort to compare seemingly incomparable world views, literary styles and themes as expressed by the novelists of both countries.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

The field of Canadian Studies in Japan, which before the 1970s was something of an oddity, has grown tremendously in less than 15 years. No longer is it confined to examining the problems of Japanese Canadians or limited to books translated from English or French.

The number of Japanese researchers interested in Canada has been steadily increasing and, with more of them having the opportunity to study or conduct research in Canada, the quality of Canadian Studies in Japan continues to improve. Another positive development has been the participation of an increasing number of specialists in the areas of law, history, economics, geography, international relations, social security, anthropology, English literature, etc. Research on Japanese Canadians and Japan-Canada relations is particularly advanced.

More and more universities and colleges, including Tsukuba, Kwansei Gakuin, Sophia, Hokkai Gakuen, Daito Bunka, Tsuda, Caritas and Obirin, offer at least one introductory course on Canada. Many academics include some Canadian content in their lectures and some universities occasionally offer seminars or lecture series on Canada. In addition to the annual conference of the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies, colloquia are held by the organization’s regional chapters and the Canadian Literary Society. Academic papers on Canada now appear in many publications including JACS’ Annual Review of Canadian Studies and The Journal of American and Canadian Studies published by Sophia University’s Institute of American and Canadian Studies. The Canadian government helps to finance major research projects and the publication of books dealing with Canada or Canada-Japan relations through a number of programs. Apparently as a result of these and other efforts, the number of Japanese graduate students interested in Canada has significantly increased in recent years.

Less encouraging is the fact that demand for Canadian specialists at Japanese universities is still very limited. Also, Canadian Studies have yet to be recognized as an independent field of research in the way that American Studies have, for example. This probably explains why there are so few Japanese researchers wholly involved in Canada. The Japanese market for academic books about Canada remains so small that most publishing houses hesitate to publish them without some kind of university or government subsidy. Research material about Canada is still difficult to obtain. Although many Canadian books and government documents have been donated to Japan’s national library and several leading universities, no comprehensive index to indicate their location is yet available.

While Ottawa’s financial assistance is extremely useful in promoting Canadian Studies in Japan, the requirement of a publishable manuscript on the basis of a three-to-five-week visit makes it difficult for most recipients to conduct extensive and accumulative research. The Japanese government also provides various research grants, but this far only a few Canadianists have received such assistance. Canadian government scholarships and fellowships have permitted many young Japanese scholars to enroll in graduate and postgraduate programs at Canadian universities, but all too few of them have returned home with degrees and few have found teaching positions at universities.

In spite of these problems, Canadian Studies in Japan can be expected to expand, given the rapid increase in the number of original papers published in recent years. In order for the field to further develop, however, Japanese researchers will need to improve the quality of their scholarship, hopefully to the level where they can compete or work collaboratively with Canadian researchers in the areas including, but not limited to, Japanese Canadians and Japan-Canada relations. The final test will be whether their books and papers are considered worthy of publication in Canada.