“A History of Japanese Language Education in Contemporary China: Graduate-Level Instruction and University Textbooks” (Tosyokankoukai, 2015)

Yusuke Tanaka (Lecturer, Center for Global Education and Exchange, Toyo University )

I am honored to be here today as a recipient of the thirty-second Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. To all of the members of the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation and the teachers on the administrative selection committee: I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would also like to thank Chairman Shinji Fukukawa of Toyo University, who has given me a great deal of unwavering support in the execution and publication of my study as well as my former teachers, whose guidance has provided me with the direction needed to carry out this study. I am especially thankful to have been given this opportunity by Tsukuba University Professor Emeritus Masaharu Imai, who graciously nominated my book for the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize.
Though the 21st century is generally considered the “Age of Asia”, or the so-called “Pacific Century”, it is in fact the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, as proposed by the late Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira, which is becoming increasingly significant. As such, many believe that it is essential to deepen the relationship between the neighboring countries of Japan and China, thereby promoting increased mutual intercultural understanding between the two countries. More than ever before, it has become vital for neighboring nations to encourage regional stability and to strengthen cooperation in international affairs.
Against this backdrop of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, I would like to point out that there is one important academic enterprise that has steadily emerged as the key to achieving a better intercultural understanding of Japan in China. This important enterprise is Japanese language education, comprising both learning and teaching Japanese as a world language. The history of Japanese language education in modern China, the major theme of my book, involves the establishment of not only a fundamental intercultural understanding of China’s neighboring country of Japan but also the process of on-going intercultural dialogue. There are many connections between Japan’s Kokugo education and China’s Japanese language education policies. It is from this point of view that the book examines how the Japanese language education movement has played a primary role in modern China by considering the following questions: “What sort of intercultural communication exchanges have taken place between Chinese and Japanese people?” Also, “What efforts have been made to further intercultural understanding between them?”
If truth be told, I did not at all expect to receive the award. But on reflection, I recognize that the attention the book has received is surely due to the timely theme that the book explores: that Japanese language learning and teaching in China is an academic endeavor that makes an invaluable contribution to intercultural understanding on an international level between two neighboring nations in the Pacific region. I must say that I alone cannot take credit for the book; credit is due to all those who have collaborated on this book by sharing their insightful testimonies and who have provided such very helpful materials. Indeed, I am indebted to the footsteps of all those who have historically contributed to understanding innumerable intercultural communication exchanges between Japanese and Chinese people. It is noteworthy to recognize that these many intercultural communication exchanges have been made possible through the tool of Japanese language learning and teaching, thus helping to support the underlying goals of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, to improve relations between Japan and China both in the present and far into the future.
With all sincerity, I would now like to continue working to conduct research on contemporary Japanese language learning and teaching in China. Once again, for being bestowed this splendid honor, I would like to thank everyone of the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation.

Profile
1983　Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
2003?2007　School of Humanities and Culture, B.A. in Japanese Language and Culture,
Tsukuba University
2007?2009　Master’s Program in Japanese Language Education, Graduate School of Applied
Linguistics, Waseda University
2009?2013　PhD in Japanese Language Education, Graduate School of Applied Linguistics,
Waseda University (the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Applied
Linguistics)
2009?2011　Foreign Lecturer, Fudan University, Graduate School of Foreign Languages
2011?2013　DC Fellow, Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science
2013?2013　Research Associate, Waseda University, Graduate School of Applied Linguistics
2013?Now Lecturer, Center for Global Education and Exchange, Toyo University