Joint academic and research projects

Direct to EXPO 2025

The Polish-Japanese Academic Collaboration Platform is designed to usher collaboration between the University of Warsaw and Japanese academic and educational institutions while fostering a multidisciplinary approach to the challenges of the contemporary world, coherent with the goals of sustainable development and the social responsibility of educational institutions. The initiative to create this platform emerged during preparations for realization of the Japanese Studies Department’s project conducted along wit the “Direct to EXPO 2025” program of the National Agency for Academic Exchange.

EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai

The issues of sustainable development, such as inhibiting climate change or overall field of security, are closely related to the motto of the Expo 2025 Osaka: Designing Future Society for Our Lives.

Partnership

The Japanese Studies initiative “University of Warsaw toward the Challenges of the Modern World. Polish-Japanese Partnership for Security and Sustainable Development” organized for the Expo 2025 Osaka gathered academic researchers from a wide variety of fields such as: humanities, sociology, geophysics, hydrology, law and administration, economics, political science, international studies and culture studies.

Experience

Academic and educational collaboration between Poland and Japan at the University of Warsaw has a tradition spanning over a hundred years. The first Japanese language course was inaugurated in the year 1919 in the Philosophy Department. The research into Japanese culture began to intensify in the 1950s’ in the Oriental Institute of the Philology Department. Recently it is conducted mainly at the Japanese Studies Department at the Faculty of Oriental Studies.

Academic cooperation agreements

The first agreement for direct Polish-Japanese academic cooperation was signed in 1974 between the University of Warsaw and the University of Tokyo. In the following years the collaboration expanded to such Japanese universities as Gakushuin, Kobe, Kogakkan, Kumamoto, Nagoya, Ochanomizu, Rikkyo, Saitama, Shinshu, Showa Joshi, Tohoku, and Tsukuba.

Joint academic and research projects

Direct to EXPO 2025

About us

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Department of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw

The origin of Japanese studies in Poland dates back to 1919 when the Japanese language was first taught at the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Philosophy). From the 1950s onwards, Japanese Studies, committed to broad research in language and culture, began to flourish within the Institute of Oriental Studies (Faculty of Philology). Currently it is divided into several specializations: literature, linguistics, history, philosophy and religions, aesthetics, performing arts and the culture of everyday life. The curriculum includes a practical chanoyu course that takes place in an original tea pavilion donated to the university in 2004.

The Japanese Studies program and its research achievements have been repeatedly recognized. Visited by Their Majesties the Emperor Akihito and the Empress Michiko (2002), the Crown Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko (2019), Prince Takamado and Princess Hisako (1994). Prestigious awards received include: the Japan Foundation Award (2002) and the Diploma of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan (2009), as well as membership in the Sakura Network (2015).

In 2003 the University of Warsaw hosted the international conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies. Every year since 2006, the Japanese Studies has organized ‘Japan Days at the University of Warsaw’, which in addition to international academic conferences, also serves to popularize the culture of Japan.