Paper short abstract:

Focusing on lecturers of Japanese nationality in pre-war Europe, how social background and systems affected the individual language teaching, and further the significance of Japanese language teaching in Europe through their activities and its influence afterwards will be reported.

Paper long abstract:

The applicant has made the clear the true state of Japanese language courses in pre-war Europe, by focusing on lecturers of Japanese nationality and students, as well as the systems that promoted it. In Ogawa (2010), the activities of lecturers in 1930s Germany, Italy and neighboring countries and their relation to the Japanese government were clarified; the investigation is being continued, broadening the time period and regions. In a series of research, by close investigation of Japan-Europe mutual document archives and personal effects, amongst others, it was made clear regarding organizations that promote Japanese courses, the differing of course goals, the duties and treatment of lecturers etc., changed with Japanese foreign policy. In relation to the teachers, a section of contemporaneous teaching activity was able to be seen, through a chronology of new post uptakes and local evaluations.

In this presentation, I report on the influence and significance of the experiences of Japanese language teaching in Europe, following the activities and thoughts of these lecturers. The scope of the investigation will be not less than 60 lecturers in pre-war Europe. Amongst them, there are also those who, post-war, continued to interact with their students, and introduced Europe's various cultures and societies to Japan. The applicant also was one of those who formerly taught Japanese in Eastern and Northern Europe, however I also had the good fortune of being able to hear stories from two persons who taught Japanese at Sofia and Helsinki University in the 1940s, and a person who studied Japanese in a German Gymnasium in 1944. In addition, materials pertaining to contemporaneous activity have been obtained from the family of a person who learned at Helsinki University in 1943 and a person who taught at Berlin University in 1936. In this presentation, the ways in which social background and institutions affected the individual language learning or educational activity, and further the significance of Japanese language teaching in Europe through their activities and its influence afterwards will be reported.