Paper short abstract:

Being both “non-African” and “non- European”, Japanese research offers an alternative approach to Africa. As an example of “the rest” observing “the rest”, it counters the European perspective of otherness as well as African self-perception, thus giving way to a more balanced global view on Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Despite the large distance between Japan and Africa, the academic community dealing with the continent is considerably large and diverse. However, Japanese academic concepts are often strongly influenced by European thoughts and approaches ever since the times of modernization in the second half of the 19th century when modern academic institutions started to develop. Hence Japan has utilized the European perspective and concepts in order to facilitate its own transformation to a leading nation in the global community.

Thus, the Japanese perspective is an interesting example for research undertaken within the system of knowledge production dominated by the western view. At first sight, there are not many signs of opposition to the European model. Still with respect to Africa, Japan does argue from a distinctly different point of view: With no colonial legacy and out of a formerly marginalized position, researchers are likely to put different accents, draw different conclusion and show interest in other aspects when dealing with the continent.

In this respect, being both "non-African" and "non- European" is an important trait of Japanese observations on Africa. Research in Japan is both influenced by a mixture of western views and ideas and at the same time trying to develop new concepts in area studies especially in recent times. To integrate such different angles into a wider global academic approach to Africa and to observe the direct links between African and non-western regions should be one of the big challenges for researchers today.