ABOUT US

The name of this organization is The Japan Society for the Study of Slavic Languages and Literatures and it was established in 1984.

JSSSLL aims to contribute to the development of Slavic studies in Japan, centered on linguistics and literatures in Slavic regions and to promote communication between researchers. JSSSLL’s activities are:

(1) Holding research forum, seminar, symposium and such;

(2) Publishing the journal; and

(3) Any other activities that JSSSLL determines necessary. 

JSSSLL holds a general meeting and research forum annually, and publishes the journal, “Slavia Iaponica: Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures”.

A Short History of the Japan Society for the Study of Slavic Languages and Literatures (JSSSLL)

Our society was organized in 1984 as the Society of West Slavic Studies, which gathered young researchers from Polish, Czech, and Slovak philology. The main organizers were Eiichi CHINO (Czech linguistics) and Shozo YOSHIGAMI (Polish literature), both disciples of the founder of Slavic philology in Japan, Shoichi KIMURA. From the beginning, Itaru IIJIMA (general linguistics) also actively participated.

We published the first volume of our journal, Slavia Occidentalis Iaponica, the main pillar of the society’s activities, in June, 1986. Chino and Yoshigami wrote in its preface that the motivation for founding the society was “the steady increase of young researchers in the field of West and South Slavic studies” and “the necessity of making a place for the publication of their studies.” In the beginning, we had 17 members.

Five years later, in March, 1991, we published the second volume of the journal, dedicated to the memory of the late Shoichi KIMURA. In the preface, Chino described Kimura as the “founder of Slavic studies in Japan” and quoted him as saying, “We should make Slavistics in Japan well balanced by emphasizing the necessity of studying Slavic languages other than Russian.”

If we consider the above activities to be the first phase of the society’s development, our second phase started with the publication our journal’s third volume in March, 2000.  With it, our standing secretariat began to take charge of editing, providing the guidelines for contributions and introducing a system of external peer review for articles. In addition to the articles, we started to publish lecture notes, translations of academic articles, book reviews, introduction of materials, and more. 

At this time, we established the society’s official name, The Japan Society of West Slavic Studies, and its bylaws. We declared the purpose of the society as “contributing to the development of Slavic studies in Japan and promoting the exchange of opinions between researchers.” Its concrete activities are “to organize presentations, lectures, symposia, etc.” and “to publish the journal.” Concurrently, we also set up its presidency (the first president was Eiichi CHINO). One of the factors that made this formal institutionalization possible was the introduction, in April 1991, of the Departments of Polish and Czech Studies (these names later changed) at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, which became one of the centers of West Slavic studies in Japan.

Since then, the journal has been published regularly, usually once a year. We also established our annual cycle of events: general meetings with lectures in June; autumn/winter lectures by internal and external researchers; occasional symposia, and spring lectures. Another characteristic of the second phase was the internationalization of the society. The journal began to receive contributions from outside Japan, and has published articles in English, Czech, Polish, and Bulgarian. The membership also steadily increased: in 2000 it had 36 members, in 2005, 50, and by 2007, 62 members.

The transition of the society to its third phase was its renaming from the Japan Society of West Slavic Studies to the Japan Society for the Study of Slavic Languages and Literatures (JSSSLL), which was approved at its general meeting in June, 2011 (it was officially renamed a year later in June, 2012). The society in fact already included specialists in South Slavic languages. With its renaming, however, it nominally became a place for broad mutual exchanges between researchers of West and South Slavic studies and a part of East Slavic studies. This was the original intention of the society at its inception. With the renaming of the society, we also changed the title of the journal, Slavia Occidentalis Iaponica, to Slavia Iaponica, with the English subtitle Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures (beginning with volume 16 in 2013). In June, 2013, we strengthened the journal’s editing system.

Recently, the society has also functioned as a comprehensive research organization for Central, Eastern European, and Balkan culture, including research concerning the arts and music. We not only have researchers in Slavic studies, but also specialists in Baltic, Hungarian, and Yiddish studies. The society frequently organizes lectures given by researchers from other countries and actively promotes international collaborations. In 2014, it joined the Japan Council for Russian and East European Studies (JCREES). In June 2014, we established the JSSSLL Encouragement Prize in order to encourage research by members of the younger and middle-aged generations. As of October 2016, the journal has published up to volume 19 and the society has 82 members.

  (Susumu NAGAYO)

Our presidents: Eiichi CHINO (2000－2002), Masatoshi KOHARA (2002－2009), Itaru IIJIMA (2009－2011), Naoto TSUCHIYA (2011－2015), Mitsuyoshi NUMANO (2015－2019), and Susumu NAGAYO (2019－)

　2019年6月

（任期：～2021年6月）