Lecture by Kazuo Kobayashi (Waseda University)
In this talk, Kazuo Kobayashi (Waseda University) will discuss how world/global history studies have developed in Japan over the past eighty years.
In retrospect, Hisao Otsuka acted as a key figure in shaping world history research and teaching in Japan in the postwar period (1940s to 1950s). His comparative research on the West and Japan was motivated by his interest in how to modernise and introduce democracy into Japan.
One major turning point came from the 1960s to the 1970s, when Japan achieved rapid economic growth and entered a mass consumption society. These socio-economic circumstances strongly influenced historical studies. The grand narrative (Marxism) lost ground, and historians’ interests shifted from political and economic history to social history, leading to the fragmentation of historical studies in Japan.
From the mid-1980s onwards, the economic growth of East Asia motivated economic historians of Asia to revisit the role of East Asia in world history by proposing new theoretical frameworks, thereby challenging Eurocentric narratives. Their works attracted greater attention alongside the rise of global history, which also aims to overcome Eurocentrism in historical narratives.
This talk concludes by considering the current state and future prospects of world/global history studies in Japan.
Register