Introduction to the Beyond Japanese Studies Special Issue

Abstract

Japan-oriented researchers are today conscious that due to ongoing changes in the academic landscape they must consider how their work goes beyond Japanese Studies. Depending on their research interests, they must highlight how their research reverberates more widely. What is the relevance of 'global studies', trans-national and trans-cultural aspects of the human, natural, economic and physical world? Simultaneously, we are increasingly aware of how the COVID-19 pandemic has already transformed, and continues to transform, academia. This Special Issue, <i>Beyond Japanese Studies: Challenges, Opportunities and COVID-19</i>, represents the thirteenth volume of <i>New Voices in Japanese Studies</i> and is the result of an ambitious project which has extended throughout the past year.