The Yanai Initiative is a joint program between Waseda University and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The Initiative designed a digital hub, titled Japan Past & Present, to create a repository that contributes to research in Japanese humanities. This additional donation of $31 million USD (approximately 4.5 billion yen) from Tadashi Yanai, Chairman and President of Fast Retailing, will primarily go towards further enhancing and expanding this website to benefit researchers.
The majority of the money donated by Yanai will go towards the Japan Past & Present website. Japan Past & Present is a multifaceted initiative that will not only strengthen Waseda’s position alongside UCLA as centers for Japanese humanities research, but also improve research all over the world. This project will serve as a base for researchers the world over and is the key to reimagining the Japanese humanities for the world. Waseda and UCLA will be working hard to actualize these goals through the Yanai Initiative.
History:
Utilizing funding from Yanai, Professor Michael Emmerich (UCLA/Waseda) established the Yanai Initiative in 2014 with the goal of preserving and spreading Japanese literature and culture. In 2020, Yanai made an additional donation of 3.3 billion yen to be used to promote the UCLA/Waseda collaborative Initiative to the next stage through research exchange, symposiums, the development of Kuzushi-ji (cursive script) applications, and hosting events such as the The Art of the Benshi Tour and Noh in English “Blue Moon over Memphis”, which were designed to spread Japanese tradition and culture.
In addition to Japan Past & Present, the Yanai Initiative will continue to develop existing projects and expand our operation to benefit researchers and general public alike.
Official Yanai Initiative Site
Home | The Yanai Initiative (ucla.edu)
Related Articles:
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・UCLA Announces New Digital Hub For Globalizing Japanese Studies
・早稲田大学とUCLAの連携プロジェクト「柳井イニシアティブ」 過去5年間の成果を受け柳井氏が継続支援表明(Japanese only)
・日本文化学のグローバル化を目指しＵＣＬＡと連携 「柳井正イニシアティブ」を発足します(Japanese only)
