Film studies in Europe and the United States is a field of research with a well-established history and track record and a considerable body of research has accumulated over the years. But in Japan, the bulk of the literature is in the areas of author/director studies, studies of specific works, and textual analysis of screenplays, and most researchers are in the humanities, from the fields of aesthetics, philosophy, and literature.
　Film, however, before it is an “art,” developed as entertainment, that is, performance that serves as a means of making money. Moreover, in the twentieth century, the period that roughly corresponds to the birth and development of film, an important aspect of film was its role as a sugarcoated propaganda tool invariably used and controlled by the state. In other words, rather than the meaning that the author/film director sought to incorporate into a work, it may be more important to examine the meaningthat audiences took from a work or the approach with which individual films are presented toaudiences (which was often calculated to induce an orientation conducive to the greatest profit). Study of films in terms of these approaches has been far from adequate in Japan. In order to build a better-balanced field of film studies that does not stop simply with textual analyses of screenplays and other research on the works themselves, efforts are needed to strengthen social scientific approaches to research on film.
　This team research project is intended to mark an initial step forward toward the establishment of a strong film studies field in Japan by bringing together social-science-oriented approaches, with particular emphasis on film as an industry, relations between the state and the film industry—such as institutional and policy factors behind film as an industry—audiences, and so on. The project covers a period of the 40-odd years of the postwar Shōwa period, re-examining the research on postwar film as contemporary history attempted by sociologist Minami Hiroshi (1914–2001) and others a few decades earlier. We believe these efforts to redefine the history of Japanese film by focusing on areas given little attention in research—boxoffice record data, trends in the film industry, propaganda techniques, audience needs, and film company policies—will contribute to the advance of film studies in Japan.

Research Representative	谷川建司	国際日本文化研究センター・客員教授 / 早稲田大学政治経済学術院・客員教授
Organizer	細川周平	国際日本文化研究センター・教授
Team Researcher	晏　妮	一橋大学大学院社会学研究科・客員教授
〃	板倉史明	神戸大学大学院国際文化学研究科・准教授
〃	井上雅雄	立教大学・名誉教授
〃	小川順子	中部大学人文学部・准教授
〃	木下千花	首都大学東京大学院人文科学研究科・准教授
〃	河野真理江	立教大学現代心理学部・博士後期課程
〃	木村智哉	日本学術振興会特別研究員(PD)(国立歴史民俗博物館)
〃	須藤遙子	横浜市立大学・客員准教授
〃	冨田美香	立命館大学映像学部・教授
〃	中村秀之	立教大学現代心理学部・教授
〃	西村大志	広島大学大学院教育学研究科・准教授
〃	柳下毅一郎	多摩美術大学造形表現学部・非常勤講師
〃	北浦寛之	国際日本文化研究センター・助教
〃	長門洋平	国際日本文化研究センター・機関研究員
Team Researcher Overseas	ミツヨ・ワダ・マルシアーノ	カールトン大学（カナダ）芸術文化学部・教授