Japanese studies overseas flourished greatly in the 1980s. Japanese economic power declined over the “lost two decades,” however, and interest in Japan ebbed slowly. Some universities in the West eliminated faculty posts in Japanese studies and replaced them with specialists on other countries. At the same time, the number of students who are interested in Japanese popular culture remains at quite a high level in various countries, with manga/anime culture now a “last bastion” of Japanese culture that attracts the young generation overseas to Japan.
　The study of Japanese manga/anime is steadily progressing. The number of researchers and outcomes, however, is not very great by comparison with the popularity of the subject. A gap has emerged between Japanese researchers who do not read articles and books on the subject written in other languages, and researchers overseas who do not read materials written in Japanese. Teachers at universities around the world are attempting to use manga/anime in their introductions to Japanese studies. Effective teaching methods of instructing students who know much more about these genres than teachers, and teaching methods with guidance for teachers are in short supply.
　This team research project will discuss and provide material from the academic/educational viewpoint for individual works to fill the gap between the manga/anime mediated interest in Japan and current teaching of Japanese studies. The emphasis of this project is not on the text, author, and expression of each work, as is often the case with current manga/anime studies. Some assessment of the accuracy of translation is necessary, but we also need to place a higher priority on the adaptation of the work to overseas circumstances. While some are attempting to use the attraction and economic effect of manga/anime for the advancement of the state, this project keeps a distance from such endeavors, seeking rather to focus on analysis of the activities of diverse actors. Our project will focus on the connection between the world in the manga/anime work and Japanese culture and society; the interaction between a work and the real world (typically represented by pilgrimages to holy places); the diversity of n-dimensional fan fictions created by “users” of the work; and transformations in the meaning of the world in the work in the context of individual countries and their modes of modernism.
　Selecting recent works in addition to older works that have not been much discussed by scholars as the object of discussion, the team research project plans to contribute not only to manga/anime mediated Japanese studies overseas, but beyond that to the advance of East Asian studies by increasing the number of case studies to be referenced by scholars and educators of Japanese culture

Research Representative	山田　奨治	国際日本文化研究センター・教授
Organizer	荒木　浩	国際日本文化研究センター・教授
Team Researcher	飯倉　義之	國學院大學文学部・助教
〃	石田　佐恵子	大阪市立大学大学院文学研究科・教授
〃	伊藤　遊	京都精華大学国際マンガ研究センター・研究員
〃	岩井　茂樹	大阪大学日本語日本文化教育センター・准教授
〃	岡本　健	奈良県立大学地域創造学部・准教授
〃	金水　敏	大阪大学大学院文学研究科・教授
〃	白石　さや	岡崎女子大学子ども教育学部・教授
〃	西村　大志	広島大学大学院教育学研究科・准教授
〃	山中　千恵	仁愛大学人間学部・准教授
〃	山本　冴里	山口大学国際総合科学部・講師
〃	油井　清光	神戸大学大学院人文学研究科・教授
〃	横濱　雄二	甲南女子大学文学部・准教授
〃	吉村　和真	京都精華大学マンガ学部・教授
〃	高馬　京子	明治大学情報コミュニケーション学部・准教授
〃	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
〃	安井　眞奈美	国際日本文化研究センター・客員教授 / 天理大学文学部・教授
〃	北浦　寛之	国際日本文化研究センター・助教
〃	宮崎　康子	国際日本文化研究センター・特任助教
〃	小泉　友則	総合研究大学院大学文化科学研究科・博士後期課程