For over a decade, the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS) has advanced digital scholarship in research and teaching on Japan through education, resource development and institutional partnerships. In acknowledgement of the increasing importance of digital scholarship for coming generations of students and scholars, the Institute has dedicated significant resources to foster creative new ways of harnessing digital tools, highlighting digital projects, and ensuring that students and faculty in Japanese Studies can access training about ways to incorporate digital scholarship in their research and teaching.
The digital initiatives of RIJS have contributed to two faculty-led flagship digital projects, the Constitutional Revision Research Project and Japan Disasters Digital Archive, which highlight the Reischauer Institute’s longstanding commitments to deepening understanding and ties with Japan. In 2017 the Institute launched the Japan Digital Research Center, to serve as a home for these projects while providing both a hub and incubator for bringing together people, ideas and new approaches to promoting Japanese Studies in a digital age.