The History of Black Studies in Japan

Abstract

In the pre-war days, the most of Black studies in Japan were politically exploited to justify the national imperialistic policy. In the post-war period, however, with the start of the Cold War, Japan Black Studies Association (JBSA) was established in 1954 by the people who believed that the American democracy was problematic as long as Blacks were segregated in the South. From the middle of the 1950s and the 1960s, to study the struggles of Black people for freedom in the world encouraged JBSA members in their efforts to be part of social movements for democratic transformation of Japanese society. And from the 1970s and the 1980s, when the agenda of women liberation was on the table in Japan, JBSA focused upon the works of Black women in the world. And the works of Caribbean women writers as well as those of Black British writers also came into view.