The Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) is thefirst institution to be designated as an Inter-University Institution in humanities and socialsciences in Japan. The mission of Inter-University Institutions is to promote multi-disciplinary research by means of providing research materials and facilities for scholars whobelong to various universities and institutions of the country.Since the reconstruction of the nation after World War II, it was recognized that Japanshould have strong relations with the nations in Asia and Africa. Based on this understanding,the Science Council of Japan issued a recommendation in 1961 to establish a nationalgovernment research institution for the study of languages and cultures of Asia and Africa. InApril 1964, with the help of various people and organizations, our Institute was inaugurated asan affiliate of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.The purposes of the Institute at the beginning included:(1) implementation and stimulation of research pertaining to languages, linguistics, history,anthropology and ethnology of Asia and Africa through joint research projects and publi-cations,(2) compilation and publication of dictionaries and grammars of Asian and African languages,(3) sponsorship of intensive courses in Asian and African languages.Since then, more than three decades have passed and the circumstances of our Institutehave changed considerably. There is a strong demand for construction of new theories whichare expected to overcome the limitations of the existing academic systems of linguistics,history and anthropology in humanities and social sciences. It is related to the recognitionthat we need more global points of view which are free from conventional regional frames.We have been asked to deal with the recent phenomena such as internationalization, fluidity ofregional frames, aggravation of racial and religious antagonism, and rapid change of the worldsituations as seen in urbanization. On the other hand, thanks to the recent progress of dataprocessing techniques, it has become possible to process not only literal information but alsosound and image information. Moreover, attempts to integrate these individual data to aninformation network have been rapidly developing.Taking into consideration these academic and social needs, the change of social situationsin Asia and Africa, and the development of scientific techniques, our Institute underwent areorganization in 1991, integrating sixteen small sections into four major sections andexpanding the section for non-Japanese visiting faculty. The reorganized sections aim atconstruction of theories related to the integrated study of language and culturecommunication. Wide-ranging fieldwork, joint research projects, as well as efforts toMAINACTIVITIES (History and Features)1
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