1Director’s NoteThe Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) was established in 1964 as an inter-university research organization, the main purpose of which consisted of a comprehensive research on languages and cultures of these two continents. Since then, ILCAA has been playing a leading role in developing and deepening Asian and African studies in Japan, promoting joint research projects based on cooperation with researchers at the international and national level, storage and dissemination of research materials, training/lecture courses in foreign languages and area studies, and compilation of dictionaries/lexicons. Large-scale research projects also have been conducted in recent years, including “The Research and Educational Project for Middle East and Islamic Studies” and “The Linguistic Dynamics Science Project”.Nowadays it seems that the term “globalization” has spread all over the world. It is true that, compared with the Cold War Era, not only uniformities on material aspects of life and telecommunication system but also globally spread terms such as “market”, “democracy”, “human rights”, etc. have permeated most of the Asian and African countries.However it seems clear that these days the Asian and African countries are also trying to give their own meanings to such globally spread terms. Therefore now it is high time to carry out research projects which should go into the depth of the languages and cultures of Asia and Africa. And we must add the basic importance of the two subcontinents: More than 70% of the world population (about 4.8 billion people) live there and recently some of these countries or areas have begun to increase their political and economic presence outstandingly. It might fairly be said that the course of Asian and African countries will have great inuence upon the future of the global community.In April 2004, all the Japanese national universities were transformed into National University Corporations, including Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, of which ILCAA is a constituent. In such new surroundings our mission to promote inter-university and international research projects still remains unchanged basically for 6 years (2004-2010).However, the inter-university research institution which lasted for the past 55 years will be replaced by the newly inaugurated Joint Usage/Research Center Institution in 2010. In the new institution ILCAA has been designated as an “International Research Center for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa” by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.Under all circumstances we will do our best to strengthen and enlarge the cooperation with the researchers’ community at the international and national level and promote research activities worthy the name of an “International Research Center for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa”.Hirohide KURIHARADirectorResearch Institute for Languages andCultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA)Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
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