The State of Japanese Studies in the Philippines The State of Japanese Studies in the Philippines Richard dlC. Gonzales Historical Background The inception of the Japanese studies in the Philippines (JSP) can be traced as early as 1920. Dr. Josefa Saniel, a pioneer of Japanese Studies in the Philippines, wrote that the study of Japan started at the University of the Philippines (UP) when UP professors and students attended a series of lectures on Japan delivered at the university by Hiichirō Matsunami, a professor of Maritime and Commercial Law of Tokyo Imperial University in the 1920s. Prof. Matsunami was cited as the first Japanese visiting professor to the Philippines under the sponsorship of the Japanese Ministry of Education. The visit of Prof. Matsunami opened the exchange agreement between UP and Waseda University in the 1930s. In this exchange agreement, professors from both schools took turns in giving lectures. Vicente Cinco of the College of Law of UP lectured at Waseda University on various aspects of law and Kojirō Suginori of Waseda University lectured at UP on various aspects of Japan (Goodman, 1967 in Saniel, 1991). This exchange endeavor of both countries ushered in greater interest of Filipino scholars and educators towards Japan as a nation. In the latter part of 1930, another Japanese visiting professor, Yoshitarō Negishi of Rikkyō University was invited to lecture and give demonstrations on Japanese art, theatre, and Ikebana. During the same decade, the interest on Japanese Studies by Filipinos was proven when Oriental History as a subject, which dealt with Asia and includes Japan, was offered at UP and in several high schools in the Philippines. Moreover, between 1937 and 1939, exchanges on information and views of Filipinos and Japanese on each other’s country and people were held via conferences which were alternately held in Tokyo and Manila. What is more remarkable about Japan and the Philippines is the fact that the latter was occupied briefly by Japan in the mid-1940s. The rest remain in our history books and in the memories of elder Filipino generations. Japanese Studies as a discipline was first instituted at the Ateneo de Manila University in 1966 and then at the UP Asian Center in 1968. The UP Linguistics Department, however, is noted to be the first one to formally offer a course on Japan but was limited to the Japanese language. Two more schools opened courses in Japanese language in 1970s. These two schools are Xavier University in Mindanao and the University of San Jose – Recoletos in the Visayas. The decade of the ‘80s and the ‘90s marked the increase of schools offering Japanese courses and language. This included De La Salle University (DLSU), the only school in the country that offers full fledge