Japanese anthropology, neoliberal knowledge structuring, and the rise of audit culture: lessons from the academic world system

Abstract

Placing my earlier arguments about the marginality of Japanese anthropology in the world in both historical and comparative perspectives, this article examines the influence of two important recent developments on the status of Japanese and, more broadly, East Asian scholarship – the impact of neoliberalism on, and the spread of audit culture within, higher education. Special attention is paid to the increasing importance attached to world university rankings in status-conscious East Asian countries, in which researchers are being urged to publish in internationally recognized English-language journals. These changes have, on the one hand, prompted Japanese and other East Asian scholars to achieve higher goals, thus helping raise their relative status in the wider world, while forcing them, on the other hand, to thoroughly reconsider the traditional structure of knowledge in their national or regional community. The current situation of East Asian scholarship therefore presents both opportunities and crises. How to meet this challenge is the central question addressed in this article.