Expression Literacy as the International Common Property (draft)

Area Studies research various nations and regions that compose the international community, aiming to understand their peculiarity and characteristic overall, trying to understand multimodal ways of the international community as they are. Area Studies also help understand multimodal international community as it is, and deepen recognition, knowledge, and information on the modern world where the globalization is being especially deepened. They promote mutual cross-cultural understanding, and support the coexistence of the cultures and the international cooperation.
Area Studies as a modern academic field is a liaison of area studies which usually have names of corresponding nations or regions in their names.
It is critically necessary to understand the international society as a whole, as the pressure from globalization has risen in recent years. Big social needs toward the development of Area Studies have arisen. It is vitally important to research various nations and regions in the world, to understand various realities of the international community, and to promote the next generation who can deal with various problems occurring in the world.
"It is indispensable for any country that lives in the present age to accumulate the knowledge and information on various regions in the world, to understand the multimodal international community both in the whole and in the parts, and to have deep knowledge and unshaken wisdom of it."(p.2/3)
As the globalization has been rapidly progressing, and mutual understanding is further increasing its importance, the expectation for Area Studies' social contribution has risen significantly. To enhance the mutual understanding within the international community, Area Studies both in Japan and abroad should be developed further.
The development of Area Studies needs investigation in foreign countries. The financial support to the investigation itself and to the overseas branch which supports the investigation is indispensable, if a country is to truly respond to the globalization, is to build lasting mutual trust with various countries and regions in the world, and is to play the role that it should in the international community.
Accumulation of longtime research and study, including the acquisition of a local language and the construction of mutual trust with a local society, is indispensable in Area Studies. It is an indispensable condition for the accumulation of research and study that the postgraduates and the young researchers of target area master the local language and carry out a long series of fieldwork of investigation in the area.
Moreover, the cooperation of a certain period with local research laboratories in the corresponding nation or region is indispensable for Area Studies from the character of the research. As in anthropology and in sociology, the interview investigation, the data collection, history study, collecting historical materials, statistics, the hearing survey, studying political system, and economic system are dispensable. Overseas offices maintain daily contact with local government agencies, research laboratories, and social cultural various groups, etc. to help the researchers carry on the researches mentioned above.
The current state of globalization cannot be understood merely by the expansion of European and American models, or by the type of the globalism of the United States alone. The knowledge of the wisdom that exists inside each nation or region is strongly requested.
Therefore, Area Studies should collect whereabouts information on materials related to these area studies, and should develop a common platform to arrange and open the information to the public, Developing the homepage where average users interested in a region and the researchers of the nation or region can access the information easily becomes urgent tasks in Area Studies.
The diversity of international community cannot be understood without knowing the wisdom system that exists inside each nation or region, and Area Studies exactly study for the understanding. Area studies provide basic researches for the mutual understanding. Any nation or region confronts various nations and regions in the world today. To build lasting mutual trust with the other party,understanding the other party is indispensable.