ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter poses the volume’s research questions in the context of current debates on Eurocentrism in the humanities and social sciences. It discusses Eurocentrism in terms of socio-historical reality, residual ideology, views about knowledge production in academia and concrete institutional mechanisms of knowledge production. By identifying variations on the continuum between Anglophone and autonomous (or indigenous) scholarship, the paper explores how Japanese Studies, or area studies in general, may contribute to critical discussion of Eurocentrism. It also explores concrete strategies to counter Eurocentrism, which would involve a two-way effort at both the centre and the periphery, moving beyond the current practice whereby the task is being left to the latter.
