Japan Societies/Club Activities

There is a student run Japan Society the members of which are both students learning Japanese, and Japanese exchange students at Sheffield.

Japanese Institutions on Campus

The White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC) is an international Centre of Excellence on China and Japan funded by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) following a successful £4 million bid under the 2006 Language Based Area Studies initiative. It is a collaborative endeavour between the departments of East Asian Studies at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield under the umbrella of the White Rose university consortium. The National Institute of Chinese Studies (NICS) and the National Institute of Japanese Studies (NIJS) together constitute the Centre. It undertakes world-class research and provides advanced research training in Chinese and Japanese Studies as part of a government drive to strengthen Britain 's specialised research capacity in the area.

Future Developments

See above.

Problems

Declining government support for universities as a whole has meant funding problems in maintaining the staff complement both on the language and the non-language sides. Overall student demand for Japanese remains considerably below what would be indicated as in the national interest, and remains an issue which needs urgent attention.