Silk Road Studies in Japan: its history and present situation

In Japan, interest in the Silk Road flourished considerably after World War II. Japanese scholars travelled to locations on the Silk Road and wrote a number of important studies on their research. An expedition in 1966 sparked a “Silk Road fever” which led to the publication of numerous popular books on the subject and to the emergence of a “Silk Road” TV series and specialized travel agencies. The Silk Road also became an important topic for artists, writers, scientists and anthropologists. Research on the Silk Road is important to understand cultural exchanges between East and West. However, it should adopt a genuinely global perspective, and Japanese researchers ought to cooperate with scholars from other countries.