INSTITUTE FOR LIFE AND DEATH STUDIES

TOYO EIWA UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION

Toyo Eiwa University was established in 1989, and when it started its graduate program in human sciences in 1993, it set up a post for a faculty member who specializes in the study of life and death. In 2003, an affiliated research institute, the Institute for Life and Death Studies, was established. Since then, the Institute has organized several series of open lectures to the public every year, and in addition, starting in 2005, it has published its Annuals through the publishing house, Lithon.

The subjects of the open lectures were as follows:
　　　2004 Facing Life and Death
　　　2005-06 Expressions of Life and Death
　　　2007-08 Life and Death in Narrative
　　　2009-10 Life and Death in Artwork
　　　2011-12 Life, Death and the Afterwards
　　　2013-14 Narrating Life and Death
　　　2015-16 Accompanying Life and Death
　　　2017-18 Stories of Life and Death
　　　2019 Future of Life and Death Studies
　　　2020 Significances of Clinical Studies of Life and Death
　　　2021 The Possibilities of Spiritual Care

During these years, Japan experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster in 2011, and their respective aftermaths. Other natural disasters have also occurred occasionally. Then in 2020, global society was forced to face the COVID-19 pandemic that caused millions of deaths around the world and thousands of lives were also lost in Japan. In these circumstances, the importance of pursuing the new academic field of life and death studies and its related research areas has come to be understood nationwide.

DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE AND DEATH STUDIES IN JAPAN

Even before the Great East Japan Earthquake, awareness of the necessity of the academic study of life and death was gradually growing in Japan. This is illustrated by the establishment of several academic societies, such as the Japanese Society for Clinical Thanatology in 1995, and the Japan Society for Spiritual Care in 2007.

In addition, a number of Japanese universities also started programs of research and education in life and death studies. An early case is the Graduate School of Osaka University that started its program in Clinical Thanatology and Geriatric Behavioral Science in 1993.

Then in 2002, the Faculty of Letters of the University of Tokyo started its research program of Death and Life Studies with governmental financial support. The program developed into the establishment of the Center for Death and Life Studies and Practical Ethics in 2011.

In 2009, St. Thomas University (closed in 2015) established the Institute of Grief Care, the management of which moved to Sophia University in 2010. Then in 2016, Sophia started its graduate program of Death and Life Studies in the Graduate School of Applied Religious Studies.

Tohoku University started its Endowed Department in Practical Religious Studies in 2012, as a response to the mass death caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. This led to the establishment of the graduate program in Death and Life Studies and Practical Religious Studies in 2019.

The Open University of Japan (Hōsō Daigaku) started its education through broadcasting in 1985, and began a course related to life and death studies in 2014.

These cases illustrate that the research and education of life and death studies covers many wide areas ranging from the humanities to medicine, and has been conducted at both national and private universities.

The Institute for Life and Death Studies of Toyo Eiwa University is willing to make every effort to develop the field of life and death studies in collaboration with these academic societies and universities, and also with our counterparts abroad.

We would highly appreciate understanding, support and cooperation from our academic partners, both personal and organizational.

Spring 2021

OKUYAMA Michiaki, Ph.D.
Director of the Institute for Life and Death Studies, Toyo Eiwa University

(For any inquiry regarding the Institute, please feel free to write to:　okuyama.michiaki@ toyoeiwa.ac.jp)