岩波書店
Iwanami Shoten, Publishers


2-5-5 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8002 Japan
Telephone: +81-3-5210-4000



 

Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, founded in 1913 by Shigeo Iwanami, is the foremost academic publishing house in Japan. Celebrated its centenary in 2013, the company has produced an extensive range of publications including monographs, textbooks, references and essays, all of high academic standard, in the fields of the social and natural sciences, the humanities, art and literature. More than 30,000 titles have been published to date.


【Company Information】

Foundation
August 1913

Business Activities
・Books (academic books, literature, fiction, history, art, essays, paperback series, children's books, etc.)
・Dictionary (Kojien 7th edition―the comprehensive dictionary of the Japanese language, etc.)
・Magazines
  Shiso "Thought" (since 1921)

  Kagaku "Science" (since 1931)
  Tosho "Books" (since 1938 )
  Sekai "World" (since 1946)
・E-Books

Employees
135

Board of Management (as of 1st June, 2021)
 President and CEO: Masanori Sakamoto
 Managing Director: Hiroki Yoshimura
 Director, Financial Department: Hiroyuki Kuroda
 Executive Officer, Sales Department: Jun Nagata
 Executive Officer, Production Department: Takeo Nagano
 Executive Officer, Editorial Department: Ken Yamamoto


■Editorial Department
 □
Social Sciences and the Humanities
 □ Natural Sciences and Mathematics
 □ Juvenile Literature and Picture Books

 □ Dictionary
 □ E-book
■Rights Management Department
■Production Department

■Sales and Advertisement Department
■Financial Department
■General Affairs Department

Contact
 Foreign rights & Permissions
  rights[at]iwanami.co.jp
 Other Inquiries
  voice[at]iwanami.co.jp



【Iwanami’s Resolution 2021 -- A message from the President】

In 1993, the Internet began to be used commercially in Japan, and ever since, information technology in general has been rapidly developing in this country. Today, we have easy access to a wealth of information of every kind from all over the world through our PCs and smartphones. This innovation has brought diverse and pervasive transformations, not only in the lives and paradigms of those of us living in Japan, but also in all aspects of politics, economics, society, and culture across the world.

In the IT environment that we take as a matter of course today, we are supposed to communicate, understand, judge, and respond with a perception of time and space that is vastly different from what we used to have. We are now expected to chase continually after cutting-edge information. Meanwhile, however, haven’t we become oblivious to our hard-won knowledge, those ways of living in and understanding the world, which we used to call "culture"?

Given that culture does not evolve in a straight line, but rather in spirals, every so often returning to the knowledge gained from humankind’s past, I believe that a correct understanding of our heritage and of its historical backgrounds is of the utmost importance. Without such awareness, we will not be able to accurately perceive the current state of the world that surrounds us, nor to see the latent possibilities in our future.

No matter how hard we try to assimilate the huge resource of fleeting, fast-disappearing data and unsystematized learning on so many fronts, this activity will not allow us to make prudent decisions, nor grant us astute visions for the future, of which we are in fact in real need. Under the circumstances, our urgent task is to look at the issues with which we are confronted in an historical context, and to examine them on a global scale.

It is not only the changes brought about by information technology that have led to a significant devaluation in our long-established culture. The rapid progress of globalization is certainly another major factor. The global marketing business model has forced changes not only in our traditional notion of academic or intellectual knowledge, but also in the content of education at universities. Education has become ‘marketized’ and, as a consequence, the liberal arts are becoming increasingly marginalized. Outside the educational arena, existing qualification systems and forms of employment are being reassessed as the entire society shifts its focus onto profit-oriented thinking in the market economy. And we have begun to hear voices which advise us to ignore the liberal arts and humanities because of their perceived absence of impact on economic growth. This has led to nothing less than a crisis of civil society.

Civil society can exist only on the basis of citizens who respect one another, regardless of differences in race, culture, language, class, gender, etc., and who are able to reflect, debate, and form a consensus on important issues that concern them. For those citizens who support this open and generous kind of engagement, having a critical mind and the ability to imagine the thoughts of others are essential. And it is indeed humankind’s accumulated culture and wisdom that have nurtured their critical minds, as well as their ability to recognize the value of others’ viewpoints. In spite of this, a liberal arts education is now presented to the public as entirely lacking in the social force it once had. What we see before us is a "post-truth" world in which IT-driven media and transformations in communications are all too powerfully interlinked.

We have learned that globalization is not limited to the free-market economy of people, goods, and information. Diseases also spread across national borders in the blink of an eye, unchecked. The pandemic, a grave situation whose end is by no means yet in sight, has revealed this. Furthermore, the coronavirus calamity has not simply required our physical distancing, but it has brought long-established distances, which we call social disparities, to light.

While it is true that our methods of communication have drastically changed with the emergence of movement restrictions and social distancing, and the rapid development and proliferation of social media have produced a cyber space for interactions beyond our physical distances, it is also true that these online spaces are not open to everyone. For example, when it comes to opportunities to receive education, inequalities arise in knowledge and the level of operational skills between those who can own or access devices and those who cannot, depending on individuals’ social backgrounds. Furthermore, it seems that existing social disparities and divisions are not only being replicated in this new cyber space, they are now ever more fixed and irremediable.

While these various social and geographical divisions affect us deeply, living as we do in the Japanese islands, globalization has nonetheless brought us varied cross-cultural experiences. Without exception, people in any region on our globe, no matter how they are geographically, historically, or socially isolated, can no longer exist without interacting with other cultures. What, then, do we need in a world in which we are facing an unprecedented increase in conflicts, both within and across borders? I say that it is one’s critical thinking skills, and one’s ability to empathize and understand others who are in different cultural and social circumstances from ours, that are essential for the formation and maturation of an open civil society. How do we acquire these skills and abilities which allow us to accept and empathize with culturally, socially different people as individuals with the same inner selves and profound minds as ourselves? I believe that a key answer to this question is the possession of a cultured mind, nurtured by a liberal education and wide reading.

Civil society is supported by people who respect, and are willing to enter into meaningful conversation with, those different from themselves. And it is my firm belief that not only in the field of the humanities such as literature and art, but also in the field of natural sciences, our accumulated knowledge has been the guiding integrity for the history of humankind, and should be the core value of those who are responsible for maintaining a healthy public sphere. Of this I am absolutely certain. Equally, I am sure that wisdom will help us improve our practical skills in order to live within an increasingly complex society, and that it will brighten and entertain our daily lives, as well as enrich our minds.

With the advent of social media, social communication has expanded to a global scale, and the means of our communication have been rapidly transformed. As a consequence, the nature and relevance of traditional media are being questioned. If it is Iwanami’s role to connect wisdom and culture with society in this drastically changing media environment, what are the vital questions our publishing should now pose? Wisdom, culture, society—what account of these should we offer to our readers?

Let me reiterate that we at Iwanami, like all publishers whose fundamental role is to disseminate knowledge and offer an enduring cornerstone for our culture, must recognize our responsibility to employ our own critical minds in order to support civil society. In doing so, we will sustain those who respect the openness and dialogue that civil society promotes, and who are, for this reason, able to empathize with others.

With such awareness, when we say that publishing connects culture with society, what firm standpoint should we take toward the challenges we face amid this turbulent world? What is "truth" in this sea of fragmented knowledge? What should the compass of our thoughts and actions be? These are the questions I continue to ask myself, as well as our readers. Seeking our proper direction and aiming to help inform our readers’ decisions and judgements, we at Iwanami will continue to provide wisdom and understanding, sprung from our abundant history and our strong academic background, in media new and old.

We want to be a company that wholeheartedly supports knowledge for a civil society and all cultures rooted in it. And this is what we will always aim to be.

June 1, 2021
Masanori Sakamoto, President and CEO

ページトップへ戻る