The Franco-Japanese House, in Tokyo, a century-old anchor of French cultural policy in Japan

Murai Kichibei’s villa in Nagatachō, Tokyo, where the Maison franco-japonaise was established in 1924. MFJ Few bicultural institutions can boast of having a history as long and as rich as the Maison franco-japonaise (MFJ) , in Tokyo, which celebrated its centenary on December 14. A research center aimed at better mutual knowledge of Japan and France, the MFJ is a place of scientific exchange, where numerous personalities from the French intellectual world have been brought to present their work in the context of conferences with simultaneous interpretation in Japanese. “In the current context of cultural domination of the English language, nurturing cooperation and scientific dialogue in French and Japanese seems essential to me in order to give a not only Anglo-Saxon image of globalization,” believes Thomas Garcin, director of the French Institute for Research on Japan at the MFJ and specialist in contemporary Japanese literature, in particular Yukio Mishima (1925-1970). From the Western-style wooden house, decorated with a turret and a garden, made available to it by a Japanese patron upon its creation in 1924, the MFJ migrated to Ochanomizu (equivalent to the Latin Quarter), then to the neighborhood residential area of ​​Ebisu, where it occupies an imposing glass and concrete building. With a rich library and a conference room, it welcomes four French researchers in the human sciences working on Japan for stays of two to four years. For decades, most of those who have counted and count today in the field of Japanese studies in France have stayed at the MFJ. You have 79.43% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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