The Society for the Studies of Nation Issues (民族問題研究部) is a new organization founded in 2025, centered on students of the University of Tokyo.

Our concern can be summed up, as our Founding Prospectus puts it, in these words: "the problem lies not in the fact that the framework of the nation 'exists,' but in how it is 'politicized.'"

In other words, we do not side with the government of any particular country, whether or not it holds external sovereignty. Nor do we side with any faction that aspires to statehood.

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We have the following three Divisions. (Excerpt from the Founding Prospectus)

1. Nationalism Division
This Division investigates, theoretically and historically, the formation of national consciousness and the dynamics of nationalism. How does an "imagined community" become real? How are language, religion, and myth mobilized? We regard nationalism not merely as a political tool but as a mental phenomenon bound up with existential human needs: the thirst for recognition and the fear of death. In addition to the theories of Western modernity, our main aim here is to understand from within the logic of "indigenous nationalisms" outside the Western world.

2. Human Rights Division
This Division deals with the concrete human rights violations that occur in places of ethnic conflict and oppression, from the standpoint not of protection by the state but of individual autonomy and of justice against violation. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, refugee problems, and minority rights: on these we closely analyze the structures of victimization and perpetration, and record "who" committed violations "against whom" and "in the name of what justice." Rejecting the imposition of universalism while not falling into the nihilism of relativism, we seek the restoration of rights as a response to concrete suffering.

3. Political Science Division
This Division analyzes how ethnic and national questions are manipulated and institutionalized within political power games. It deals with the merits and demerits of federalism, the legal and political requirements of secession, the mechanisms of resource allocation in multicultural societies, and so on. In particular, it explores the institutional conditions under which a peaceful order can be formed not through coercive integration by the state but through voluntary separation and association.

We will also set up "Study Groups" for individual research as needed. The following two Study Groups are currently active.
Kurdish Study Group

The Study Groups plan to hold dinner gatherings, study sessions, lectures, and other events from time to time. If you are interested in joining a Study Group, please contact the person below directly.
Myanmar Study Group: Paran (@MongTaiMysoong)