Study group of modern history of illness and society, environment, and science/technology

The study group strives to examine the historical phenomena related to illness and society, environment, and science/technology in modern Japan from the viewpoint of general history, history of science, and medical history. Group pays particular attention to hearing disability, Hansen's disease, and the so-called “mental diseases”. In recent years, more and more research on these phenomena is advanced in a number of scientific fields such as sociology or study of law, but the amount of knowledge accumulated is still insufficient. Some research of these aspects of contemporary history has been conducted at the Research Center for Ars Vivendi, but in terms of modern history, there is still work to be done. The research conducted by this study group is valuable in the sense that it addresses the manifold problems revolving around illness and society, science/technology, and environment in modern Japan not by retroactively applying modern concepts to past events, but by evaluating them based on the context of each particular time period, striving to find the historical events that led to the current problems of importance and offer many suggestions for improvement.

Name of Project Study group of modern history of illness and society, environment, and science/technology
Research subject Historical research on illness and society, environment, and science/technology in modern Japan
Project representative MATSUBARA Yoko
Term 2012