German-Japanese Exchange on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences

At RIKEN, one of Japan's most important extramural research institutions, the humanities and social sciences have not yet played a role. This could possibly change in the future: Dr Makiko Naka, Executive Director of RIKEN, together with her colleagues Fumiyasu Obara, Deputy Manager of the International Affairs Division, and Dr Toshiyasu Ichioka, Director of RIKEN's Europe Office, learned about the research of the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy from the Institute's Director Prof Ulrich Becker. The delegation was also interested in the Human Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society (MPS) in general, of which Prof Becker was Chairman from 2019-2021.

RIKEN was founded in 1917 on the model of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the predecessor organisation of the MPS. The organisation, which today has around 3,000 employees and a budget of around 536 million euros, is engaged in basic research as well as applied sciences, whereby it has so far focused on the natural sciences and technical disciplines. RIKEN and the MPS have enjoyed friendly relations since the mid-1980s. Since 2019, two Max Planck Institutes have been cooperating with RIKEN as part of the 'Centre for Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries'.