About us
The Business History Society of Japan (BHSJ) was founded in November 1964. The initial membership was 257 in September 1965 but now stands at around 780 members. It is BHSJ’s role and responsibility to promote the dissemination of valuable findings to researchers overseas through academic exchanges and publications. BHSJ has forged research collaborations with business historians in Asian countries such as South Korea and Thailand while maintaining relationships with the European Business History Association (EBHA) and Business History Conference (BHC). BHSJ participated in the annual conference of EBHA in 2012 and the first World Congress of Business History (WCBH) in 2016 as a co-organizer. Based on that experience, the second WCBH convened 2021. BHSJ also publishes the annual Japanese Research on Business History (JRBH), available online, in English as a means of global outreach.
BHSJ currently organizes an annual Congress and regional workshops in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, and Western Japan (Kyushu). Regional workshops are held approximately 30 times per year. In addition to workshops, the organization also sponsors joint meetings following new book publications and special workshops for guest researchers from overseas every year. Furthermore, BHSJ publishes Keieishigaku (Japan Business History Review) in Japanese four times a year and presents young scholars with research awards, including plaques and prize money, at each Congress.
BHSJ has scaled up its relations with local communities. BHSJ has nearly 20 supporting members, many of which are companies whose company histories BHSJ members have been involved in editing. In addition, BHSJ began working on continuing series of lectures for the general public. Through these activities, BHSJ—with enhancing mutual understanding as its ultimate goal—hopes to refine tools for discussing various contemporary issues from a broader and longer perspective.