Any UK-based (or formerly based) academic with experience of Japanese academia?
I am an assistant professor in the social sciences at a UK university looking to start a new research project in Japan over the coming 2-3 years. At this early stage, and since I never worked or carried out research in Japan before, I am proceeding slowly and trying to create a small network of colleagues interested in similar questions in Japan to start with. I am thinking of applying to a visiting JSPS fellowship for an initial short visit in a host university. Do you have any advice on how to best approach this? Spanning from how to best approach colleagues in potential host universities to more general information about academic life in Japan and what universities are particularly strong in fields like sociology, human geography, and urban design? Any insight or sharing of your personal experiences (even if not exactly the same as the above) would be great. My ideal would be to find a balance between spending a few months in Japan for research every year, outside of teaching months in the UK.