The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) is a research center for ethnology and cultural anthropology.

Department of Social Research

Department of Social Research is made up of specialists in a variety of disciplines who are focused on the dynamics of change in the lifeways of ethnic, regional, and other local groups in globalizing modern societies and are investigating the current state of society and its future outlook.

Staff

○ Director
HAN Min [Social anthropology, China]
Ethnological Dynamics
○ Professor
KONAGAYA Yuki [Cultural ecology and cosmology; Central Asia, Mongolia]
SHOJI Hiroshi [Finno-Ugric linguistics, ethnolonguistics, language policy; Northern Europe, China]
○ Associate Professor
MISHIMA Teiko [Anthropology, international migration; Senegal, West Africa]
YOKOYAMA Hiroko [Cultural anthropology, Chinese society and culture]
Human Environment
○ Professor
IKEYA Kazunobu [Environmental anthropology, cultural geography; Southern Africa, Japan]
INTOH Michiko [Prehistory of Oceania; Oceania, Island Southeast Asia]
○ Associate Professor
Matthews, Peter Joseph [Ethnobotany, prehistory, crop plant biogeography; Asia, Pacific]
Social Systems
○ Professor
NISHIO Tetsuo [Linguistics,Arab culture, Middle East, North Africa]
TAMURA Katsumi [Cultural anthropology; Southeast Asia, East Asia]
○ Associate Professor
SATO Koji [Architectural history, ethno-architecture; Southeast Asia, Oceania]
UDAGAWA Taeko [Cultural anthropology, gender studies; Italy, Mediterranean Europe]
○ Assistant Professor
OTA Shimpei [Sociocultural anthropology, Northeast Asia]