IFRAE | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales

The Institut français de recherche sur l'Asie de l'Est (IFRAE / UMR 8043) is a research team attached to Inalco, Université Paris Cité and CNRS, set up on January 1, 2019. It brings together researchers working on a vast geographical area marked by the power of China, but also by Buddhism, and which brings together territories and cultures with strong identities (China, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Taiwan, Tibet, Vietnam...), united by numerous peaceful or violent exchanges.

IFRAE brings together the former ASIEs and CEJ (Centre d'études japonaises) host teams from Inalco, joined by several teacher-researchers from the University of Paris. Comprising seventy researchers and teacher-researchers, as well as more than ninety doctoral and post-doctoral students, it is one of the largest research units on East Asia in France and Europe.

IFRAE's work focuses on the study of cultural areas. What all our researchers have in common is an excellent command of one of the region's languages, privileged access to local sources, in-depth knowledge of the field and solid disciplinary skills in one of the SHS fields. What's more, they all share a desire to interpret the contemporary world from a long-term perspective. They share a concern for comparative, regional and/or interdisciplinary approaches.

IFRAE is directed by Estelle Bauer, professor of Japanese language and history at Inalco. The deputy director is Emmanuel Poisson, professor of Vietnamese history at the UFR LCAO of Université Paris Cité.

The Ifrae was previously directed by Emmanuel Lozerand, professor of Japanese language and literature at Inalco, who was responsible for its creation, and then by Michael Lucken, professor of Japanese language and art history at Inalco.