The French Research Institute on East Asia (IFRAE / FRE 2025) is a new research team attached to Inalco, the University of Paris-Diderot and the CNRS. Established on January 1, 2019, the Institute is directed by Inalco professor Emmanuel Lozerand.
IFRAE brings together researchers working across a vast geographical area that is marked by the power of China, the influence of Buddhism, and includes territories and cultures with strong identities (China, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Taiwan, Tibet, Vietnam etc.) whose shared histories are marked by both peaceful exchanges and violent conflicts.
IFRAE merges Inalco’s ASIA and CEJ (Jaapanese Study Centre) research groups and integrates several teacher-researchers from the University of Paris-Diderot (UPD). Composed of around fifty teacher-researchers and approximately seventy PhD students, it is one of the largest research units on East Asia in France and in Europe.
IFRAE's research focuses on the study of cultural areas. The researchers all have an excellent command of one of the region’s languages, privileged access to local sources, a deep knowledge of the field and solid disciplinary skills in one of the Humanities or Social Sciences. They also share a desire to interpret the contemporary world by taking a long-term approach. Their common concern is to implement comparative, regional and/or interdisciplinary approaches.
