Like a print publication, a website soon gets out of date. In 2015-16, in response to requests from participants and users of the website, the Japan Foundation supported a partial update of the directory and website. Only those that had participated in the 2011-2012 directory were invited to update. Programs and libraries could update their staff lists and contact information. Specialists were invited to update their basic areas of specialization, their current and recent professional positions, and their contact information. We also collected information from both programs and specialists about current doctoral candidates and encouraged them to report updates about doctoral candidates they had reported previously.

About half the programs, libraries and Japan specialists participated in the update, which was more than we had anticipated. Virtually all of the programs and libraries were still active in Japanese Studies. The updated website contains 88 libraries, 41 of which participated in the update, and 281 programs, 132 of which participated in the update. The passing of 16 Japan specialists who had participated in the 2011-12 study was reported, and another 57 specialists were reported as no longer active in Japanese Studies. Nearly all had retired rather than shifting to a different field. These 73 persons have been removed from the website and the updated directory. (We have kept the 2012 volume pdfs on the website in case users wish to look up information about those individuals.) The remaining 1,621 Japan specialists are included in both the website and the updated directory, 803 of whom participated in the update. Because we could not add new Japan specialists to the update, we have expanded our coverage of doctoral students on the website to include 106 persons who have received their PhD since the 2011-2012 study was done, in addition to 532 current doctoral students. We have removed those who were reported in 2011-2012 but in 2015-16 were reported as not having completed the degree but as no longer pursuing it at the institution. As I have been reporting since the data for the update began to arrive, Japanese Studies is alive and well in the U.S. and Canada.