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영어

The purpose of this study is to identify and compare the ways interculturalcommunication research is conducted in Korea and Japan. The meta-analysismethodology was employed to analyze how intercultural communication research isbeing carried out in Korea and Japan. This study examines seven research issues,namely: translation of the term “intercultural”; research trends; academic journals;academic departments; research areas; applicable theories; and research topics. In Korea, research in this field became active in the mid-1990s and the term“munhwagan” is mostly used. Meanwhile, research was occasionally carried out inJapan during the latter half of the 1970s. But, it was in the 1990s, when researchbecame active. In the early stages, the terms “imunhwagan” and “imunhwa” wereused at a similar frequency. Into the 2000s, however, “imunhwa” became dominantand “munhwagan” somehow faded out. In Korea, research was driven by academicjournals, whereas university bulletins and collected papers were central to researchin Japan. In terms of research areas, Korea focuses on the United States and Japan,while Japan tends to concentrate its research efforts on the United States and China. Japan has been studying more countries than Korea has. As long as applicabletheories are concerned, both Korea and Japan are at the stage of employing andtesting various Western theories. However, both of them are short of generatingtheir own theories. When it comes to research topics, research is prolific on languageeducation both in Korea and Japan. In non-language areas, more studies are beingdone in Japan than Korea. Hopefully, this study will contribute to the furtherunderstanding of the current status of intercultural communication research in Koreaand Japan.