Opening Remarks
Miyawaki-Okada Junko
President of the 67th Meeting of the PIAC
67th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, 2025
To our over 40 PIAC members from overseas, welcome to Japan. Welcome to all the Japanese participants as well.
This is the 30th Anniversary since my late husband, Okada Hidehiro invited the 38th Annual Meeting of the PIAC to Japan as the President in 1995. I was his assistant then. This time, I am alone, but I am very happy to be able to invite the PIAC again to Japan.
The President of this Seminar House who provided the venue for the PIAC is Dr. Maruyama Toshiaki. He is also a scholar himself and head of an organization with many members from all over Japan. Because he highly appreciates Okada Hidehiro’s work, he lets us use this wonderful Seminar House in response to my request since I carry on Okada Hidehiro’s academic tradition.
Other than Okada Hidehiro’s general books, his scholastic achievements are compiled in a collection of works. The final volume, which is Volume 8, contains his 16 PIAC reports. As you can see, on the cover of Volume 8 is the PIAC medal. The book was out of stock for a while but was reprinted for this conference. All participants who can read Japanese will be given this Volume 8. The costs will be covered by royalties. It is a present from Okada Hidehiro.
When I announced that I would be inviting the PIAC to Japan, ordinary Japanese people asked me, “What is Altaic studies?”
I answered Altaic Studies is an academic field named after the Altai Mountains, which stretch from present-day Mongolia to southern Siberia. The name comes from the fact that the Altaic languages, Turkic including Ottoman, Mongolian, Manchu and Tungusic languages, are collectively referred to as the Altaic language family, and are spoken to the east and west of the Altai Mountains.
However, it has not been established whether the Altaic languages are actually a related language group scientifically speaking. As you all know, this has been the subject of frequent discussion among linguists within the PIAC meetings that bears this name, but no conclusion has been reached.
Denis Sinor, who has been a member since the first meeting in 1958 and served as Secretary General from the 4th to the 50th meeting held in Kazan,Tatarstan in 2007, once told me: “The name ‘Conference of Turkish-Mongolian-Tungusic Languages, Culture and History’ would be too long, which would be a disadvantage in many situations, including grant applications, so we decided to change it to ‘Altaistic Conference’,” he said. However, since Professor Sinor loved to tease young scholars, it’s unclear how much of this is true.
The region covered by Altaic studies is the innermost part of the Eurasian continent, which is currently divided into the Russian Federation, China, the CIS countries, Ukraine, the Caucasus region, and more. In order to accurately understand the current political situation destabilizing the world, it is essential to look back on the accumulated research based on its historical background on this region and gain a systematic understanding of it. We, Altaic researchers, can set aside national interests and offer useful suggestions from an academic standpoint to address the challenges facing modern Central Eurasian countries.
The definition of Altaic studies has been vague from the start, with no limitations on time or scope, and as an academic field it is open to include history, linguistics, ethnology/anthropology, philology, prehistory, and more.
This annual PIAC meeting is a place where scholars participate on an equal footing, regardless of their status or age, or the size or strength of the nation they belong to. There is no other society like it.
This time, scholars from 13 nations, including Japan are going to present their research in a variety of fields. As for myself, in addition to my presentation after this, I plan to show many pictures from my PIAC participations since 1985. I hope we reflect on our PIAC traditions and deepen our bond as the PIAC family. Please enjoy this Conference.
Herewith I declare this Meeting open.