As the first publication of the University Press of Ritsumeikan (UPR), Ritsumeikan’s English academic publishing initiative which was launched in collaboration with Maruzen-Yushodo Co., Ltd., Ritsumeikan University published A Delicious History of Kyoto: The Geographical History of Restaurant Culture in Japan’s Former Capital (originally published in Japanese as Oishii Kyotogaku , Minerva Shobo, 2022) in both digital and print editions in January 2025. The books will now be distributed worldwide.

Establishment of an overseas publishing system to promote open science

In December 2023, Ritsumeikan University and Maruzen-Yushodo confirmed that they share the same direction in terms of building connections among academic achievements, learning, Japanese society, and the world, and they concluded a comprehensive partnership agreement.
As part of this partnership agreement, Ritsumeikan University launched UPR as a concrete initiative to disseminate the outcomes of its academic research to the world. With UPR, Ritsumeikan is considering a new framework focusing on book publishing, which—along with journal articles—is indispensable for the dissemination of academic research.
The promotion of open science by providing open and public access to academic publications and scientific data has become a global issue, and it was even discussed at the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May 2023 and the G7 Science and Technology Ministers’ Meeting in July 2024. On the other hand, many research outcomes in the humanities and social sciences at Japanese universities have been published as books in Japanese as a form of social contribution, but due to the language barrier and the lack of overseas publication distribution networks at Japanese universities, the world has not been able to fully access these outcomes. Amid this backdrop, Ritsumeikan University, which disseminates a wide range of intellectual assets, including the numerous papers and more than 400 books written by its researchers every year, and Maruzen-Yushodo, with its network of overseas publishers, have teamed up to establish a publishing system and provide access to overseas distribution networks in cooperation with De Gruyter, a Berlin, Germany-based academic publisher with more than 270 years of history, by tapping into Maruzen-Yushodo's network.

UPR’s first title

In January 2025, UPR published its first title, A Delicious History of Kyoto: The Geographical History of Restaurant Culture in Japan’s Former Capital (published by University Press of Ritsumeikan in cooperation of Sciendo (De Gruyter Poland Ltd, Warsaw) (originally published in Japanese as: Kato, Masahiro (Professor, Area Studies Program, College of Letters) and Kawasumi, Naomi (Professor, Area Studies Program, College of Letters).Oishii Kyotogaku , Minerva Shobo, 2022), in both electronic and print editions, which will now be sold and distributed internationally.
In selecting the book for publication, utilizing publishing framework we establish with these partners, we received consulting support from Maruzen-Yushodo and narrowed down the candidate titles from among Ritsumeikan University’s list of 2,269 publications to nine. These selections were then reviewed by the editorial planning director at De Gruyter and finalized by an internal committee.
This book also makes use of Ritsumeikan University’s digital humanities academic resources, such as the "Modern Kyoto Overlay Map" provided by the Art Research Center of Ritsumeikan University, which serves as an international joint research hub for the digital archiving of Japanese cultural resources.

Future outlook

Ritsumeikan University was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for the Open Access Acceleration Project in 2024, and we are promoting Gold Open Access by concluding conversion contracts with academic publishing houses and utilizing our own high-impact journal submission support system. We are also using the R-Cube institutional repository to establish a Green Open Access system for academic papers and promote comprehensive efforts to strengthen our ability to disseminate academic research outcomes to the world.
Maruzen-Yushodo has also initiated a partnership with the National Institute of Informatics (NII) E-Resources Data Sharing Service to link its "E-Book Metadata (Japan)” service with the Maruzen e-book Library (MeL) and provide researchers and students with a convenient, one-stop platform to search for and access the literature they need for research, education and learning, whether in print or electronic form. Ritsumeikan and Maruzen-Yushodo will continue working together to further improve the discoverability and utilization of Japanese academic and research materials and contribute to the development of infrastructure for research and education.

Comment from Chancellor of the Ritsumeikan Trust Yoshio Nakatani

Ritsumeikan University formulated the Ritsumeikan University Challenge Design, its mid-term plan for the year 2030, based on the 2030 Academy Vision, which declares “Challenge your mind. Change our Future,” and we are promoting efforts to realize a next-generation research university that creates new value together with society. Using UPR as a springboard, Ritsumeikan University will promote open science by continuously communicating its academic achievements and the value of its academic resources to the world as we aim to build a foundation for the international utilization of Ritsumeikan University's research outcomes.

Coment from President and Representative Director of Maruzen-Yushodo Masaya Yano

For more than 150 years since its establishment, Maruzen-Yushodo has been operating under the brand policy of "nurturing connections of learning." With this UPR initiative, we will further advance our mission of "stirring up knowledge" by widely delivering, communicating, and connecting Ritsumeikan University’s books written in Japanese or produced in Japan to researchers and societies around the globe, together with academic achievements and resources related to Japan, through the medium of English-language publishing.