Journal profile · Arts and Humanities-History
Contemporary Japan
ISSN 1869-2729 · eISSN 1869-2737 · Taylor & Francis
Contemporary Japan: subscription journal; APC charged, amount not published; median 443 days to acceptance (36 articles, last 24 months); 17 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Contemporary Japan is published by Taylor & Francis. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Japanese History and Culture, Diaspora, migration, transnational identity and Migration, Refugees, and Integration, together about 49.2% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Contemporary Japan is a Scopus-indexed journal that publishes original research on contemporary issues related to Japan and its recent historical development in all humanities and social science disciplines. Contemporary Japan is committed to contributing to and expanding the field of Global Japanese Studies by reaching across disciplines and regional academic communities. The journal especially encourages submissions that provide perspectives from outside of the Anglophone world including Asian, African, and European perspectives. Manuscripts which cross disciplinary boundaries and raise issues beyond the case of Japan, including comparative and/or transnational research, are welcome. As an international and interdisciplinary platform for cutting-edge and innovative research, Contemporary Japan offers authors several advantages: The journal is open to all scholarly methodologies applied in the social sciences and humanities. It promotes the publication of recent empirical findings, interpretive analyses, and innovative theoretical approaches, explicitly including comparative, transnational, and interdisciplinary studies, provided authors clearly demonstrate the contribution to the field of research and its place in the relevant literature. We maintain a professional and fast double-anonymized review process that guarantees timely publication of accepted manuscripts, including online first. In order to encourage contributions from non-native English speakers, we offer comprehensive language support. Publishing in Contemporary Japan is free of charge to authors. Contemporary Japan also contains a book review section. We welcome reviews of publications on any aspect of contemporary Japan. We particularly welcome reviews of Japanese books as well as other non-English books on Japan. We also welcome review articles that engage with three or more non-English books. All inquiries regarding book reviews should be directed to book-review@contemporary-japan.org. Authors can choose to publish gold open access in this journal.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Arts and Humanities-History
Editor-in-chief Franz WaldenbergerPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named Japan 8, Italy 1 (9 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Japanese History and CultureSocial Sciences38.2%
- Diaspora, migration, transnational identitySocial Sciences6%
- Migration, Refugees, and IntegrationSocial Sciences4.9%
- Migration and Labor DynamicsSocial Sciences4.9%
- Employment, Labor, and Gender StudiesSocial Sciences4.3%
- International Relations and Foreign PolicySocial Sciences3.2%
- Asian Culture and Media StudiesSocial Sciences3.2%
- Electoral Systems and Political ParticipationSocial Sciences2.6%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| History | Q1 | 151/1936 | 92nd |
| Cultural Studies | Q1 | 255/1434 | 82nd |
| General Social Sciences | Q2 | 131/286 | 54th |
| Sociology and Political Science | Q2 | 723/1530 | 52nd |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- CiteScore Q1 · 2025
Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website
Database indexing
ScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 1.6LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 1.6Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.28LetPub ·
- SJR (publisher) 2025
- 0.28Publisher website ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.76LetPub ·
- SNIP (publisher) 2025
- 0.76Publisher website ·
- h-index
- 22OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 55OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.95OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Volume
- Downloads per year (publisher)
- 85,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 347 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 25 | 12 | 166 |
| 2025 | 17 | 9 | 244 |
| 2024 | 20 | 6 | 282 |
| 2023 | 31 | 14 | 356 |
| 2022 | 22 | 5 | 185 |
| 2021 | 26 | 5 | 182 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
443 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 335 days – 610 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 37 days (36 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 488 days
- Sample
- 36 articles with submission and acceptance dates (46 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Subscription journalLetPub
A subscription journal: articles are read by subscription or purchase, and authors usually pay no publication charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Open access, Peer review
- Authorship
Language support for non-native English speakers Model summary
In order to encourage contributions from non-native English speakers, we offer comprehensive language support.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
No charge for publishing (subscription route) Model summary
Contemporary Japan is a hybrid open access journal that is part of the Taylor & Francis Open Select publishing program, giving you the option to publish open access. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership, and impact of your research. Why choose open access? Increase the discoverability and read…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Double-anonymized peer review Model summary
We maintain a professional and fast double-anonymized review process that guarantees timely publication of accepted manuscripts, including online first.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- ISSN
- 1869-2729
- Electronic ISSN
- 1869-2737
- Society / sponsor
- Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 38, Issue 2 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Contemporary Japan
How long does peer review take at Contemporary Japan?
Based on the dates recorded on 36 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 443 days (interquartile range 335–610 days). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Where are the editorial board members of Contemporary Japan based?
Of the 9 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Japan (8) and Italy (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Contemporary Japan?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Contemporary Japan is indexed in Scopus.
Is Contemporary Japan open access, and what is the APC?
Contemporary Japan is a subscription journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .