Primate Research Institute

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The Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University was established in 1967 as the first Japanese national research center for the study of primates. It was founded by primatologists Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani. The Institute works toward understanding the biological, behavioral and socioecological aspects of primates, and the origin and evolution of man. The Institute is located in the city of Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, which is about 150 km east of the main campus of Kyoto University. Through the Division of Biological Sciences of the Graduate School of Science of Kyoto University, the Institute offers graduate programs leading to the M. Sc. and D. Sc. degrees in the field of primatological science. The director of the institute is Tetsuro Matsuzawa.

The Institute has a 5-story main building housing the administration office, the library, and the research departments; a 3-story building for the Center for Human Evolution Modeling Research, which has been established on April, 1 1999; a 5-story Ape Research Annex; and a guest house providing accommodations for about 30 visiting scientists. The Field Research Center has its headquarters at Inuyama; one field laboratory is at Koshima, Miyazaki Prefecture, and four other research stations in different regions.

Being a national research center, the Institute has a special program, the Cooperative Research Program, for visiting scientists to carry out research on monkeys and apes. Each year about 170 scientists from outside the Institute benefit from this program.

The Institute has published the Annual Reports of the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, in Japanese since 1971.