Willy F. Vande Walle (born 21 November 1949) is a Belgian academic, author, Japanologist and Sinologist.

Willy Vande Walle was born in Roeselare, Belgium. His secondary education focused on classical humanities (Greek-Latin) at Klein Seminarie Roeselare (1962–1968). He studied Oriental Philology and History at the State University of Ghent and earned his doctoral degree in Oriental Philology in 1976.^[1]

Career

Willy Vande Walle is Professor Emeritus of Japanese Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven or KU Leuven) in Belgium.^[1] He taught several classes such as Japanese language and literature, history of Japan, art history of East Asia, as well as history of China and Chinese poetry.^[2] The KU Leuven coursework is supplemented with active Internet learning programs linked to Japanese educational partners.^[3]

Willy Vande Walle is the Belgian coordinator for projects conducted by the European Association of Japanese Studies.^[1]

Honors

• * Japan Foundation: Japan Foundation Special Prize, 1992.^[4]
• Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 2000.^[1]

Main publications

• 1987 – Stratification in Verbiest's Works: The Astronomia Europaea and the Memorials.
• 1989 – Takakura – Habits de la cour impériale du Japon / Keizerlijke gewaden uit Japan (with Muneyuki Sengoku). Brussels: Europalia Foundation International.
• 1989 – Splendeur du théâtre No / Luister van het No-theater (with Eileen Kato, Tomoyuki Yamanobe & Shozo Masuda). Brussels: Europalia Foundation International.
• 2001 -- Dodonæus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in the Tokugawa Period (with Kazuhiko Kasaya). Leuven: Leuven University Press. ISBN 978-90-5867-179-0; OCLC 49539599 -- simultaneously published in Kyoto: International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
• 2001 – Dodonæus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in the Tokugawa Period (with Kazuhiko Kasaya). Leuven: Leuven University Press. ISBN 978-90-5867-179-0; OCLC 49539599 – simultaneously published in Kyoto: International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
• 2003 -- The History of the Relations Between the Low Countries and China in the Qing Era (1644-1911) with Noël Golvers. Leuven Chinese Studies XIV. Leuven: Leuven University Press. ISBN 978-90-5867-315-2
• 2005 (as editor)-- Japan & Belgium: Four Centuries of Exchange. Brussels: Commissioners-General of the Belgian Government at the Universal Exposition of Aichi 2005, Japan.