- Senior Research Fellow (DR1) at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Executive Director and financial officer of Réseau Asie - Imasie [Asian Network] (UPS 2999 CNRS/FMSH)
- Visiting Scholar at Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan
- Knight of the national order of the Légion d'honneur (2008).


RESEARCH FIELDS
- Sociology of Education: Structure of the educational system, reproduction of elites and strategies for academic advancement.
- Political and economic evolution of Japan, evolution of Japanese society and Japan's role in Asia.
- Sociology of everyday life.
- Research on the Japanese advertisements.
- Sociology of exclusion and marginality


PROFESSIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES
- 1974-1982: A graduate in Philosophy and Sociology from the University of Poitiers, recipient of an advanced degree in Japanese from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), and holder of a doctorate in Social Science from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Jean-François Sabouret taught at the University of Hokkaidô, Dokkyô University (Tôkyô), Waseda University (Tôkyô) from 1974 until 1989. In 1976 he began research on a discriminated minority group in contemporary Japan, and in 1981 defined his Ph D thesis on that subject.

- 1983-1998: As a fellow of the Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tôkyô from 1983 to 1986, Jean-François Sabouret conducted research on the Japanese educational system. Joining the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in 1986, he directed a project on Japan that brought together some one hundred specialists ; published in 1988 l'Etat du Japon was updated and reissued in 1995. While undertaking this editorial work, he was a visiting researcher at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Tôkyô, where he did research on the system and context for the recruitment of students in Japanese universities.

- 1988-1998: In 1990, Jean-François Sabouret established the first branch of CNRS in Japan and occupied the position of CNRS representative until 1996. From 1990 until 1996 he served as well as correspondent for France-Inter Radio in Japan. From 1996 until 1998, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for East-Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (United States).

- 1999-2004: from January 1999 through March 2002, Jean-François Sabouret served as head of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (Délégation à l'Information Scientifique et Technique-DIST) at CNRS, with responsibility for its communications program. In June 2001, he became a member of the Founding Committee for the Asia Network (Réseau Asie) at the Foundation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, (FMSH in Paris), and is presently serving as its executive director and financial officer.

- In March 2002, he assumed the post of researcher at the Center for Research on Social Relations (Centre de Recherche sur les Lien Sociaux-CERLIS), affiliated with CNRS and based at the University of Paris V. There he has been continuing his research on Japanese society and the educational system.
- In March 2006, he was nominated as Director of the Réseau Asie - Imasie (UPS 2999), a CNRS laboratory consolidating a previously informal co-operation with the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH). The aim of this unit is to promote the activities of French researchers and experts on Asia and to develop the co-operation on a European level concerning research on Asia.


DEGREES
1981 : Ph.D. Thesis in Social Science on a discriminated minority group in contemporary Japan, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris.
1983 : Avanced Degree in Japanese language and civilisation, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris.
1978 : Post-graduate diploma in Japanese studies, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris.
1971 : Master degree in Aesthetic,, Université de Poitiers.
1971 : Bachelor of arts in Sociology, Université de Poitiers.
1968 : Bachelor of arts in Philosophy, Université de Poitiers.

MAJOR PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
- Besoin de Japon [Need of Japan], Éditions du Seuil, 2004
- Chercher. [Profession : Researcher], Éditions Autrement, 2000
- Radioscopie du Japon [Japan through the Radio], Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1997
- Le Japon quotidien [Everyday Japan], Éditions du Seuil, 1993
- L'Empire du concours [The Empire of Competition], Éditions Autrement, 1986
- L'autre Japon [The Other Japan], Éditions de la Découverte, 1983

EDITING
- Liberté, inégalité, individualité (la France et le Japon au miroir de l'éducation) [Liberty, inequality, individuality (France and Japan compared through education)], CNRS Éditions, 2008 (co-auteur : Daisuke Soyonama)
- La dynamique du Japon : de 1854 à nos jours (nouvelle édition) [The dynamics of Japan: from 1854 to the present day (new edition)], CNRS Éditions, 2008
- L'empire de l'intelligence : Politiques scientifiques et technologiques du Japon depuis 1945 [The empire of intelligence: scientific and technological policies in Japan since 1945], CNRS Éditions, 2007
- La dynamique du Japon [The dynamics of Japan], Éditions Saint-Simon, 2005
- Japon, peuple et civilisation [Japan, people and culture], Éditions de la Découverte, 2004
- L'état du Japon [Japan Today], (updated version)Éditions de la Découverte, 1995
- Invitation à la culture japonaise [An Invitation to Japanese Culture], Editions de la Découverte, 1991
- L'état du Japon [Japan Today], Éditions de la Découverte, 1988

DOCUMENTARY FILMS
- "L'école pour tous" [Minna no gakko] [School for everyone], 2004, 52' (enquête sur la vie d'une école publique primaire japonaise de la banlieue de Tôkyô)
- "Un bon caractère", 2005, 26', (présentation de l'utilisation de divers types d'écritures dans la vie quotidienne japonaise et apprentissage de celles-ci à l'école
- Report for French TV (TF1), "Les Burakumin, minorité discriminée du Japon" [The Burakumin, A Discrimated Minority of Japan], 15 min, 1986

TRANSLATIONS
- L'éducation au Japon [Education in Japan], CNRS Éditions, 1993. (traduction collective)
- Pika Don, la leçon de Hiroshima, Éditions Autrement, 1985. (traduction collective)

PREFACE
- Histoire de l'éducation depuis la seconde guerre mondiale, de Horio Teruhisa, mai 93, CNRS Éditions.
- Le clou qui dépasse, de l'Hénoret André, Éditions de la Découverte, 1993


and author of many ARTICLES