This paper examines the barriers that early-career researchers encounter when conducting interdisciplinary research. Drawing on a review of existing literature and a case study based on the author’s own experiences, this paper present a hypothesis regarding one possible direction for addressing obstacles to interdisciplinary research within the University of Osaka Cross Boundary Innovation (CBI) Program. According to the perspective developed in this paper, within each particular field of interdisciplinary research practice, not only is general "theory" insufficient, but the very "difficulties" themselves manifest in ways distinct from generality. However, it is precisely these "difficulties" that, we would suggest, hold the key to constructing field-specific methodologies of interdisciplinary activities appropriate to each particular context.
Hiroki Nakatani (Sun,) studied this question.