The Japanese Language Program of Peking University has a long history, dating back to the era of the Capital School of Foreign Languages. Officially established in 1946, when it was known as the Program of Japanese Language and Literature, the Department of Japanese Language and Culture is the earliest of its kind in China.

The first PhD Program for Japanese Language and Literature was established in Peking University in 1986. In 1987, the Institute of Japanese Culture of Peking University was established. Later, according to the needs of the development of the discipline, the research area of Japanese culture was added, and the department was renamed as the Program of Japanese Language and Culture. It became the first Japanese program that covers three research areas including Japanese language, Japanese literature and Japanese culture. It recruits students at Bachelor's, Master's and doctoral levels in China's higher education institutions. In 1999, with the establishment of the School of Foreign Languages of Peking University, the department was renamed as the Department of Japanese Language and Culture, which includes the Japanese Language Teaching and Research Unit, the Japanese Literature Teaching and Research Unit and the Japanese Culture Teaching and Research Unit. In 2011, the Japanese Translation Teaching and Research Unit was set up.

The department boasts a highly qualified faculty with solid academic training, extensive teaching experience, and strong research capabilities, maintaining equal emphasis on both teaching and research. Currently, there are 14 full-time faculty members, including 4 professors, 2 tenured associate professors, 5 associate professors, and 3 assistant professors—all holding doctoral degrees with experience of studying, conducting research, or lecturing in Japan. Against the backdrop of the New Liberal Arts initiative, the department is optimizing the disciplinary development of Japanese studies while actively promoting interdisciplinary integration. It is currently advancing toward new research paradigms in regional and country studies as well as AI-empowered Japanese language teaching and learning.

Each year, the department admits about twenty undergraduate students, three MA students and three to six doctoral students. In addition to the major curricula, the department offers courses to all PKU students. Non-Japanese majors may take courses in this field for a minor. Beginning in 2012, the department offers a two-year Master's degree program that specializes in the training of translation professionals and admits over thirty students each year.

In recent decades, the department has been the leading Japanese program in China in both teaching and research. Since the 1980s the faculty has won about forty major research grants, held more than eighty international conferences, and published thirty scholarly monographs, ninety textbooks/collections of essays, seventy translated works and more than 800 scholarly papers. Its faculty members are recipients of various awards for academic achievement of different levels. In addition, the department is the host institution of a scholarly journal, Studies in Japanese Language and Culture, of which twelve volumes have been published.

The department has carried out extensive international academic exchange activities and has maintained good cooperation and exchanges with many famous universities and academic research institutions in Japan. Famous scholars such as Kindaichi Haruhiko, Kato Shuichi and Oe Kenzaburo have come to the department to give lectures. In addition, the department has established cooperative relations with Waseda University, Keio University, Hosei University, Nihon University, Kansai University, Soka University, etc. in the form of scholars and students exchange; meanwhile, it conducts academic communications in a wide range with scholars from other countries and regions like South Korea, Taiwan (China), and Hong Kong (China), which have proved to be well-received.

The department also runs the Meiji University Manga Library of SFL, the only animation research platform in China, which holds over 20,000 volumes of authentic Japanese Manga in paper and digital forms.