The Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University was established in 1967 as the first Japanese national research center for the study of primates. The Institute works toward understanding the comprehensive aspects of primates, and the origin and evolution of man. The Institute is located in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, which is about 150 km east of the main campus of Kyoto University.

The Institute consists of the following four research departments and two attached facilities:

• Departments
  • Department of Evolution and Phylogeny
  • Department of Ecology and Social Behavior
  • Department of Behavioral and Brain Sciences
  • Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology
• Attached facilities
  • Center for Human Evolution Modeling Research (CHEMR) (established on April, 1 1999)
  • Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology (CICASP) (established on April, 1 2009)

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 are in different regions.

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.

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.