HJAS features articles and book reviews of current scholarship in East Asian Studies, focusing on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history, literature and religion, with occasional coverage of politics and linguistics.

[1] The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies was founded in 1936 by the Russian-French scholar Serge Elisséeff under the auspices of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, an independent, non-profit organization founded in 1928 to further the spread of knowledge and scholarship on East and Southeast Asia.

Elisséeff's wide range of knowledge came to be reflected in the diverse character of the journal during the twenty-one years he served as its editor (1936–1957).

The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, with Monumenta Nipponica, is one of the largest and most influential American journals on East Asian scholarship.

The journal focuses on analytical articles and does not print translations, unlike Monumenta Nipponica.