Following the theoretical proposition that infrastructure pertains to “what is generated when the process of generating itself is hidden in such a way that the product appears naturally given” (Meyer, 2023, 47), this position talk examines the long-standing tripartite division of introductory music history curricula in Japan (Western, Japanese, and “Asiatic”/World music) from the viewpoint of an individual who is both trained within this system and presently engaged in teaching these subjects at a Japanese music university. Emerging as a by-product of Japan’s Western-oriented modernization since the late nineteenth century, this curricular structure has not only shaped the foundational ontology through which the world’s musical heritage is perceived in Japanese higher education, but has also inadvertently conditioned the contours of scholarly inquiry into music, as evidenced by the continued strict segmentation of academic societies and research institutes in Japan today. By shedding light on how this tripartition implicitly functions as a musical infrastructure in Japan’s musical culture and academic research, this talk interrogates the tacit relationship between pedagogy and research practice and further considers how studies of the musics of East Asia might be (re)integrated within and beyond this tripartition, as well as the implications for scholars working in related fields.