This article, with the aim of identifying elements that constitute the characteristics of an academic space within comparative education, analyzes how comparative education has been discussed and practiced in Japan, based on a questionnaire completed by 264 members of the Japan Comparative Education Society and classification of articles published in its journal from 1975 to 2011. Reference to the discourse and practice in North America are made, using data provided by the scholars who looked into research trends among Comparative and International Education Society members and in "Comparative Education Review." The natures of both spaces are influenced by the institutional contexts; research demands; and social, political, and economic environments in which they are situated. Researchers develop their academic identities by participating in research practices and discourse. The interrelated but separate dynamics between two sites show the factors that make them align with or diverge from each other.