聖嚴法師被譽為當當今漢傳佛教在國際間最具代表性的法師之一，他不僅是傳承禪宗之臨濟宗、曹洞兩大宗派的知名禪師，同樣也是一位學有專精的佛教學者，也是民國以來一位實在留學日本接受正規課程取得博士學位者。民國以來留日學僧陸續出現，但並無取得重大表現，戰後台灣從1952年，在聖嚴之前，也有二十位左右赴日留學的僧尼。就學業表現而言，可以說是以聖嚴成就最高，聖嚴之後的一段長期間，也沒有人打破。聖嚴在日本求學期間有六年又九個月，過程中的交游、閱歷亦很豐富，在中日佛教交流史上具有特殊的意義，對後來臺灣發展佛教教育也有深遠的影響。特別是其發表了許多關於對日本佛教、日本社會的觀感文述，可以作為近代中國知識份子對日認識，別於世俗另一種角度。

　　　　　Master Sheng Yen is called as one of the most delegated Master of Han-dynasty Buddhism in the world. Not only he inherits form the famous Zen Masters of Soto school and Rinzai school, but also he is an expert of Buddhism scholar and was the first Buddhism Doctor with regular curriculum from Japan since Republic of China established. Continually, there were other Buddhism monks went to Japan for studying since then, however, they did not have any specific or outstanding performance. There’re also about 20 Buddhism monks went to Japan for studying before Master Sheng Yen did, but from the study achievement point of view, Master Sheng yen gained the highest success among them, even further, there’s no one able to over his achievement for a long time. Master Sheng Yen spent six years and nine months in Japan, during this period, he had plentiful of relationships and experiences of which took a certain meanings between China and Japan Buddhism interflow, also had deep influence on the Buddhism development in Taiwan afterward. Especially, Master Sheng Yen has published lots of views and narrates about Japan Buddhism and her society, which may be taken as a different point of knowing in Japan for recent Chinese scholars.