Reischauer Institute 2020-22 Biennial Report

Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies

Harvard University

2020-22 Biennial Report

The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University supports research on Japan and provides a forum for related academic activities and the exchange of ideas, bringing together Harvard faculty and students, as well as scholars and visitors from other institutions, to create one of the world’s leading communities for the study of Japan.

Our Goals

• Cooperate with the Asia Center and other related programs at Harvard to increase the public’s understanding of Japan and Asia in the United States and abroad

• Expand and enrich research and teaching on Japan throughout the University

• Strengthen the ties between Harvard University and Japan

Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies

Harvard University Center for Government and International Studies, South Building 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Phone 617.495.3220

Fax 617.496.8083

Email rijs@fas.harvard.edu

Website https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/

Abbreviation Key

CES Minda de Gunzberg Center for European Studies

CGIS Center for Government and International Studies

CSWR Center for the Study of World Religions

Davis Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

DRCLAS David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies

EALC East Asian Languages and Civilizations

EALS East Asian Legal Studies Program

EAS East Asian Studies (Undergraduate Concentration)

Fairbank Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

FAS Faculty of Arts and Sciences

GSAS Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

GSD Graduate School of Design

GSE Graduate School of Education

HAA History of Art and Architecture Department

HBS Harvard Business School

HBSF Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum

HDS Harvard Divinity School

HEAL History and East Asian Languages (Ph.D. Concentration)

HKS Harvard Kennedy School

HSPH Harvard School of Public Health

HSS Harvard Summer School

HUAC Harvard University Asia Center

HYI Harvard-Yenching Institute

HYL Harvard-Yenching Library

JDA Japan Digital Disasters Archive

JDRC Japan Digital Research Center

KI Korea Institute

RIJS Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies

RSEA Regional Studies-East Asia (A.M. Program)

SAI South Asia Institute

USJP Program on U.S.-Japan Relations

VES Visual and Environmental Studies Department

WCFIA Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

About the Institute

Established in 1973 as the Japan Institute, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS) was renamed in 1985 to commemorate the retirement of Edwin O. Reischauer. The Institute is one of Harvard’s international and regional centers, all of which operate under a mandate to contribute to the university as a whole. Administratively, the Institute reports to the FAS Dean. Since 1997, the Institute has been part of the Harvard University Asia Center (HUAC) and has coordinated closely with HUAC and other associated units. Members of the RIJS Executive Committee also serve on the HUAC Executive Committee and Steering Committee.

Edwin O. Reischauer

October 1910-September 1990

Edwin Oldfather Reischauer was born and raised in Tokyo, the son of Presbyterian educational missionaries. At sixteen, he left Japan for Oberlin College, later taking up graduate work at Harvard where he studied East Asian history, including a five-year world study tour to Paris, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Beijing. He returned to Harvard with his wife Adrienne in 1938, received his Ph.D. in 1939, and taught in the Department of Far Eastern Languages until 1941, when the State Department and the Army recruited him to serve variously as a research analyst, organizer of Japanese language programs for the military, and translator of intercepted military intelligence. After his return to Harvard in 1946, Reischauer guided the development of a new curriculum in East Asian Studies and began his career as a prolific writer. It was during this “golden age” of teaching (to use his phrase) that he began his collaboration with John K. Fairbank to teach a course on East Asian Civilizations, nicknamed “Rice Paddies,” which is still taught today as part of the General Education curriculum.

An article written by Reischauer in 1960 analyzing current tensions between the U.S. and Japan caught the attention of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who appointed Reischauer as ambassador to Japan (1961-1966). Key to Reischauer’s ambassadorial outlook was the notion of “equal partnership” between Japan and America. He and his second wife, Haru Matsukata, a journalist from Tokyo whom he had married after Adrienne’s death in 1955, gave priority to their ties with ordinary Japanese citizens and were enthusiastically received. Both professionally and personally, Haru was a supportive companion to her husband and a strong partner to him as ambassador and scholar.

Edwin O. Reischauer, pictured here with his wife, Haru.

Returning to Harvard in 1966 as a University Professor, Reischauer continued to teach “Rice Paddies” and, reflecting his growing interest in contemporary issues, developed a course on Japanese Government and Politics in the Government Department and participated in a History Department course on The United States and East Asia. Reischauer wrote many books, including East Asia: Tradition and Transformation (1973), co-authored with John K. Fairbank and Albert M. Craig. He was the prime mover in establishing and funding the Japan Institute, later renamed in his honor, and he served as its director from 1974 to 1981. Up until his retirement in 1981, he continued to teach, write, and initiate a myriad of projects to enhance relations between the U.S. and Japan, including producing a series of lectures on Japanese history on videotape for the University.

Reischauer was instrumental in expanding not only Harvard’s curriculum but the field of East Asian studies as a whole, deepening American consciousness of Japan and the outside world. All of these contributions continue today to guide the Institute that gratefully carries his name.

Home in CGIS

Since 2005, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies has been housed in the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS), a complex designed to promote the crossing of boundaries and the forming of connections. RIJS shares the second floor of the CGIS South Building with the Korea Institute (KI) and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), and the Asia Center and many other Asiarelated programs are located nearby. Through CGIS, faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scholars, and staff are seamlessly integrated into the dynamic international studies community at Harvard.

The spaces in CGIS South provided to graduate student associates-in-residence (GSAs), postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars promote interdisciplinary and cross-regional interaction. Each of the building’s four floors contains space with carrels assigned to graduate students affiliated with a regional studies institute and/ or department. GSAs from different centers are mixed together, allowing for exciting academic exchange. RIJS postdoctoral fellows share office space with “postdocs” from other centers who have similar research interests. The postdocs enjoy a broader intellectual environment, and those who study more than one Asian country greatly benefit from proximity to other programs. Occupying a shared space, RIJS visiting scholars also have the opportunity to exchange ideas on various research topics, from political science to visual arts, literary studies to technology.

In addition, CGIS South regularly features contemporary and traditional art exhibitions on the Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse. Those hosted by RIJS include: Irresolution: The Paintings of Yoshiaki Shimizu (2017), From Artistry to Ethnography (2015), The Thinking Hand: Tools and Traditions of the Japanese Carpenter (2014), Tomokazu Matsuyama | Palimpsest (2013), Mizue Sawano | Eternal Return (2011), and Mitsuko Asakura | Tapestry in Architecture: Creating Human Spaces (2008).

RIJS Director

Mary C. Brinton, Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology serves as Faculty Director of the Reischauer Institute. Professor Brinton is also a Faculty Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and former Chair of the Harvard Department of Sociology (2010-2016). She joined the Harvard faculty in 2003, having previously taught at the University of Chicago for twelve years and at Cornell University for four years.

Professor Brinton’s research and teaching focus on gender inequality, labor markets and employment, social demography, and contemporary Japanese society. Her research combines qualitative and quantitative methods to study institutional change and its effects on individual action, particularly in labor markets. She generally engages in primary data collection for her research projects and has designed social surveys, interviews, and observational studies in Japan and Korea. Professor Brinton studied sociolinguistics as an undergraduate at Stanford University, and she earned an M.A. in Japanese Studies and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Washington.

Interim Director

During Fall Term 2020, Professor Karen L. Thornber, Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, served as the Acting Director. Professor Thornber had previously served as Victor and William Fung Director of the Harvard University Asia Center, Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature, Chair of Regional Studies East Asia, and Director of Graduate Studies for both Comparative Literature and Regional Studies East Asia. She was also a member of the 20192020 Harvard Provost’s Academic Leadership Forum.

Committees of the Institute

The Full Committee (FC) carries out the core mission of RIJS. The FC is composed of tenured professors, junior faculty, and emeritus faculty from across the University whose research and teaching relate to Japan, as well as Japanese language faculty and librarians for the Japanese collections. The committee meets at least once annually, and its members participate actively in RIJS activities and subcommittees.

The Executive Committee (EC), the governing body of the Institute, is composed of 16 tenured faculty appointed from the FC by the FAS Dean. Membership recommendations for this committee are submitted annually to the Dean for approval. The EC meets four to six times per year to consider new initiatives, approve the annual budget, make formal and informal appointments, award fellowships and grants, and establish Institute policies and procedures.

The RIJS Full Committee 2020-22

Please see below for the names and titles of RIJS Full Committee members, which appear throughout this report. An asterisk (*) indicates members of the Executive Committee.

Ryūichi Abé, EALC*

Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions

David C. Atherton, EALC

Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Naomi Asakura, EALC Preceptor in Japanese

Theodore C. Bestor, Anthropology*

Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology and Japanese Studies (until 2021)

Mary C. Brinton, Sociology*

Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology; Director of RIJS

Albert M. Craig, EALC

Harvard-Yenching Professor of History Emeritus (until 2021)

Edwin A. Cranston, EALC*

Professor of Japanese Literature Emeritus (until 2021)

Christina L. Davis, Government*

Professor of Government; Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Radcliffe Institute; Director of USJP, WCFIA

John M. Doyle, Physics

Henry B. Silsbee Professor of Physics

Theodore J. Gilman, WCFIA Executive Director of WCFIA

Andrew D. Gordon, History* Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History

Tomoko Graham, EALC Preceptor in Japanese

Helen Hardacre, EALC*

Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society

Takao K. Hensch, MCB Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology; Professor of Neurology, Children’s Hospital

David L. Howell, EALC*

Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History

Akira Iriye, History

Charles Warren Professor of American History Emeritus

Kosuke Imai, Government Professor of Government and Statistics

Wesley M. Jacobsen, EALC* Professor of the Practice of the Japanese Language; Director of the Japanese Language Program

Geoffrey G. Jones, HBS

Isidor Straus Professor of Business History

Yuko Kageyama-Hunt, EALC Senior Preceptor in Japanese

Ichiro Kawachi, HMS / HSPH

John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Professor of Social Epidemiology

Susumu Kuno, Linguistics Professor of Linguistics Emeritus

Shigehisa Kuriyama, EALC*

Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History; Harvard College Professor

Yukio Lippit, HAA*

Jeffrey T. Chambers and Andrea Okamura Professor of History of Art and Architecture; Harvard College Professor

Melissa McCormick, EALC*

Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Japanese Art and Culture

Kuniko McVey, HYL Librarian for the Japanese Collection

Ian J. Miller, History* Professor of History

Miki Miyagawa, EALC Drill Instructor in Japanese

Toshiko Mori, GSD

Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture

David R. Odo, Harvard Art Museums Director of Student Programs; Research Curator of University Collections Initiatives

Susan J. Pharr, Government*

Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics

J. Mark Ramseyer, HLS*

Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies

Michael R. Reich, HSPH

Taro Takemi Professor of International Health Policy

James Robson, EALC

James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Victor and William Fung Director of HUAC; Harvard College Professor

Henry Rosovsky, Economics

Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor Emeritus

Jay Rubin, EALC

Takashima Professor of Japanese Humanities Emeritus

Victor Seow, History of Science

Assistant Professor of the History of Science

Daniel M. Smith, Government Associate Professor of Comparative Politics

Chikako Takehara, EALC Drill Instructor in Japanese

Hirotaka Takeuchi, HBS Professor of Management Practice

Karen L. Thornber, Comp Lit*

Henry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature; Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Ezra F. Vogel, Sociology

Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus (until 2020)

Mihoko Yagi, EALC Drill Instructor in Japanese (2019-20)

Tomiko Yoda, EALC* Takashima Professor of Japanese Humanities

Michael Y. Yoshino, HBS

Herman C. Krannert Professor of Business Administration Emeritus

Alexander Zahlten, EALC Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Faculty Announcements

William M. Tsutsui appointed Edwin O. Reischauer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies

For the 2020-21 academic year, William M. Tsutsui was appointed Edwin O. Reischauer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies. Educated at Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton Universities, Professor Tsutsui is a specialist in the economic, environmental, and cultural history of modern Japan. He is currently Professor Emeritus of History at Hendrix College. At Harvard, he taught EASTD 115 “Japanese Monsters” and co-taught HIST 2651 “Research Seminar in Japanese History” with Andrew D. Gordon.

During his time at Harvard, he was also featured in numerous guest lectures and interviews, including Idaho Humanities Council, Japan-America Society of Greater Austin, Japan-America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth, Tulsa Global Alliance and Tulsa-Utsunomiya Sister City Partnership, Asia Global Online, Federation of State Humanities Councils, The New York Times, and The Harvard Gazette

Alexander Zahlten promoted to Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

In September 2020, Alexander Zahlten was promoted to Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Professor Zahlten’s research interests center on film and audiovisual culture in East Asia, with a focus on Japan. His recent works include his monograph The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies (Duke University Press, 2017), which maps the transformations of the film (and media) industry in Japan from the 1960s-2000s, and a co-edited volume Media Theory in Japan (Duke University Press, 2017).

Andrew D. Gordon awarded NIHU International Prize in Japanese Studies

In October 2020, Andrew Gordon was awarded the second annual NIHU International Prize in Japanese Studies by the National Institute for the Humanities, in recognition of his wide-ranging research activities and outstanding achievement in the study of the history of labor in modern Japan, in the study of Japanese modern history, and in education, as well as his contributions to bridging society and academia, namely the Japan Digital Disasters Archive Project. The NIHU broadcasted a press conference in November 2020 and held an award ceremony and commemorative lecture titled “The Excitement of History and Responsibility of Historical Studies” (“歴史の魅力・歴史学の責任”) in June 2021.

During the 2020-21 academic year, Professor Gordon was also featured in The New York Times as a specialist in the history of labor in Japan, commenting on the history and trends of the employment of regular and nonregular workers in Japan. He also published several articles including a historical analysis of Covid-19 policies in Japan and Asia for Tokyo College (University of Tokyo) and a 3.11 10th Anniversary Commemorative article for Nikkei Shimbun.

Wesley M. Jacobsen publishes co-edited volume The Handbook of Japanese Semantics and Pragmatics

In October 2020, Wesley Jacobsen published a co-edited volume, titled The Handbook of Japanese Semantics and Pragmatics (De Gruyter Mouton), with Yukinori Takubo (Kyoto University). This volume is a collection of studies on linguistic meaning in Japanese, representing a range of ideas and approaches that are influential in the fields of semantics and pragmatics.

Christina L. Davis interviewed by Asahi Shimbun to discuss 2020 U.S. election

In November 2020, Christina Davis was interviewed by the Asahi Shimbun, for an article titled “トラン プ→バイデン でも、バラ色の世界は戻ってこない” [“Trump to Biden: but no return to a rosecolored world”]. In this article, Professor Davis predicted the new Biden adniminstration’s policy, including strengthening measures against Covid-19, promoting economic stimulus, moving away from the U.S. unilateralism formerly promoted by the Trump administration, and negotiating the expansion of trade agreements with Japan and Europe. She also predicted that the Biden administration would encourage gradual, but not immediate, change in trade policy with China.

Toshiko Mori designs paper house model for The New York Times

In March 2021, Toshiko Mori was featured in The New York Times for designing a paper house model, in response to a challenge posed by The New York Times Style Magazine to a select group of architects to design a paper house model that represents their vision of post-pandemic domestic architecture. Professor Mori created her model based on her previous work in rural Senegal (2015-19), utilizing round shapes to promote ventilation and maximize space. The full article, along with the downloadable paper house designs, can be found here

Helen Hardacre publishes co-edited volume Japanese Constitutional Revision and Civic Activism

In June 2021, Helen Hardacre published a co-edited volume, titled Japanese Constitutional Revisionism and Civic Activism (Lexington Books), with fellow committee members of the Project on Constitutional Revision in Japan, Timothy S. George (University of Rhode Island), Keigo Komamura (Keio University), and Franziska Seraphim (Boston College). This volume contains a collection of essays that examine the history of Japan’s constitution, including one contributed by Professor Hardacre, “Nippon Kaigi Working for Constitutional Revision.”

Melissa McCormick named Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Japanese Art and Culture

In July 2021, Melissa McCormick was named to an endowed professorship, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Japanese Art and Culture. Professor McCormick’s research focuses on the relationship of art and literature, as well as forms of visual storytelling, and their integration with social and political history and Buddhist thought. She also teaches a range of courses for undergraduate and graduate students from introductory surveys on the arts of Japan spanning the premodern to the contemporary, to seminars such as “Gender and Japanese Art,” “The Tale of Genji in Word and Image,” and “Medieval Picture Scrolls.”

Andrew D. Gordon and Michael R. Reich publish articles on vaccine hesitancy and Tokyo Olympics

In August 2021, Andrew Gordon and Michael Reich co-authored an article titled “The Puzzle of Vaccine Hesitancy in Japan,” published in the Journal of Japanese Studies. A Japanese translation “日本におけるワク チン不信を巡る謎” was also published in the Japanese journal 医学のあゆみ. They were later featured on the podcast “Japan on the Record” by Tristan Grunow (Pacific University, former RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow), in which they discussed their article and reflected on what lessons from Japan’s history of vaccines can be applied to future pandemics.

In September 2021, as an extension of their vaccine hesitancy research, Professors Gordon and Reich cowrote an article, “Japan’s Political Hesitancy Created a Sad Summer Olympics,” which was featured by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs on their blog “Epicenter.”

Susan J. Pharr featured in Mainichi Shimbun, Nikkei Shimbun, and NHK News, for efforts to petition for student visas to Japan

In January 2022, Susan Pharr and several other scholars and students from Harvard and other universities around the world began a petition to Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, urging the Japanese government to resume issuing visas for research and study. On 21 January 2022, prior to a virtual meeting between U.S. President Biden and Japan Prime Minister Kishida, Professor Pharr chaired a press conference hosted by the Japan Society in New York, in which scholars exchanged opinions on the current situation. These efforts were featured in the Mainichi Shimbun, Nikkei Shimbun, NHK News, among other major news sources.

Victor Seow publishes monograph Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia

In March 2022, Victor Seow published a monograph Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia (University of Chicago Press). Using the history of the Fushun coal mine in Northeast China as a case study, this book discusses the impact of energy extraction projects on twentieth-century China, Japan, and East Asia as a whole.

In Memoriam

With great sadness, the Reischauer Institute notes the passing of Professor Ezra F. Vogel (December 20, 2020), Professor Theodore C. Bestor (July 1, 2021), Professor Albert M. Craig (December 1, 2021), and Professor Edwin A. Cranston (December 8, 2021)

Professor Ezra F. Vogel (1930-2020) was the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard. He received his B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1950 and then Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard in 1958. He began teaching at Harvard as a lecturer in 1964, then as professor in 1967. During his time at Harvard, he served as Director of the Fairbank Center from 1973-75 (then titled East Asian Research Center) and again from 1995-99, as well as Founding Director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations from 1980-87 and Founding Director of the Asia Center from 1997-99.

Professor Vogel was a teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend to the Japanese studies community at Harvard and to countless others in the U.S., Japan, China, and beyond. His accomplishments earned him enormous respect as a scholar and teacher of contemporary Japanese society and of politics in China and East Asia. His vast knowledge, his humility, his generosity, and his spirit will be greatly missed.

Professor Theodore C. Bestor (1951-2021) was the Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology and Japanese Studies at Harvard. He was a specialist on contemporary Japanese society and culture; much of his research focused on Tokyo, and he wrote widely on urban culture and history, local neighborhood society and identity, markets and economic organization, and food culture as defining aspects of urban Japanese life. Since joining the faculty in 2001, he served as Chair of the Department of Anthropology (2007-12) and as Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (2012-14, 2015-18). He also served as President of the Association for Asian Studies (2012-13) and was the founding president of the Society for East Asian Anthropology. Professor Bestor was and continues to be widely known for his scholarship and contributions to Japanese studies, as well as the connections he made between Harvard, Japan, and around the world. He will be greatly missed.

Professor Albert M. Craig (1927-2021) was the Harvard-Yenching Professor of History at Harvard. He received his doctorate at Harvard under the supervision of Edwin O. Reischauer, with whom he taught the “rice paddies” survey course that continues to this day. He was one of the founding members of the Reischauer Institute and served as Director from 1983-1985. After his retirement in 1987, he remained an active member of the Japanese Studies community on campus. He was advisor, mentor, and friend to many scholars and visitors during his many decades of research and teaching at Harvard, and his presence will be greatly missed.

Professor Edwin A. Cranston (1932-2021) was the Professor of Japanese Literature at Harvard. He received his doctorate at Stanford University and joined the Harvard faculty in 1965, retiring in 2020. Throughout his long career, he trained a generation of scholars to read classical Japanese, conveyed the beauty of Japanese in his courses on Nara and Heian court literature, and introduced many undergraduates to the wonders of Japanese poetry in his popular Freshman Seminar. Professor Cranston served as EALC Department chair from 1981-87 and was one of the founding members of the Reischauer Institute. He was a distinguished scholar, gifted poet and translator, and a valued mentor and friend. He will be greatly missed.

RIJS Website

Established in 2005 and renewed in 2018, the RIJS website provides an overview of the Institute’s faculty, scholars, and students; grants and fellowships; events, programs, and activities; digital initiatives; publications; and other resources.

Visit the RIJS website at: https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu.

Covid-19 Pandemic Impact on Institute Operations

On 12 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, and beginning on 16 March 2020, Harvard University announced a transition to virtual instruction. Following university guidance, the Institute also began a remote work period in response to the unfolding situation, which continued through the 2020-21 academic year.

Beginning on 2 August 2021, the university announced a return to campus, and the Institute transitioned to hybrid operations for the 2021-22 academic year, while continuing to hold most events and meetings online.

Advancing Research in Japanese Studies Advancing Research

Since its founding in 1973, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies has sought in a variety of ways to promote and support research on Japan in all fields and disciplines across the University.

In addition to supporting Harvard faculty, RIJS creates professorships to bring in faculty from new or underrepresented fields. The research community built at Harvard includes not only faculty and students, but also leading visiting scholars, postdoctoral fellows, and, since 2005, graduate student associates-in-residence. RIJS organizes and/or sponsors seminars, conferences, colloquia, collaborative projects, and other activities that contribute to the exchange of ideas, while also supporting the WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, which fosters social science research that bears on Japan’s role in the world as an advanced industrial society. Finally, RIJS maintains a dynamic publications program that has produced a number of prize-winning books, provides major support to the Japanese language collection in the Harvard Libraries, and undertakes numerous initiatives including the Japan Digital Research Center.

Support for Faculty Research

Professorships

Over the past two decades, the Institute has played a prominent role in building Harvard’s intellectual infrastructure for the study of Japan through creating professorships in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). No other Japanese Studies program in the world has done more to create or support new faculty positions. These positions are intended to be incremental and are normally funded through the Institute’s endowment. Thus, the Institute owes much gratitude to its many friends in Japan who provided the original endowment funding in support of building Japanese Studies at Harvard.

The current RIJS faculty appointments are as follows:

›› Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics: Susan J. Pharr

›› Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History: Shigehisa Kuriyama

›› Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions: Ryūichi Abé

›› Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society: Helen Hardacre

›› Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology and Japanese Studies: Theodore C. Bestor

›› Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology: Mary C. Brinton

›› Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations: Alexander Zahlten

›› Associate Professor of Government: Daniel M. Smith (2020-21)

Edwin O. Reischauer Professorship in Japanese Studies

The terms of the Institute’s endowment also provide for a professorship, named for Edwin O. Reischauer following his retirement in 1980. Intended to contribute directly to faculty research and to the educational mission of the University, the professorship allows FAS senior faculty in Japanese Studies to devote up to one academic year to full-time research at some point during their tenure at Harvard. Normally, in alternating years, the Institute offers appointment as a visiting professor to a leading scholar in Japanese Studies. Visiting professors divide their time between research and teaching, offering two courses over the academic year, including at least one lecture course at the undergraduate level.

In 2020-21, William M. Tsutsui, Professor of History and President of Hendrix College, joined Harvard University as the Edwin O. Reischauer Distinguished Visiting Professor.

There were no Edwin O. Reischauer Professors in 2021-22.

Visiting Scholars

Visiting scholars are a vital part of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and the research community at Harvard. Their appointments vary widely from a few months to two years, with most staying for one year. During their stay, they collaborate with faculty or contribute directly to ongoing research endeavors at RIJS; advise students and provide contacts for Harvard undergraduate and graduate students preparing to conduct research abroad; give lectures and speak in classes; and participate in seminars and other research activities.

Student Host Program for Visiting Scholars

RIJS seeks to fully integrate visiting scholars into the research community and to ensure the opportunity for Harvard students to form working relationships with scholars who share intellectual interests. This mutually beneficial exchange allows scholars to offer advice and assistance to students during their stay and beyond. The RIJS Student Host Program pairs students with visiting scholars based on disciplinary focus.

Due to Covid-19, there were no visiting scholars in 2020-21. The visiting scholars for 2021-22 are listed below, along with their institutions, research topics and faculty sponsors.

Cynthea Bogel, Kyushu University

Healing Buddha at Yakushuji Temple

Faculty Sponsor: Yukio Lippit

Kaori Fairbanks, Bunkyo Gakuin University

Shi-shosetsu Novels in a Global Context

Faculty Sponsor: Tomiko Yoda

Yuko Nakama, Ritsumeikan University

Landscapes in Japanese Art

Faculty Sponsor: Yukio Lippit

Keiichi Sato, Senshu University

Disaster Response History in Japan

Faculty Sponsor: Andrew Gordon

Student Host: Jeonghun Choi

Ryoko Mizuno Kondo, Japan Women’s University

Gender in Japanese Medieval Art

Faculty Sponsor: Melissa McCormick

Miki Nakai, Ritsumeikan University

Comparative Study of Gender Inequality During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Faculty Sponsor: Mary Brinton

Japan Digital Fellow

Futoshi Taga, Kansai University

Paternity Leave in Japan

Faculty Sponsor: Mary Brinton

Student Host: Holly Hummer

Nobuyuki Yamada, Komazawa University

Historical Sociology of Industrial Relations in Japan

Faculty Sponsor: Andrew Gordon

In 2021, RIJS created a new position, the Japan Digital Fellow, to lead and facilitate digital scholarship initiatives. This position is for two years commencing in August 2021. The Japan Digital Fellow is intended for individuals working in the field of Japanese studies with an interest and commitment to the promotion of digital scholarship and digital methods of inquiry, publication, and research and preservation, particularly within the humanities and social sciences. Through their own projects and support of faculty and student research, the Japan Digital Fellow is expected to help define and implement future directions for digital scholarship on Japan at Harvard.

For the 2021-23 appointment term, the Japan Digital Fellowship was awarded to: Jungeun “June” Lim, University of Toronto, M.I. in Human-Centered Data Science, 2021

Postdoctoral Fellows

One of the oldest and most prestigious of its kind in the U.S., the RIJS Postdoctoral Fellowship Program provides recent graduates with the opportunity to continue their doctoral research at Harvard and produce publishable work from their dissertations. Former RIJS Postdoctoral Fellows occupy leading positions in Japanese Studies in universities all over the world.

Each year, the application process opens to a large pool of candidates in all fields and disciplines. Applicants must be within five years of earning their doctoral degree in Japanese Studies, in any area of the humanities or social sciences. Selected fellows spend their year at Harvard actively involved in the Japanese Studies community at Harvard, work with faculty and students, and present their research in the Japan Forum lecture series at some point during their stay. RIJS also provides support for each fellow to host a manuscript workshop and participate in other research activities such as conferences and travel.

The postdoctoral fellows for 2020-22 are listed below, along with their Ph.D. institutions, fields, degree years, and research topics. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020-21 cohort was conducted remotely, while the 2021-22 cohort was given the option to spend their fellowship year remotely or in person.

2020-21

Thomas Gaubatz (remote)

Columbia University, Japanese Literature, 2016

Writing Urban Identity in Early Modern Japan

Michaela Kelly (remote)

University of Tokyo, Cultural Anthropology, 2016

Contemporary Motherhood in Northern Japan: An Ethnography Applying Social Capital and Network Theories

Daniele Lauro (remote)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Japanese History, 2019

Meanings and Functions of Rituals in the Politics of the Tokugawa Shogunate: A Study of the 1843 Shogunal Pilgrimage to Nikkō (Nikkō shasan)

Mattias van Ommen (remote)

University of Hawaii at Manoa, Cultural Anthropology, 2020

Intimate Fantasies: an Ethnography of Online Video Gamers in Contemporary Japan

2021-22

Shayne Dahl (remote)

University of Toronto, Anthropology, 2019

Mountains of Time: Historical Consciousness and Sacred Mountains in Japan

Shiori Hiraki (in-person)

SOAS University of London, History of Art and Archaeology, 2021 Onari: Art, Ritual and Power in Early Modern Japan

Kara Juul (in-person)

University of Oxford, Oriental Studies (field: Sociology), 2021 Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead? Teachers’ Perceptions of the Gender Gaps in Mathematics

Youjia Li (remote)

Northwestern University, Modern Japanese History, 2021

The Muscle-Powered Empire: Organic Transport in Japan and its Colonies, 1850-1930

Keyao “Kyle” Pan (in-person)

University of Chicago, Modern Japanese History, 2021 Beyond Postwar, Beyond Nation: “Human Rights” and the “History Problem” in Postwar Japan and Asia

Graduate Student Associates-in-Residence

RIJS is surrounded by an extensive community of scholars which prominently includes graduate students enrolled in a number of departments and programs. Space in the CGIS Building makes it possible for RIJS and the other Asia-related centers to provide carrels or other space to a small number of Harvard Ph.D. students completing their dissertations. Designated as graduate student associates-in-residence (GSAs), these students are encouraged to attend events hosted by RIJS and other international centers and invited to various functions hosted by RIJS. This development offers an important new way of bringing advanced graduate students more fully into the Japanese Studies research community.

Due to the Covid-19 and resulting closure of the CGIS buildings, there were no GSAs in 2020-21.

In 2021-22, the following two graduate students in Japanese Studies were designated as GSAs, occupying in-person office space in CGIS South.

Jesse LeFebvre, EALC (Religion/Philosophy)

Jonas Ruegg, EALC/HEAL

Japan Forum

Established in 1974 in response to growing interest in Japanese Studies at Harvard, the Japan Forum lecture series provides scholars from a variety of fields and disciplines with an opportunity to present their research before a diverse audience that includes faculty, students, fellow scholars, and the general public. Assembling each Friday afternoon throughout the academic year, each forum is hosted by a Harvard faculty member and is followed by a reception at which attendees have an opportunity to interact with the speaker and with each other. After the reception, a smaller number of interested Harvard faculty, students, and other guests share dinner with the speaker. In addition, since 2010, RIJS has occasionally invited speakers to informal lunch gatherings with graduate students.

Since 1974, RIJS has sponsored more than 750 Japan Forum talks. In 2020-2022, all Japan Forum talks were hosted virtually over Zoom. In chronological order, the 2020-22 presentations are as follows:

2020-21

Kuniko Yamada McVey, Librarian for the Japanese Collection, HYL

Mariko Honshuku, Librarian for Japanese Law, HLS

Katherine Matsuura, Japan Digital Scholarship

Librarian, JDRC

Treasures from the Harvard Japan Collections

Moderator: Gavin Whitelaw

William M. Tsutsui, EOR Visiting Professor

Thomas Gaubatz, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Michaela Kelly, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Daniele Lauro, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Mattias van Ommen, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

New Directions in Japanese Studies Research

Faculty Host: Karen Thornber

Paula Curtis, Yale University

Tristan Grunow, Pacific University

Medieval Texts and Modern Podcasts: Lessons in Digital Media Pedagogy Moderator: Katherine Matsuura

Julia C. Bullock, Emory University

Beauvoir in Japan: The Second Sex and Japanese Women, 1953-2000 Faculty Host: Karen L. Thornber

Thomas Gaubatz, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Ihara Saikaku’s Aphoristic Rationalism: Economic Causality in 17th-Century Prose Faculty Host: David Atherton

William M. Tsutsui, EOR Visiting Professor

Surimi, Japanese Fisheries, and Global Markets: Environment, Technology, and Politics in the Making of Engineered Seafood Faculty Host: Ian Miller

Mattias van Ommen, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Intimate Fantasies: An Ethnography of Online Video Gamers in Contemporary Japan Faculty Host: Alexander Zahlten

Kate McDonald, University of California, Santa Barbara Foot Work: The Labor of Innovation in Japan’s “Transportation Society” Faculty Host: Shigehisa Kuriyama

Marvin D. Sterling, Indiana University at Bloomington Neoliberal Intimacies, Global Blackness, and the “Kokujin-Hafu” Experience: Toward an Anthropology of Contemporary Afro-Asia

Faculty Host: Karen Thornber (RIJS Japan Forum Special Lecture Series on Race and Racism in Asia and Beyond; co-organized with AC, FC, KI, SAI, USJP; co-sponsored by Center for African Studies and Department of Anthropology)

Michaela Kelly, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Technologies of Motherhood: Women’s Social Networks in Contemporary Low-Fertility Japan

Faculty Host: Mary Brinton (co-sponsored by USJP)

Daniele Lauro, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

What’s in a Pilgrimage? Tokugawa Benevolent Rule, the Tenpō Reforms, and Shogun Ieyoshi’s Visit to Nikkō in 1843

Faculty Host: David Howell

Laura Moretti, University of Cambridge

Book Talk: Pleasure in Profit: Popular Prose in 17th-Century Japan

Faculty Host: David Atherton

David Mervart, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

The Missing Colonial Empire: Reading European Histories from within the Sinosphere

Faculty Host: David Howell (co-sponsored by FC)

Gaye Rowley, Waseda University

In the Shelter of the Pine and the Long Shadow of The Tale of Genji

Faculty Host: Melissa McCormick

Reiko Abe Auestad, University of Oslo

Autobiographical Writings from a Cognitive Perspective: Affects and Sensibility in Shiga Naoya’s Shishosetsu

Faculty Host: Tomiko Yoda

Denise Khor, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Audible Divides: Japanese Americans and Cinema’s Sound Transition

Faculty Host: Alexander Zahlten

Shigehisa Kuriyama, Harvard University

How to Evoke Happy Ordinary Places — Hints from 19th-Century Japan

Faculty Host: David Howell

2021-22

Adam Lyons, Université de Montréal

Prison Chaplains and the Ambiguous Public Good in Contemporary Japan

Faculty Host: Helen Hardacre (co-sponsored by HBSF and USJP)

Shayne Dahl, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Ancient Spirit, Modern Body: The Rise of Global Shugendō

Faculty Host: Helen Hardacre (co-sponsored by HBSF)

Kara Juul, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Good Girls Don’t Get ahead? Teachers’ Perceptions of Gender Gaps in Mathematics in Japan

Faculty Host: Mary Brinton (co-sponsored by USJP)

Shiori Hiraki, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Establishing the Shogun: Art and Power in the Official Visits of Tokugawa Ienari

Faculty Host: Melissa McCormick

Andrew Gordon, Harvard University

Michael Reich, Harvard University

Puzzles of the Pandemic in Japan: Vaccination and More

Faculty Host: Mary Brinton (co-sponsored by USJP)

Keyao Pan, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Beyond Postwar, Beyond Nation: “Human Rights” and the “History Problem” in Modern Japan and Asia

Faculty Host: Andrew Gordon (co-sponsored by USJP)

Michaela Mross, Stanford University

Realizing Buddhahood through Singing: Music and Kōshiki in Sōtō Zen

Faculty Host: Ryūichi Abé (co-sponsored by HBSF)

Youjia Li, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

The Muscle-Powered Empire: Human-Powered Railways and the Making of Colonial Taiwan, 1895-1930

Faculty Host: Ian Miller

Noriko Murai, Sophia University

Japonisme Today: Exhibiting Culture and Exhibition Cultures in Our Time

Faculty Host: Melissa McCormick (co-sponsored by HAA East Asian Art Program)

Futoshi Taga, RIJS Visiting Scholar, Kansai University

Is a Caring Man Masculine? Care-Related Behaviors and Diversifying Gender

Attitudes of Japanese Men

Faculty Host: Mary Brinton (co-sponsored by USJP)

Edith Sarra, Indiana University at Bloomington

Bearing Witness to Disaster: Tanaka Takuya’s Lyric Sequences on 3.11 and Tōkaimura

Faculty Host: David Atherton (co-sponsored by JDA)

Gergana Ivanova, University of Cincinnati

Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book and Women’s Education in Early Modern Japan

Faculty Host: David Atherton

Keiichi Sato, RIJS Visiting Scholar, Senshu University

Disaster Response History in Japan: Comparative Information Studies about Disaster and Social Structure

Faculty Host: Andrew Gordon

Paul Roquet, MIT

The Immersive Enclosure: Japanese Virtual Reality and the Privitization of Presence

Faculty Host: Alexander Zahlten (co-sponsored by JDRC)

Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Australia National University

Capturing Hiroshima: Australian Artists and the Response to the Atomic Bombing

Faculty Host: Ian Miller

Nozomi Naoi, Yale-NUS College

The Japanese Department Store and Modern Design

Faculty Host: Melissa McCormick

Other Seminars

Each year the Institute organizes and/or sponsors a variety of seminars and lectures on topics related to Japan. A number of these events are co-sponsored with other departments and centers, as indicated below. All events in 2020-21 were held remotely over Zoom.

2020-21

Glen S. Fukushima, Center for American Progress

The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election: Politics, Economics, and Strategy

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Keiko Honda, Columbia University

Japan and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance Criteria): The Road Ahead

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Peter K. Bol, Harvard University

Grace Fong, McGill University

Andrew Gordon, Harvard University

Helen Hardacre, Harvard University

Long Live the Digital Scholarship Project!

(HYL East Asian Digital Scholarship Series co-sponsored by FC, KI, and RIJS)

John Haley, Washington University of St. Louis

Learning from Japan’s Criminal Justice Success

Discussant: J. Mark Ramseyer

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Mary Alice Haddad, Wesleyan University

Kanoko Kamata, University of Pittsburgh

Civil Society and Policy Advocacy in Contemporary East Asia

Faculty Host: Susan Pharr

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Keizo Takemi, House of Councillors, National Diet of Japan

Margarita Estévez-Abe, Syracuse University

Aya Goto, Fukushima Medical University

Japan’s Response to Covid-19

Discussants: Sak Sakoda (Office of the Secretary of Defense), Lt. Gen. Burton Field (Ret., U.S. Air Force), Admiral Scott Swift (Ret., U.S. Navy)

Faculty Host: Michael Reich (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Allison Alexy, University of Michigan

Family Law in a Family Nation: Custody, Conflicts, and Activism in Contemporary Japan

Moderator: Merry White, Boston University (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Tobias Harris, Teneo Intelligence

The Iconoclast: Shinzō Abe and the New Japan

Discussant: Koji Sonoda, The Asahi Shimbun

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Hsiang-An Wang, Academia Sinica Center for Digital Cultures

The Academia Sinica Digital Humanities Research Platform (HYL East Asian Digital Scholarship Series co-sponsored by FC, KI, and RIJS)

Amy Catalinac, New York University

How Pork-Barrel Politics Holds Japan’s Governing Coalition Together

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Ohwada Toshiyuki, HYI Visiting Scholar, Keio University

Red Book and Video Games: Yellow Magic Orchestra and Afro-Asian Futurism

Faculty Host: Tomiko Yoda (HYI Visiting Scholar Talk Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Michael Green, Georgetown University

Japan’s Strategy in Asia

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Javier Cha, Seoul National University

The Big Data Turn in the Humanities: Sailing into Uncharted Waters (HYL East Asian Digital Scholarship Series co-sponsored by FC, KI, and RIJS)

Toshihiro Nakayama, Keio University

Shin-Wha Lee, Korea University

Wu Xinbo, Fudan University

East Asia Responds to U.S. Election Results

Discussant: Ezra Vogel

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Xingyi Wang, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

Boundary of the Body: The Monastic Robe and Revival of the Vinaya in Medieval China and Japan (HBSF Lecture Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Charles McClean, USJP Postdoctoral Fellow

Sangjun Park, Osaka University

New Dimensions of Japan’s Democratic Governance

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Karen L. Thornber, Harvard University

Global Healing: Literature, Advocacy, Care

Co-chair: Sari Altschuler, Northeastern University

Co-chair: Amy Boesky, Boston College

Co-chair: David S. Jones, Harvard University (Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Naoko Shimazu, Yale-NUS College

Enacting “Asia” as Imagined Geographies: Tokyo 1943 and Bandung 1955

Faculty Host: Andrew Gordon (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Paul Blustein, Centre for International Governance Innovation

Schism 2.0: China and America’s Trade Conflict in the Next U.S. Administration

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Hirotaka Takeuchi, Harvard University

Smart Work-X: Japan’s Transformations in the New Normal Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Glen S. Fukushima, Center for American Progress

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University

Susan J. Pharr, Harvard University

Steven Vogel, University of California Berkeley

In Memoriam: Ezra Vogel in U.S.-Japan Relations: Enduring Legacies

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by JSB, JSNY, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, and RIJS)

Connor Mills, USJP Postdoctoral Fellow

Yoshiaki Kubo, USJP Associate, University of the Ryukyus

Sadamasa Oue, USJP Associate, Japan Air Self-Defense Force

US Military Bases and Japan’s National Security Strategy

Discussant: Sherry L. Martin, U.S. Department of State

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Patrick “Pakkun” Harlan, Comedian, TV Personality, and Voice Actor

My Inexplicable Journey: from Colorado Paperboy to Comedian and Commentator in Japan

Faculty Host: Andrew Gordon (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Yumi Kim, Johns Hopkins University

Madness in the Early Twentieth-Century Japanese Family: Writing Away from Psychiatry

Faculty Host: Victor Seow

(AC Science and Technology in Asia Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Stephen W. Schneider, Harvard University

Angela Chang, Harvard University

Rachel Saunders, Harvard University

The Botany of a Buddhist Sculpture—Hinoki Cypress and Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (Harvard Art Museums Art Study Center Seminar co-sponsored by RIJS)

Diana Stanescu, USJP Postdoctoral Fellow

Ryoma Nikaido, USJP Associate, Weekly Toyo Keizai Magazine

Takashi Nakao, USJP Associate, Japan Ministry of Finance

Liberalization and Regulation in the Global Political Economy

Discussant: William Grimes, Boston University

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Curtis Milhaupt, Stanford University

J. Mark Ramseyer, Harvard University

The Carlos Ghosn Controversy and Japanese Corporate Governance

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Daniel Aldrich, Northeastern University

Hiroko Kumaki, Dartmouth College

Ryo Morimoto, Princeton University

Japan’s 2011 Disasters: Ten-Year Anniversary Reflections

(Special Series on Japan’s 2011 Disasters co-sponsored by USJP and RIJS)

Rana Mitter, University of Oxford

The Century of Self-Definition: How China has Thought About Itself and Defined Itself to the World from the Late Qing to the Present Day

(Lecture 1 of 3: How New is the New Era?)

Discussant: Odd Arne Westad, Yale Univesity

(Reischauer Lecture Series co-sponsored by AC, FC, KI, and RIJS)

Rana Mitter, University of Oxford

The Century of Self-Definition (Lecture 2 of 3: An Era of Emotion?)

Discussant: Jie Li

(Reischauer Lecture Series co-sponsored by AC, FC, KI, and RIJS)

Rana Mitter, University of Oxford

The Century of Self-Definition: (Lecture 3 of 3: A Sense of Purpose?)

Discussant: Anurabh Ghosh

(Reischauer Lecture Series co-sponsored by AC, FC, KI, and RIJS)

Motoshige Itoh, University of Tokyo

Japan’s Growth Strategy in the 2020s: Demand- and Supply-Side Dimensions

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by HKS Mossavar-Rahmani Center)

David C. Atherton, Harvard University

Rachel Saunders, Harvard University

Sheryl L. White, Harvard University

David G. Haskell, The University of the South Haiku and You: Painting Edo and the Arnold Arboretum

(Arnold Arboretum and Harvard Art Museums Presentation)

Karen L. Thornber, Harvard University

Amy Borovoy, Princeton University

Andrew D. Gordon, Harvard University

Public Health and Wellness in the Covid-19 Era: Japan in Global Context

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Do-Hyun Han, Academy of Korean Studies

Thi Phuong Cham Nguyen, Vietnam Academy of

Social Sciences

Kunio Nishikawa, Ibaraki University

Sukumar Mini, University of Calicut

Tiejun Wen, Renmin University of China

Modernizing Asia’s Countryside

Faculty Host: Elizabeth Perry

(HYI Annual Roundtable co-sponsored by AC, FC, KI, SAI, and RIJS)

Matthias Kaun, Berlin State Library

An Introduction to CrossAsia

(HYL East Asian Digital Scholarship Series co-sponsored by Berlin State Library, FC, KI, and RIJS)

Shunji Izutsu, Japan Air Self-Defense Force

Saadia M. Pekkanen, University of Washington

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University

U.S.-Japan Alliance Cooperation in Air and Space

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Matthew McKelway, Columbia University

Yukio Lippit, Harvard University

The Sound of One Hand Knocking: Kano Sansetsu’s Solitary Encounters

Moderator: Rachel Saunders

(Harvard Art Museums Presentation co-sponsored by RIJS)

Natsuko Sakata, USJP Associate, Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Kotaro Ono, USJP Associate, Asahi Shimbun

Managing the U.S.-Japan Alliance in the 2000s

Discussant: Thomas Berger, Boston University

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Katherine Matsuura, Japan Digital Scholarship Librarian Make the Best Use of Databases

(East Asian Digital Scholarship Community Hour co-sponsored by FC and RIJS)

Takashi Nagata, Kyushu University

Japan, the Pandemic, and the Olympics

Moderators: Jerold S. Kayden and James Robson

(AC Asia Beyond the Headlines Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Yurika Wakamatsu, Occidental College

Vibrant Decay: Drifting among Moonlit Lotuses with Okuhara Seiko

Respondent: Victoria Weston, University of Massachusetts Boston

Moderators: Melissa McCormick and Rachel Saunders

(Harvard Art Museums Presentation co-sponsored by RIJS)

Elizabeth Emery, Montclair State University

Reframing Japonisme: Painting Edo and Beyond

Respondent: Chelsea Foxwell, University of Chicago

Moderator: Rachel Saunders

(Harvard Art Museums Presentation co-sponsored by RIJS)

Brent Hou-Ieong Ho, Berlin State Library CrossAsia Integrated Textrepository Workshop (HYL East Asian Digital Scholarship Series co-sponsored by FC, KI, and RIJS)

2021-22

T.J. Pempel, University of California Berkeley

A Region of Regimes: Prosperity and Plunder in the Asia-Pacific

Discussant: Meg Rithmire, Harvard University

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japanese Economic Statecraft co-sponsored by AC, WCFIA, and RIJS)

Ulrike Schaede, University of California San Diego

The Digital Transformation and Japan’s Business Reinvention

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Digital Governance cosponsored by HKS Mossavar-Rahmani Center and RIJS)

Sarah Bauerle-Danzman, Indiana University

Bloomington

Sophie M. Aitsahalia, Princeton University

Kristin Vekasi, USJP Associate, University of Maine Investment Screening and Supply Chain Security: Japanese, EU, and U.S. Perspectives on China

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by CES, FC, HKS Mossavar-Rahmani Center, and RIJS)

Mihoko Matsubara, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Japan’s Changing Cybersecurity and the Future of U.S.-Japan Relations

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Digital Governance cosponsored by RIJS)

Kenji Shibuya, University of Tokyo

Rethinking Japan’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japanese Economic Statecraft co-sponsored by HSPH Takemi Program and RIJS)

Celeste Arrington, George Washington University

From Manners to Rules: The Legalistic Turn in Governance and Secondhand Smoke Prevention in Japan and South Korea

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP, EALS, KI, and RIJS)

Aaron Proffitt, University of Albany (SUNY)

Buddha’s Name as Mantra in Medieval Japan (HBSF Lecture Series co-sponsored by Mahindra Humanities Center and RIJS)

Izumi Nakamitsu, United Nations

UN’s Role in the Global Disarmament Agenda

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP, HKS Belfer Center, and RIJS)

Eunmi Mun, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Lifetime Advantage at the Top? The Norm of Lifetime Employment and CEO Succession in Japan

Faculty Host: Mary Brinton (USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP, Dept. of Sociology, HKS Mossavar-Rahmani Center, and RIJS)

Naofumi Nakamura, HYI Visiting Scholar, University of Tokyo

Diversification and Convergence: The Development of Railway Technology in Meiji Japan

Faculty Host: Victor Seow (HYI Visiting Scholar Talk Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Ko Maeda, University of North Texas

Daniel M. Smith, Columbia Univeresity

Sheila A. Smith, Council on Foreign Relations

Japan’s Post-Election Policy Agenda

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP, and RIJS)

Mesrob Vartavarian, AC Fellow

Back to the Water’s Edge? Historicizing Current American Security Policies in the Asia-Pacific

Discussants: Vincenzo Bollettino, Carter Eckert, Aki Nakai (USJP Policy Innovations Fellow)

Faculty Host: James Robson (AC Seminar co-sponsored by KI, USJP, and RIJS)

Melissa McCormick, Harvard University

Bloodlines: Fictional Character Genealogies and Medieval Matrilines (Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar co-sponsored by RIJS)

M. William Steele, International Christian University

Japan in an Era of Uncertainty: Jabs by Editorial Cartoons, 2020-2021

Faculty Host: Andrew Gordon (USJP Seminar co-sponsored by Dept. of History and RIJS)

James L. Schoff, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

High-Tech Alliance: Pursuing Economic Security through Closer U.S.-Japan Science and Technology Collaboration

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Digital Governance co-sponsored by RIJS)

Toyomi Asano, HYI Visiting Scholar, Waseda University

Between the Collapse of Japanese Empire and Normalization with South Korea: Reconsidering Reparations, Memories, and Regional Studies Centering upon Edwin Reischauer

Faculty Host: Andrew Gordon (HYI Visiting Scholar talk co-sponsored by RIJS)

Angela Chin, Pomona College

Joseph Coleman, Indiana University

Jason Danely, Oxford Brookes University

Atsushi Miyawaki, University of Tokyo

Abe Global 2022: Polishing Japan’s Silver: Aging Sustainably in the 21st Century

Faculty Host: Mary Brinton

(Social Science Research Council panel co-sponsored by Oxford Brookes

Healthy Ageing and Care Network, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and RIJS)

Yves Tiberghien, University of British Columbia

Why Has the East Asian Covid Model Diverged over Delta and Omicron?

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Andrew Gordon, Harvard University

Modern Memories: The Public History of Industrial Heritage in Japan

Faculty Commentator: Jaewoong Jeon, Harvard University

Student Commentator: Yiyun Peng, Cornell University

Naoko Ishii, University of Tokyo

The Global Commons Stewardship: Enacting Systemic Transformations

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP and RIJS)

Yusaku Horiuchi, Dartmouth College

Evacuation from Afghanistan: The Case of Japan

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Tokuhiro Ikeda, USJP Associate, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

Aki Nakai, USJP Policy Innovations Fellow

Keita Azuma, USJP Associate, Japan Cabinet Secretariat

Security Threats and Alliance Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Region

Discussant: Jennifer Lind, Dartmouth College

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Digital Governance co-sponsored by RIJS)

Kaoru Iokibe, USJP Associate, University of Tokyo

Katherine Starr, USJP Associate, NHK World Japan

Koichi Ai, USJP Associate, Embassy of Japan in the United States

Rethinking the Origins of U.S.-Japan Alliance

Discussant: Thomas Berger, Boston University

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP and RIJS)

Chinami Iokibe, USJP Associate, Japan Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare

Shinichi Kijima, USJP Associate, Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry

Nobuhiro Mitsuoka, USJP Associate, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone

Keisuke Sakanoue, USJP Associate, Japan National Police Agency

Leveraging Digital and Technological Transformations: Lessons from America?

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Digital Governance co-sponsored by RIJS)

Kazuyuki Motohashi, University of Tokyo

Japan’s High-Tech Competitiveness in an Era of U.S.-China Decoupling

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Digital Governance co-sponsored by RIJS)

Wendy Cutler, Asia Society Policy Institute

Lizhi Liu, Georgetown University

Stephen Weymouth, Georgetown University

Digital Globalization and Governance: East Asia and Beyond

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Digital Governance co-sponsored by RIJS)

Victor Seow, Harvard University

Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia

Discussant: Megan A. Black, MIT

Discussant: Conevery B. Valencius, Boston College

Discussant: Gabriela S. Laveaga, Harvard University

Faculty Host: Shigehisa Kuriyama

(Department of the History of Science Book Panel co-sponsored by RIJS)

Sayaka Chatani, National University of Singapore

Zainichi Koreans in the Politics of Decolonization and Deimperialization

Faculty Host: Andrew Gordon (USJP Seminar co-sponsored by RIJS)

Julia Cross, Yale University

Relic Transfers and Statue-Reliquaries in Medieval Japan

(HBSF Lecture Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Shuhei Kurizaki, USJP Associate, Waseda University

Kristin Vekasi, USJP Associate, University of Maine

The Political Economy of Global Ownership and Supply Chains

Faculty Host: Christina Davis (USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Akihiko Uchiyama, USJP Associate, Chiba University

Tomoka Miyachi, USJP Associate, Takushoku University

Yuki Yamanaka, USJP Associate, Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry

New Economic Agendas in Advanced Capitalism

Discussant: Henry Laurence, Bowdoin College

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Seminar Series co-sponsored by RIJS)

Adam P. Liff, Indiana University

The U.S.-Japan Alliance and Taiwan

Faculty Host: Mary Brinton

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan

Foundation CGP and RIJS)

Megumi Naoi

Domestic Institutions, Geographic Concentration, and Agricultural Liberalization: Evidence from Remote-Sensed Cropland Data and Elite Interviews

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP and RIJS)

Masataka Harada, USJP Associate, Fukuoka University

Jordan Hamzawi, USJP Postdoctoral Fellow

Yosuke Takashima, USJP Associate, Asahi Shimbun

Social Bases of Democratic Governance

Discussant: Mary Alice Haddad, Wesleyan University

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP and RIJS)

Gabrielle Cheung, USJP Postdoctoral Fellow

Masahiko Furuya, USJP Associate, Japan Ministry of Finance

Hirokazu Watanabe, USJP Associate, Japan Ministry of Finance and Cabinet Secretariat

Threats to Economic Independence

Discussant: William Grimes, Boston University

Faculty Host: Christina Davis

(USJP Special Series on Policy Innovations in Crises, co-sponsored by Japan Foundation CGP and RIJS)

Conferences, Symposia, Workshops & Events

Exhibition

14 FEBRUARY 2020 – 6 JUNE 2021

Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection

Curators: Rachel Saunders, Yukio Lippit

Painting Edo — the largest exhibition ever presented at the Harvard Art Museums — offered a window onto the supremely rich visual culture of Japan’s early modern era. Selected from the unparalleled collection of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg, the more than 120 works in the exhibition connect visitors with a seminal moment in the history of Japan, as the country settled into an era of peace under the warrior government of the shoguns and opened its doors to greater engagement with the outside world.

Following the closure of H/AM due to Covid-19, this exhibition went on virtual display through Google Arts & Culture and a series of recorded art talks on Vimeo.

(H/AM exhibition co-sponsored by HAA and RIJS)

Workshop

20 NOVEMBER 2020

East Asian Digital Scholarship Community Hour

Organizers: Kwok-Leung Tang, Katherine Matsuura

The East Asian Digital Scholarship Community Hour was an experimental and casual community-building event aiming to provide a platform for scholars and, in particular, graduate students, to share their ideas, skills, big and small projects, and learn from each other. Presentation topics included cases of datasets, databases, tools, and software with East Asian foci; digital tools and workflows; ongoing digital projects open to suggestions and comments; and projects in need of collaboration with others.

(Co-sponsored by FC, JDRC, and RIJS)

Workshop

13 JANUARY 2021

East Asian Digital Scholarship Community Hour

Organizers: Kwok-Leung Tang, Katherine Matsuura

The theme of the second East Asian Digital Scholarship Community Hour was “Off the Beaten Track: Cool Tools for Online Teaching.” Adapting to the continuously changing needs of remote learning, this event introduced several online classroom platforms including mmhmm, Gather, and Congregate. The recorded session can be found on YouTube.

Shigehisa Kuriyama (Harvard University)

Alexander Zahlten (Harvard University)

Juhee Kang (Harvard University)

Tami Blumenfield (USC, Yunnan University, and University of New Mexico)

Kaitlyn Ugoretz (UC Santa Barbara)

(Co-sponsored by FC, JDRC, and RIJS)

Film Screening

5-12 FEBRUARY 2021

Edo Avant-Garde

Edo Avant-Garde (2019) reveals the story of how Japanese artists of the explosively creative Edo period (1615–1868) pioneered innovative approaches to painting that many in the west associate most readily with so-called modern art of the 20th century. Through groundbreaking interviews with scholars, priests, art dealers, and collectors in Japan and the United States, the film explores how the concepts of abstraction, minimalism, and surrealism are all to be found in Edo painting.

Culminating in a post-screening lecture, this film was made available to registered participants during the same week to stream for free through the Harvard Art Museums.

(Special Event co-sponsored by Harvard University, Tsai Lecture Fund, AC, FC, HYI, KI, SAI, USJP, and RIJS)

Post-Screening Lecture

9 FEBRUARY 2021

Edo Avant-Garde Conversation with Curator Rachel Saunders and Filmmaker Linda Hoaglund

Edo Avant-Garde (2019) reveals the story of how Japanese artists of the explosively creative Edo period (1615–1868) pioneered innovative approaches to painting that many in the west associate most readily with so-called modern art of the 20th century. Through groundbreaking interviews with scholars, priests, art dealers, and collectors in Japan and the United States, the film explores how the concepts of abstraction, minimalism, and surrealism are all to be found in Edo painting.

Rachel Saunders, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Curator of Asian Art, Harvard Art Museums

Linda Hoaglund, Filmmaker, Director of Edo Avant-Garde

(Special Event co-sponsored by Harvard University, Tsai Lecture Fund, AC, FC, HYI, KI, SAI, USJP, and RIJS)

Symposium

22 FEBRUARY 2021

Japanese Economic Statecraft in an Era of U.S.-China Rivalry

This symposium brought together five scholars from the U.S. and Japan for presentations and discussions regarding Japanese economic statecraft in the context of U.S., Japan, and China relations.

Introduction and Opening Remarks

Christina Davis, Harvard University

Takashi Shiraishi, Prefectural University of Kumamoto

Recent Developments in Japan Economic Statecraft

Saori Katada, University of Southern California

Japan’s Geoeconomic Strategy for Quality Infrastructure

Daniel Drezner, Tufts University

Recent Developments in U.S. Economic Statecraft

Q&A and Closing Remarks

(AC Special Series on Japanese Economic Statecraft co-sponsored by USJP and RIJS)

Gallery Talk

6 MARCH 2021

Virtual Student Guide Tour: The Bind of Beauty, with Sophia Mautz

In this virtual tour, Sophia Mautz ’21 examined the tension between nature and artifice in constructions of feminine beauty, leading an interactive discussion of Under the Cherry Blossoms, an early 16th-century illustration for The Tale of Genji by Tosa Mitsunobu, and two sculptures by women: Daphne (1930) by Renée Sintenis and Nature Study (1986) by Louise Bourgeois.

(H/AM event co-sponsored by RIJS)

Workshop

8 APRIL, 17 APRIL, and 4 MAY 2021

Haiku and You: Writing Workshop

Held in conjunction with the H/AM exhibition Painting Edo, a series of workshops invited participants to learn about the Japanese tradition of haiku poetry, visit the Arnold Arboretum, and share their own prompts, plants, poetry, and paintings on social media. Submitted works were published in an online gallery.

(H/AM event co-sponsored by Arnold Arboretum and RIJS)

Workshop

13 JANUARY 2021

East Asian Digital Scholarship Community Hour

Organizers: Kwok-Leung Tang, Katherine Matsuura

The third East Asian Digital Scholarship Community Hour focused on the topic of summer research. As field research in East Asia remained impossible in most cases, participants discussed methods for conducting research efficiently and utilizing databases to procure materials.

(Co-sponsored by FC, JDRC, and RIJS)

Gallery Talk

4 MAY 2021

Art Talk Live: Reframing Japonisme

In this talk, curator Rachel Saunders took a close look at a major new acquisition that shined a distinctly different light on European interest in “Japanese art,” and the ways in which this new category was constructed in Japan itself. This talk was part of a series inspired by ReFrame, a museum-wide initiative to reimagine the function, role, and future of the university art museum.

(H/AM event co-sponsored by RIJS)

Symposium

25 MAY 2021

Symposium in Honor of Professor Susan J. Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Harvard University

This symposium was held online to honor Professor Susan J. Pharr and celebrate her retirement after thirty-four years of service to Harvard University, including thirty-two years as Director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center of International Affairs, and six years as Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.

Welcome Remarks

Christina Davis, Harvard University

Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University

Mary Brinton, Harvard University

Recent Developments in Japan Economic Statecraft

Margarita Estévez-Abe, Syracuse University

Rieko Kage, University of Tokyo

Jiyeoun Song, Seoul National University

Michael Witt, INSEAD

Chair: Hirotaka Takeuchi, Harvard University

Japan’s Democratic Governance: Institutions and Civil Society

Daniel Aldrich, Northeastern University

Amy Catalinac, New York University

Henry Laurence, Bowdoin College

Chair: Elizabeth Perry, Harvard University

Japan in International Relations

Phillip Lipscy, University of Toronto

Saadia Pekkanen, University of Washington

Kim Reimann, Georgia State University

Mireya Solís, Brookings Institution

Chair: Christina Davis, Harvard University

Closing Remarks

Susan Pharr, Harvard University

(Co-sponsored by Dept. of Government, USJP, and RIJS)

2021-22

Due to the gradual recovery of on-campus activities in the midst of Covid-19, there were no conferences, symposia, or workshops to report for the 2021-22 academic year.

Publications

The Harvard East Asian Monograph Series

Along with other Asia centers, RIJS plays an active role in publishing outstanding research in the prestigious Harvard East Asian Monograph series (HEAM). Books on Japan sponsored and funded by RIJS are produced through the Publications Office of the Harvard University Asia Center. The series plays a vital role in making the research of scholars available to a broader audience, and many leading academics in Japanese studies today, including numerous Harvard Ph.D. recipients, began their academic careers with books that appeared in the series. Of the approximately 410 books that have been issued to date, over 150 deal with Japan. The works concern all aspects of Japan with particular emphases on Japan’s history, culture and society, and literature. In 2020-22, the following books on Japan were published in the HEAM series, listed in chronological order:

2020-21

Robert Goree Popular Geography and Meisho Zue in Late Tokugawa Japan

Maren A. Ehlers Give and Take: Poverty and the Status Order in Early Modern Japan

Michael Wert Meiji Restoration Losers: Memory and Tokugawa Supporters in Modern Japan

Susan Blakeley Klein Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater

Adam J. Lyons Karma and Punishment: Prison Chaplaincy in Japan

W. Puck Brecher Honored and Dishonored Guests: Westerners in Wartime Japan

2021-22

Sachiko Kawai Uncertain Powers: Sen’yōmon-in and Landownership by Royal Women in Early Medieval Japan Creative Industries

Susan Westhafer Furukawa The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan

Brian Hurley Confluence and Conflict: Reading Transwar Japanese Literature and Thought

Marnie S. Anderson In Close Association: Local Activist Networks in the Making of Japanese Modernity, 1868-1920

Simon Avenell Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity

Program on U.S.-Japan Relations

Founded in 1980 based on the belief that the United States and Japan have become so interdependent that the problems they face require cooperation, the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations (USJP) strives to foster research on Japan’s relationship with the U.S. and the rest of the world, as well as the domestic issues that bear on the country’s international roles and evolving regional context to which it belongs.

Housed at 61 Kirkland Street, USJP is administered by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA), cosponsored by RIJS, and overseen by a Harvard Faculty Advisory Committee. Since January 2020, Christina L. Davis has served as Program Director.

The Program’s intellectual mandate includes a wide range of issues and problems in U.S.-Japan relations; contemporary Japanese culture, economy, politics, and society as viewed from a comparative perspective; common problems of advanced industrial democracies; international relations of Asia and Asian regionalism; the globalization of Japanese popular culture; the rise of civil society in Asia; and global governance of issues such as energy, environment, and public health.

The Program and its activities reach a wide audience of faculty and students in the social sciences and throughout Harvard’s professional schools. As the seminar series of USJP and RIJS have surprisingly little overlap – two-thirds of attendees join one, but not the other – this partnership creates new synergies and connections.

Each year with support from RIJS, USJP hosts 2-3 postdoctoral fellows whose research focuses on U.S.-Japan relations and 12-15 scholars and outstanding professionals in government, business, finance, journalism, NGOs, and many other fields. While in residence, they conduct research, speak in classes, participate in Japanese language tables hosted by Harvard’s undergraduate houses, and serve as resources for faculty and students, both graduate and undergraduate. In 2021, USJP developed a new Visiting Policy Innovations Fellowship with support from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP).

The USJP postdoctoral fellows for 2020-22 are listed below, along with their Ph.D. institutions, fields, degree years, and research topics. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020-21 cohort was conducted remotely, while the 2021-22 cohort spent their fellowship year hybrid.

2020-21

Charles McClean

University of California San Diego, Political Science, 2020

Silver Democracy: Youth Representation in an Aging Japan

Connor Mills

Princeton University, History, 2020

Base Towns: Everyday Life In and Around the Garrisons of Postwar Japan, 1945–1954

Diana Stanescu

Princeton University, Political Science, 2020

Do Bureaucracy-Industry Ties Shape Trade Agreements?

Evidence from Japan

2021-22

Gabrielle Cheung

University of Southern California, Political Science and International Relations, 2021

Resilience in the Liberal International Order: Japan’s Role in Promoting Global Economic Cooperation

Jordan Hamzawi

University of California Davis, Political Science, 2021

One Party to Rule Them All? The Return of Party Competition Failure in Japan

Aki Nakai (Policy Innovations Fellow)

Boston University, Political Science, 2016

Why and How Is Japan Responding to the Emerging Technologies, Especially Artificial Intelligence?

The Program also coordinates closely with RIJS to provide summer internship opportunities for Harvard College students and maintains a well-organized and active alumni group in Tokyo. Please view USJP’s SoundCloud and Vimeo channels for further introduction.

The USJP staff for 2020-22 was as follows:

Executive Director Shinju Fujihira

Program Coordinator Amy Stockton

Staff Assistant Emma Duncan

Research Assistant Sophie Welsh

Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (JPOSS)

Starting in the 2020-21 academic year, the Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (JPOSS) was launched as an inter-university initiative by Amy Catalinac (NYU), Charles Crabtree (Dartmouth), Christina Davis (Harvard), Shinju Fujihira (Harvard), Yusaku Horiuchi (Dartmouth), Phillip Lipscy (University of Toronto), and Dan Smith (Columbia). The goals of JPOSS have been to: (1) promote discussion of works-in-progress, especially for early career stage scholars; (2) invite political scientists who do not specialize on Japan to serve as discussants and engage them with theories and evidence discussed in the Japanese political context; and (3) promote networking among scholars at different career stages, as well as those based in different countries and world regions. Since its inception, over 100 scholars have participated as paper presenters and discussants.

In June 2022, the organizers published an article, “Workshops without Borders: Building an Online Community of Japan Scholars,” Political Science and Politics, Vol. 55, Issue 3 (2022), to illustrate the opportunities and challenges of building a global online community of political scientists with shared interests. JPOSS has also sponsored three sessions for professionalization of political science scholars dedicated to the study of Japan.

Prior to 2020, USJP and RIJS co-sponsored the Contemporary Japanese Politics Study Group, which was suspended in response to Covid-19; the study group’s activities were subsequently moved to JPOSS.

Harvard’s Libraries

Harvard has one of the world’s leading research collections on Japan, and RIJS plays a major role in providing the necessary support for its maintenance and development.

Harvard-Yenching Library

In 1978-79, RIJS established a special fund to support Japanese language acquisitions by the HarvardYenching Library (HYL). Since then, this fund contributes yearly income to HYL and is used to acquire Japanese-language books and materials incremental to Harvard’s library budgetary allotments. Kuniko Yamada McVey serves as Librarian for the Japanese Collection.

Library Travel Grants

Through the Harvard-Yenching Library Travel Grant Program, scholars from other institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada have been able to visit Harvard and consult the Japanese collections at the Fung Library and HYL, which are supported by the Institute.

Digital Initiatives at Harvard

Evolving with the times, RIJS has embarked on several initiatives in collaboration with its faculty and in partnership with the university and other institutions and organizations in the U.S. and Japan, with the objective of bringing digital scholarship to the field of Japanese Studies.

Japan Digital Research Center (JDRC)

The Japan Digital Research Center was established in 2017 for the purpose of developing new modes of support and collaboration amongst librarians, faculty, and students working in an increasingly digitized and networked environment. The JDRC is focused on meeting the opportunities and challenges that international and multilingual digital scholarship presents, and the emphasis is on identifying, building, and sharing innovative and evolving digital resources that advance scholarship for Japan both today and into the future. Formerly known as the Documentation Center of Contemporary Japan (DCJ), the JDRC has been one of three libraries housed in the Fung Library. Although originally focused on the collection of Japanese social science journals, newspapers, and ephemera of postwar Japan, over time the rapid expansion of digital resources became increasingly central to the mission and purpose of the DCJ. In keeping with these changes, RIJS redefined the mission of the DCJ and introduced the JDRC.

Led by Katherine Matsuura (Japan Digital Scholarship Librarian) and Sachie Shishido (Japan Digital Project Manager), the JDRC serves as the home of the Constitutional Revision in Japan Research Project and the Japan Disasters Digital Archive and works closely with faculty, technology support, and other partners to maintain and develop these resources for research, teaching, and outreach to the larger worldwide community.

Constitutional Revision in Japan Research Project (CRJP)

Founded by Helen Hardacre in 2005, the Constitutional Revision in Japan Research Project (CRJP) meets to discuss, analyze, and document the process and debate surrounding the revision of Japan’s 1947 postwar constitution. In addition, the project seeks to situate the contemporary process of constitutional revision in the longer historical context of constitutionalism in Japan, as well as examine the role and perspectives of the political parties, the media, the political, labor, and business associations, women’s groups, religious groups, and many civil society groups in the constitutional revision debate. Related topics include Japan’s defense and security; imperial succession; rights and duties of citizens; the status of women; and the relationship between religion and state. Research on constitutional revision connects RIJS and other branches of Asian and international studies, including the social sciences, humanities, and beyond. The project engages not only students and faculty at Harvard and the New England region, but also faculty, diplomats, researchers, and students from Japan and around the world.

Leadership of the project was formalized through the creation of an Advisory Council, which currently includes Alexis Dudden (History, University of Connecticut), Timothy George (History, University of Rhode Island), Helen Hardacre (EALC, Harvard University), Keigo Komamura (Law, Keio University), and Franziska Seraphim (History, Boston College). This group convenes to set directions and plan future activities for the project.

A central aim of the project is to collect and preserve original data and documents generated in the course of debate. With assistance from the Library Digital Initiative (LDI) in early 2006, the project began monthly “web-harvesting,” archiving material from a target set of 77 related Japanese websites. By 2007, the project launched its website, which features links to these Japanese websites both current and archived, a chronology of events relevant to the current debate, and a bibliography with over 1000 references to academic

research and political analysis of the Meiji Constitution, postwar constitution, and ongoing discussion of constitutional revision.

Beginning in 2020, CRJP worked with the Japan Digital Research Center (JDRC) to develop a new website with the objective of offering new ways for scholars to engage with materials both in English and Japanese. While preserving the websites archived as part the project’s original initiative, this new website would serve as a database of constitution chapters, related drafts, and the wide variety of views shared online by politicians, political parties, movements, groups and organizations, scholars, and research institutions. As the website was officially launched in Spring 2023, details will be shared in the next biennial report.

In June 2021, Helen Hardacre, Keigo Komamura, Timothy George, and Franziska Seraphim published Japanese Constitutional Revisionism and Civic Activism (Lexington Books). This co-edited volume examines the history of Japan’s constitutional debates, key legal decisions and interpretations, the history and variety of activism, and activists’ ties to party politics and to fellow activists overseas.

Japan Disasters Digital Archive (JDA)

Launched in July of 2012, the Japan Disasters Digital Archive (JDA) is an advanced search engine for materials from around the globe, building digital repositories about the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. With the support of metaLAB and the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard, the project seeks to collect, preserve, and make broadly accessible many forms of first-hand information and primary documentation of the events of 11 March 2011 and their aftermath. Through the archive, the project aims to provide a public space of information exchange, to establish innovative means of organization, access, and integration of materials, and to contribute to teaching, research, and policy analysis both now and in the future. But most of all, JDA hopes that the archive will serve as a site of shared memories and reflection for those most affected by these events and concerned about their consequences.

JDA actively encourages user submissions of resources such as websites, videos, and photographs, as well as user testimonials about personal experiences of the disasters and their aftermath. Its innovative map feature provides a visualization of all materials that are tagged with geographic information in real time. And through the sharing and exchanging of collections and presentations, JDA fosters new connections, both between items and among users. This network of users is ever-expanding, from a major organization that submits thousands of location- and direction-tagged photographs, to fellow citizens who share their family’s experiences, to historians who seek to understand the interaction of public and private actors in the relief effort. Thus, the archive is an interactive space that promotes and, indeed, thrives on user participation. A video introduction can be found here: https://www.jdarchive.org/en/about/about-archive.

For a complete list of team members, please visit the JDA website.

Supporting Harvard’s Educational Mission

No goal of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RIJS) is more important than advancing the educational mission of the University. The Institute pursues this task in a number of ways: providing opportunities for undergraduates to study, conduct research, and hold internships abroad; funding grants to support the research and training of graduate students; and enriching the Harvard curriculum by promoting the development of courses on Japan.

Programs for Harvard Undergraduates

International Experience

Harvard is engaged in a concerted effort to give every undergraduate a significant international experience during his or her time in the College. Long a leader in this area, RIJS has increased its offerings over the past decade to allow more undergraduates to study, conduct research, hold internships, and pursue other related activities in Japan. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, several of these opportunities were cancelled or postponed, while other opportunities were adapted to a remote format. From fall 2020 through summer 2022, RIJS funded or facilitated 24 opportunities for Harvard College students and provided support for a wide range of Japan-related student activities. These programs are made available to students through various funding sources at the University.

In 2017, in partnership with the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and sciencerelated departments within FAS, RIJS developed the Japan Summer Science Undergraduate Research Program (JSSURP), a new grant opportunity in response to the increasing interest in research experience abroad in the life, physical/natural, engineering, and applied sciences. This opportunity provides support for non-credit, independent laboratory research at host institutions in Japan.

In cooperation with other Harvard international and regional centers, such as the Office of Career Services (OCS), the Office of International Education (OIE), and Harvard Summer School (HSS), RIJS offers informational events for undergraduate students designed to introduce grants, internships, and study abroad programs. These include the OCS Freshman Open House, OIE Open House, Study Abroad Programs & Perspectives Student Panel, International Education Week/Photo Contest, HSS Study Abroad Fair, and OCS Summer Funding & Programs Fair.

Each fall, RIJS organizes its own meetings for students to introduce programs and opportunities in Japan, and each spring holds a pre-departure meeting required for all summer and fall travelers, as well as orientations for participants of certain programs. Adjusting to developments in the Covid-19 situation, in 2020-21, RIJS offered weekly undergraduate virtual office hours for students to learn about Japan-related opportunities, as well as an information session for undergraduate summer opportunities, including support for language study and internships. In 2021-22, RIJS offered a series of either on-campus or remote information sessions for undergraduates, as well as a pre-departure orientation for those able to travel to Japan in summer 2022.

Academic Year Study in Japan

A number of well-established programs in Japan accept applications from Harvard students. All of them offer Japanese language instruction and courses in English. They include, in Tokyo: International Christian University, Keio University, Sophia University, University of Tokyo, and Waseda University; and in the Kansai region: Kobe University, Kyoto University, and Nanzan University.

In addition, some American colleges and universities run year-abroad programs in Japan that admit students from other institutions. RIJS and the Japanese Language Program (JLP) at Harvard assist students in identifying programs suitable to their interests and language preparation.

Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies

Harvard College students with two years of language study may spend an academic year or semester at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS). KCJS, formerly the Kyoto Center for Japanese Studies, offers courses in the Japanese language, humanities, and social sciences. Initially based at Kyoto University from its inception in September 1989, the program moved to its current home at Doshisha University in 2009.

The Consortium is currently headquartered at Columbia University and is sponsored by the following universities: Boston University, Brown University, University of Chicago, Columbia University /Barnard College, Cornell University, Emory University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Stanford University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale University, in association with University of Virginia. RIJS contributed start-up funds and, along with other sponsoring institutions, has made annual financial contributions to the Consortium since it was established. In 2020-22, the Harvard faculty representative was RIJS Executive Director Gavin H. Whitelaw.

The Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama

The Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC) is administered by Stanford University and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and is sponsored by a consortium of now sixteen universities (previously fourteen), including Harvard. RIJS contributes annually toward its support.

Summer Grants and Programs

RIJS was among the first of Harvard’s international and regional centers to offer summer funding for undergraduate research abroad, beginning in 1980. In addition to travel grants for senior thesis research, RIJS now awards grants in support of Japanese language study and internships, as well as supplementary grants for Harvard College students attending the Harvard Summer School Kyoto or pursuing other science research opportunities in Japan.

See end of section for a detailed list of grant recipients and program participants.

Henry Rosovsky Travel Grant

Since 1980, RIJS has awarded the Henry Rosovsky Summer Research Travel Grant to students conducting research and/or fieldwork in Japan directly related to a senior honors thesis in an area of Japanese Studies, primarily humanities or social sciences. This prestigious award is made with funds from an endowment established by an anonymous donor to commemorate the retirement of Henry Rosovsky, a distinguished economic historian of Japan, from the post of FAS Dean. Funds from this endowment are divided between the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and RIJS.

In 2013, RIJS expanded the range of support covered by this grant to include supplementary funding for students attending Harvard Summer School in Japan.

Harvard Summer Language Study Grant

Created in 2007, the Harvard Summer Language Study Grant is intended to provide students with the opportunity to study Japanese language in its home country and explore Japanese culture. This grant was initially available for students with two years of Japanese or equivalent and subsequently available for those with one year of study at Harvard. In addition to KCJS and IUC, mentioned above, students receive funding to study at accredited programs such as Princeton in Ishikawa (PII) and Hokkaido International Foundation (HIF).

During the Covid-19 pandemic, no students traveled to Japan for language study; in summer 2021, RIJS supported 4 students taking online courses through Harvard Summer School. In summer 2022, RIJS supported 7 students studying Japanese language either domestically or remotely.

Harvard Summer Internship Program in Japan

For over twenty-five years, Japanese Studies at Harvard has provided opportunities for undergraduates to hold internships in Japan, following the university-wide mission to give every College student a significant international experience. Through this program, eligible students are selected for placement in organizations in Japan, where they learn about local society and culture while gaining professional experience in the workplace. Each year, such opportunities for students continue to diversify with the growing ties of RIJS. The main objectives of the Japan summer internship program are as follows:

• Increase the total number of internship opportunities in Japan and the funding necessary to support them;

• Extend opportunities to students from various backgrounds and experience levels;

• Monitor and coordinate the numerous efforts of the College that offer research, study, and internship opportunities in Japan;

• Organize orientations to provide students with the necessary preparation to derive maximum benefit from their stay;

• Provide a Summer Student Program Coordinator in Tokyo to serve as a resource over the summer.

Established in 1988 by Tazuko Monane, then director of the Japanese Language Program (JLP), the internship program continued to grow with the vital support of JLP, under the guidance of Wesley Jacobsen, program director since 1993. Initially, the program was open only to undergraduates with two years of Japanese, but in 2005, RIJS began a major initiative to extend its internship opportunities to a wider circle of students, creating additional internships for students with little or no Japanese language. And in 2017, RIJS extended eligibility to first-year students in the Regional Studies East Asia (RSEA) Master’s Program.

In cooperation with JLP, USJP, OCS, Rotary Club of Okayama, Harvard Club of Japan, Harvard Business School Japan Research Center, several Harvard science departments, and other programs on campus, RIJS has significantly increased the number of internships, coordinating closely to maintain relationships with existing

host organizations and identify new ones. Since its inception, Harvard has sent more than 500 undergraduates to intern in locations such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Iwate, Miyagi, Okayama, and Okinawa.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, no students traveled to Japan for internships; in summer 2021, RIJS supported 3 students participating in remote internships. In summer 2022, RIJS sent 8 students on internships in Japan. For both years, internships included both students placed directly into organizations by RIJS and those who self-arranged internships through different channels, including, but not limited to, faculty, departments, and alumni networks. Working alongside Harvard’s student service and resources offices, RIJS also supports students by providing small supplementary grants and by including them in orientation activities.

Harvard Summer School in Japan

In 2007, under the leadership of RIJS, Harvard Summer School developed a credit-based, 8-week summer program in Japan. The HSS program is currently directed by James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Initially hosted by Waseda University in Tokyo, the program moved to Doshisha University in 2010. Students typically enroll in two courses, which are also open to Doshisha students. Non-credit Japanese language instruction with Doshisha staff is also provided for students with no previous Japanese language training.

In summers 2021 and 2022, the HSS Japan Program was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Japan Summer Science Undergraduate Research Program

Launched in 2018 in response to the increasing interest in research experience abroad in the sciences, the Japan Summer Science Undergraduate Research Program (JSSURP) provides support for non-credit, independent laboratory research at host institutions in Japan. This opportunity is designed to prepare Harvard College students in life, physical/natural, engineering, and applied sciences for post-baccalaureate research positions, graduate/doctoral study, and postgraduate fellowships. Successful applicants receive a grant package put together by RIJS and the host institution, which primarily supports travel and accommodation.

This new program also includes non-credit internships at various RIKEN centers, established through the efforts of Takao Hensch, and the Japan-U.S. Undergraduate Research Exchange Program (JUREP), a physics research opportunity founded and directed by John Doyle. Participants of either program are eligible to apply for funding through RIJS.

In summers 2021 and 2022, JSSURP was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Enrichment at Harvard

Noma-Reischuaer Undergraduate Prize in

Japanese Studies

Each year, RIJS conducts a competition to award the Noma-Reischauer Prize of $1000 to the best Harvard College student essay on a Japan-related topic. The Prize was established and supported from 1996 through 2010 by Kodansha Publishers in honor of Sawako Noma, then President of Kodansha, and Professor Edwin O. Reischauer. Since 2011, the prize has been funded by RIJS and awarded in conjunction with the Tazuko Monane Prize for Language Study, given by the Japanese Language Program. In 2020-21, the Prize winner was João Paulo Krug Paiva ’21 (Theater, Dance, and Media), for “A Choreographic Contribution to the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons: the Narrative Interrupted in Is It a Bad Time to Talk.” In 2021-22, the Prize winner was Chihiro Ishikawa ’21 (Sociology/EAS), for “The Global Diffusion of the #MeToo Movement: SNS Usage and Anonymity in Japanese and Korean Feminist Activism.”

Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Prize, OIE International Photo Contest

In fall 2006, RIJS collaborated with OIE to inaugurate the sponsorship of a Japan category within Harvard College’s annual International Photo Contest. The contest was cancelled from 2020-22 due to travel restrictions related to Covid-19.

Worldwide Week, Destination: World / Powered by Pechakucha

As part of Harvard’s Worldwide Week, which showcases the breadth of Harvard’s global engagement across schools through a series of internationally-themed academic and cultural events, RIJS and the CGIS centers organized and hosted Destination: World / Powered by Pechakucha, starting in 2018. In this event, Harvard College students shared their stories of personal discovery and intellectual exploration made possible through experiences abroad. Pechakucha, which originated in Tokyo, follows a format of 20 images x 20 seconds, in which the images advance automatically while the presenter is talking.

In fall 2020, Koji Everard ’21 (History) presented on his thesis research as a Henry Rosovsky Undergraduate Summer Research Travel Grant recipient. His presentation was titled, “Tracing the Footsteps of the Sugar Beet in Hokkaido.”

Though Worldwide Week returned to campus in 2021, there was no Pechakucha event due to limted travel opportunities for students over the past year.

Bāba, Babushka Student Photo Exhibition

With the generous help of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, RIJS hosted a student photo exhibition titled Bāba, Babushka in the Asian Centers Lounge in the CGIS South Building in February 2020. In response to the closure of the CGIS buildings due to Covid-19, the Bāba, Babushka exhibition was moved online into a 3D gallery featured on the RIJS website.

This exhibition featured photographs taken by Dasha Bough (’21) and Sky Russell (’20). Dasha spent the summer of 2019 in Volgograd, Russia to film a documentary following the life of a babushka named Galiya, and Sky spent the same summer in Tenryu-mura, a rapidly aging rural hamlet in central Japan, photographing the day-to-days of the bābas (grandmas) and jījis (grandpas) she met there.

The in-person exhibition in CGIS remained on display through campus re-opening until May 2022.

Japanese Language Table

Since fall 2008, RIJS has hosted a monthly Japanese language table at CGIS. Now co-hosted with USJP, the language table provides a space for an enthusiastic group of undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, RIJS visiting scholars, and USJP research associates to converse in Japanese and discuss a wide range of topics over lunch. From 2020-22, Japanese Language Table gatherings were postponed until further notice.

Support for Undergraduate Activities

Harvard Aikido Club

RIJS provides support to the Harvard Aikido Club (Aikikai), which brings together Harvard students to practice aikido and to study the principles and techniques behind the sport. Harvard’s oldest martial arts club, the group holds practices, classes, and seminars at the Malkin Athletic Center and the Quadrangle Recreation and Athletic Center. The Aikikai was on hiatus in 2020-21 and resumed their activities in 2021-22.

Harvard-Radcliffe Chado Society

A student group dedicated to learning chanoyu (“Japanese tea ceremony”), this organization strives to learn the traditional ways to prepare, serve, and drink tea. While officially an undergraduate organization, the chado society also welcomes graduate students, non-student Harvard affiliates, and non-Harvard students. Participants study the Way of Tea in the tradition of the Urasenke School, and the instructors are all members of Urasenke Boston, the local affiliate of the Kyoto-based Urasenke organization. The head of the international organization is Sen Soshitsu XVI, a direct descendant of one of the first Japanese tea masters, Sen no Rikyu. The Chado Society was on hiatus in 2020-22.

Harvard-Radcliffe Kendo Club

Founded in 1990 by four undergraduates, the Harvard-Radcliffe Kendo Club is one of the oldest collegiate kendo clubs in North America. Open to both undergraduate and graduate student members, the club maintains close ties with the Keio University Kendo Club, whose leader, Fumio Ueda, 7th dan kyoshi, is also the head coach of the Harvard team. Former RIJS Visiting Scholar Junji Himeno, 7th dan, coached this team during his time at Harvard, and in 1997 former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, a leading kendo player, practiced with the club on a visit. Wesley Jacobsen serves as Harvard faculty advisor. During the Covid-19 remote period throughout 2020-22 the Kendo Club held weekly online practices and seminars with instructors from Japan over Zoom. In 2022, RIJS provided support to the Harvard Intercollegiate Ryuko Taikai, which was held on 20 March 2022, in place of their annual Harvard Invitational Shoryuhai Intercollegiate Kendo Tournament.

Undergraduate Japan Experience 2020-22

2020-21

Summer Language Study Grant

Abiba Imam Dyuti ’24, Undeclared Intermediate Japanese S-120 (HSS Online Course)

Ryan Kong ’24, Undeclared Basic Japanese S-C (HSS Online Course)

Ana Mariella Mundaca ’22, Economics Intermediate Japanese S-120 (HSS Online Course)

Ton-Nu Nguyen-Dinh ’22, History

Intermediate Japanese S-120 (HSS Online Course)

Summer Intership Program in Japan

Kaede Ishidate ’23, Government Japan-America Student Conference (Remote)

Jacob Smith ’22, Social Studies Blackship Ventures/Jenerate Partners (Remote)

Satoshi Yanaizu ’23, Social Studies

The Asia Group (Remote)

2020 Noma-Reischauer Undergraduate Prize in Japanese Studies

João Paulo Krug Paiva ’21, Theater Dance & Media

A Choreographic Contribution to the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons: the Narrative Interrupted in Is It a Bad Time to Talk

2021-22

Henry Rosovsky Summer Research Travel Grant

Hannah Lamport ’23, Chemistry & HAA

“Preserving a Legacy: Use of Traditional Colorant and Kimono Production in Modern Japanese Textiles”

Maya Simkowitz ’22, Social Studies

“Remembering the Trauma of Our Ancestors”

Summer Language Study Grant

Simon Arango-Baquero ’23, Neuroscience Inter-University Center for Japanese Language (Remote)

Larissa Barth ’25, Undeclared

Intermediate Japanese S-120 (HSS Online Course)

Sasha Hitachi-Kizziah ’25, Undeclared Intermediate Japanese S-120 (HSS Online Course)

Anthony Miguel ’25, Undeclared Middlebury Summer Immersion Program

Bozhen Peng ’25, Undeclared Middlebury Summer Immersion Program

Moses Stewart ’25, Undeclared Intermediate Japanese S-120 (HSS Online Course)

William Troutman ’25, Undeclared Intermediate Japanese S-120 (HSS Online Course)

Summer Intership Program in Japan

Lauren Baehr ’24, History & Literature Asia Pacific Initiative

Anna Blanchfield ’24, Chemical & Physical Biology University of Tokyo

Alex Karbowski ’25, Undeclared HBS Japan Research Center

Kaoru Fujiwara ’24, Economics Jenerate Partners and Blackship Ventures

Jonas Hansen ’24, Engineering Sciences University of Tokyo

Kaede Ishidate ’23, EAS & Government Japan-America Student Research Conference

Tomoki Matsuno ’25, Undeclared Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of Yasutoshi Nishimura

Saya Mitchell ’25, Undeclared

P&E Directions

2021 Noma-Reischauer Undergraduate Prize in Japanese Studies

Chihiro Ishikawa ’21, Sociology & EAS (current RSEA)

The Global Diffusion of the #MeToo Movement: SNS Usage and Anonymity in Japanese and Korean Feminist Activism

Support for Graduate Student Training

Research and Training Support

RIJS supports GSAS and the future development of Japanese Studies by providing a range of fellowships and grants to Harvard graduate students. Due to Covid-19, funding and travel were severely limited in 2020-21. However, during these two years, RIJS was able to support 78 opportunities in total, both remote and in-person.

Dissertation Completion/Supplementary Dissertation Research Grants

RIJS awards Dissertation Completion Grants to support advanced graduate students in the full-time write-up of their dissertations and Supplementary Dissertation Research Grants to provide graduate students with the opportunity to continue year-long research in Japan and to support continued research after initial support by external funding sources. In the case of non-U.S. citizens, thus ineligible for many of the major fellowships that support fieldwork in Japan, these grants provide the core funding for their fieldwork.

For 2020-21, RIJS awarded Dissertation Completion, Dissertation Writing, or Supplementary Dissertation Research Grants to 4 doctoral students. For 2021-22, RIJS awarded grants to 4 doctoral students. Grant recipients represented a cross-section of academic departments: EALC, EALC/HEAL, History of Art and Architecture, Religion, and Sociology.

Summer Research Travel Grants for Graduate Students

RIJS awards Summer Research Travel Grants to allow graduate students to deepen their knowledge of Japan, maintain and improve their Japanese language skills, and develop ideas, investigate sources, and build contacts in Japan for future dissertation research. In the case of comparative projects that include Japan, graduate students also may apply for funding to conduct research in another country.

For 2020-21, RIJS funded 1 graduate student to travel to Japan and awarded grants to 3 graduates students for remote summer research. For 2021-22, RIJS funded 5 graduate students for summer research in Japan. Wintersession Research Travel Grants were not awarded in 2020-22 due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions.

Summer Language Study Grants for Graduate Students

RIJS provides Summer Language Study Grants to graduate students (both PhD and AM) seeking summer language study in programs in Japan and elsewhere. Especially in the social sciences, some students develop their interest in Japan only after entering graduate school and need additional time to build their language skills to research-level competence. Normally the language is Japanese, though applications for other languages are encouraged from students whose research would be furthered by another language or students who are engaged in comparative research that involves Japan.

Due to Covid-19, no students traveled to Japan for language study. In 2020-21, RIJS gave 8 Summer Language Study Grants to graduate students and supported 2 GSAS Tuition Waivers for Harvard Summer School courses online. In 2021-22, RIJS supported 4 graduate students for language study either online or within the U.S.

Covid-19 Bridging Grants and Emergency Funding

In response to travel restrictions and other obstacles caused by Covid-19, RIJS also provided bridging grants and emergency funding to graduate students to utilize resources domestically or remotely from 2020-22. A total of 18 students received bridging grants for Summer 2021, and a total of 19 students received emergency funding during the 2021-22 academic year, 7 in Fall 2021 and 12 in Spring 2022.

The Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama

Graduate students with at least two years of Japanese language training who want to devote an academic year to full-time advanced Japanese language study may apply to the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies Program (IUC), located in Yokohama. On behalf of Harvard, RIJS supports the IUC by providing a yearly membership fee of $10,000.

Noma-Reischauer Graduate Student Essay Prize

Each year, RIJS conducts a competition to award the Noma-Reischauer Essay Prize of $1500 for the best Harvard graduate student essay on a Japan-related topic. The Prize was established and supported from 1996 through 2010 by Kodansha Publishers in honor of Sawako Noma, then President of Kodansha, and Professor Edwin O. Reischauer. Since 2011, the prize has been funded by RIJS and awarded in conjunction with the Tazuko Monane Prize for Language Study, given by the Japanese Language Program.

In 2020-21, the Prize winner was Jesse LeFebvre, EALC, for his essay “The Politicization of Image: The ‘Elite Populism’ of The Illustrated Narrative Scroll of Major Counselor Ban and its Implications for Medieval Large-Format Illustrated Scrolls.” In 2021-22, the Prize winner was Yingxue Wang, HAA, for her essay “Why Beetle Wings? An Ecological Approach to the Tamamushi Shrine.”

See end of section for a detailed list of grant recipients and program participants.

Professional and Write-up Support

Professional Development

RIJS seeks to contribute to the professional development of graduate students in a variety of ways. Beginning in 2005 with the construction of the CGIS buildings, RIJS made space available for doctoral students engaged in dissertation write-up (see Advancing Research). RIJS provides funds for graduate students to meet and discuss their research in progress, and graduate students are also encouraged to interact with RIJS visiting scholars, either informally or through the Student Host Program (see Advancing Research).

In addition, RIJS provides small grants to graduate students for paper presentations at conferences or professional meetings, for the purposes of professional development and dissemination of dissertation research. Students in relevant fields may also apply for small grants that cover travel costs for job interviews held at professional meetings. RIJS awarded 8 conference attendance grants in 2020-21, and 2 in 2021-22, all attended online.

Support for Dissertation Writers Groups

RIJS recognizes that dissertation writing can be a lonely pursuit and that many students benefit from support and comments from their peers. In 2020-22, the Institute continued to make funding available to groups of graduate students in Japanese Studies looking to meet on a regular basis to discuss their dissertations.

Support for Student Groups

Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum

The Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum (HBSF) is a long-standing lecture series that invites scholars to present on a topic related to the field of Buddhist Studies, while promoting a wide range of disciplines, geographical areas, and methodologies. As Buddhist Studies is a highly interdisciplinary and cross-regional field, RIJS joins with other programs at Harvard in supporting scholarly activities in this area of research. In 2020-22, the Institute contributed support to the following lectures, which were hosted virtually over Zoom.

23 November 2020

Xingyi Wang, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

Boundary of the Body: The Monastic Robe and Revival of the Vinaya in Medieval China and Japan (co-sponsored by RIJS)

1 October 2021

Adam Lyons, Université de Montréal Prison Chaplains and the Ambiguous Public Good in Contemporary Japan (RIJS Japan Forum co-sponsored by HBSF and USJP)

15 October 2021

Shayne Dahl, RIJS Postdoctoral Fellow

Ancient Spirit, Modern Body: The Rise of Global Shugendō (RIJS Japan Forum co-sponsored by HBSF)

25 October 2021

Aaron Proffitt, University of Albany (SUNY)

Buddha’s Name as Mantra in Medieval Japan (co-sponsored by Mahindra Humanities Center and RIJS)

3 December 2021

Michaela Mross, Stanford University

Realizing Buddhahood through Singing: Music and Kōshiki in Sōtō Zen (RIJS Japan Forum co-sponsored by HBSF)

4 April 2022

Julia Cross, Yale University Relic Transfers and Statue-Reliquaries in Medieval Japan (co-sponsored by RIJS)

Harvard East Asia Society

The Harvard East Asia Society is organized by students in the RSEA program and is open to all those with an interest in East Asian cultures, history, and society. Students organize individual talks and an annual spring conference designed to provide an interdisciplinary forum for graduate students from the U.S. and elsewhere to exchange ideas and discuss current research on East Asia with peers, professors, and professionals. In 2021 and 2022, the conference was co-sponsored by the Asia Center, Fairbank Center, Korea Institute, Weatherhead Center, and RIJS.

The 24th annual HEAS graduate student conference was held virtually 27-28 February 2021 on the theme, “Moving Bodies: Mobility and Control Across East Asia.” Karen Thornber and Shigehisa Kuriyama led keynote dialogues. The 25th annual conference was held virtually 19-20 February 2022 on the theme, “The New Normal: Changes and Exceptions in East Asia.” James Robson led the keynote discussion.

Graduate Research and Training 2020-22

2020-21

Travel to Japan

Mari Kishi, EALC

The Culture of Excess: Space and Body in 90s Japan

Dissertation Completion Grants

Jonas Rüegg, EALC/HEAL

The Kuroshio Frontier: Business, State and Environment in the Making of Japan’s Pacific

Supplementary Dissertation Research Grants

Holly Hummer, Sociology

Childlessness in the United States and Japan

Yuxin Qin, Religion

Practitioners in Action: The Power of Lay Buddhists in Contemporary Japan

Summer Research Grants

Yedong Chen, EALC

Summer Research on the History of Japanese Computer Art Group: Computer Technique Group (CTG)

Jialu Li, Government

Taking the Cues: How Japanese Firms Shape Foreign Economic Policies

Janet Louie, EALC

Sounding the Transpacific: A Study of Cold War Film and Media in Hong Kong, Japan, and the USA

Summer Language Study Grants

Carolyn Bell, EALC, KCJS Classical Program

Gangsim Eom, Anthropology, IUC

Gene Kim, EALC, IUC

Ziyi Sarah Lin, RSEA, IUC

Trevor Menders, HAA, KCJS Classical Program

Xueyang April Peng, RSEA, KCJS

Maria Salvador Cabrerizo, HAA, IUC Kanbun Course

Jacob Williams, RSEA, IUC

GSAS Tuition Waivers for HSS Courses (Online)

Xiaofei Sophie Lei, RSEA, Japanese S-BAB

Yingxue Wang, HAA, Korean S-BAB

Conference Attendance Grants (Online)

Daniel Borengasser, EALC

Annual AAS Conference

Jeonghun Choi, RSEA

Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing Meeting

Charlotte Ciavarella, EALC/HEAL

Annual AAS Conference

Mari Kishi, EALC Annual AAS Conference

Joshua Linkous, EALC/HEAL Annual AAS Conference

Trevor Menders, HAA Annual AAS Conference

Yuxin Qin, Religion

Annual AAS Conference

Haruka Umetsu Cho, EALC/HEAL World Conference on Women’s Studies

Jacob Williams, RSEA Annual AAS Conference

Bridging Grants for Summer 2021

Fangdai Chen, Comp Lit

Patrick Chimenti, EALC

John Hayashi, History

Holly Hummer, Sociology

Leah Justin-Jinich, EALC

Juhee Kang, EALC/HEAL

Sara Kang, History

Yusung Kim, EALC

Sara Klingenstein, Religion

Reed Knappe, History

Lingling Ma, EALC

Yuxin Qin, Religion

Jonas Rüegg, EALC/HEAL

Jesus Solis, History

Helen Swift, HAA

Jonathan Thumas, EALC

Botagoz Ussen, Comp Lit

Bohao Wu, History

2021 Noma-Reischauer Graduate Prize in Japanese Studies

Jesse LeFebvre, EALC

The Politicization of Image: The “Elite Populism” of The Illustrated Narrative Scroll of Major Counselor Ban and its Implications for Medieval Large-Format Illustrated Scrolls

Graduate Research and Training 2020-22

2021-22

Dissertation Completion Grants (via GSAS)

John Hayashi, History

Hydraulic Taiwan: Colonial Conservation under Japanese Imperial and Chinese Republican Rule

Yusung Kim, EALC

Cold War Techno-Fantasy and Its Displays: New Materiality and Environment in South Korea and Japan

Jesse LeFebvre, EALC

The Antifragile Kannon Revitalizing Disaster and the Profileration the Hasedera Kannon

Lingling Ma, EALC

Creative Life Aesthetic Evolution and Japanese Modernism

Susan Taylor, Anthropology

The City of Texts: Affective Work and the Ethics of Care in Booktown Jimbocho, Tokyo

Dissertation Writing Grants

Jesse LeFebvre, EALC, Fall 2021

Helen Swift, HAA, Fall 2021

Summer Research Grants

Carolyn Bell, EALC

Japanese Buddhist Vestments and the Semiotics of Patchwork

Mari Kishi, EALC

Contemporary Japanese Female Sexuality and Media

Mei Mingxue Nan, Comparative Literature

Tsushima Yuko’s and Kuo John Sheng’s Japanese/American Passages to Taiwan

Patrick Sanguineti, RSEA

Transnational Tenrikyo Within Japanese America

Jonathan Thumas, EALC

A Translation and Study of the Daihizanji Engi

Summer Language Study Grants

Carolyn Bell, EALC, IUC Professional Tutorial (Online)

Yu Shan Mark Chen, EALC/HEAL, Middlebury Language Schools, German Immersion Program

Kassandra Diaz, EALC, IUC (Online) and University of Cambridge (UK)

Early Modern Japanese Palaeography Program

Trevor Menders, HAA, IUC Summer Professional Tutorial (Online)

Conference Attendance Grants (Online)

Yusung Kim, EALC

Annual Association for Asian Studies Conference

Yuxin Qin, Religion

International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies

Emergency Funding for Fall 2021

Leah Justin-Jinich, EALC

Sara Kang, History

Reed Knappe, History

Lingling Ma, EALC

Maria Salvador-Cabrerizo, HAA

Jesus Solis, History

Catherine Tsai, EALC/HEAL

Emergency Funding for Spring 2022

John Hayashi, History

Holly Hummer, Sociology

Juhee Kang, EALC/HEAL

Sara Kang, History

Sara Klingenstein, Religion

Reed Knappe, History

Lingling Ma, EALC

Yuxin Qin, Religion

Maria Salvador-Cabrerizo, HAA

Jesus Solis, History

Jonathan Thumas, EALC

Bota Ussen, Comparative Literature

2021 Noma-Reischauer Graduate Prize in Japanese Studies

Yingxue Wang, HAA

Why Beetle Wings? An Ecological Approach to the Tamamushi Shrine

Curriculum and Teaching

Curriculum Enrichment Grants

In the educational experience of Harvard College students, General Education (Gen Ed) courses, formerly Core courses, play a crucial and central role. As such, RIJS mounted a major initiative to increase the number of these courses dealing with Japan. The Institute also supported non-Japan specialists to add material on Japan to Harvard College courses they already offered or were developing. Cumulatively these courses have played an important role in bringing Japan more fully into the undergraduate educational experience.

Harvard College Core/Gen Ed Courses Developed under the Curriculum Enrichment Grant Program

Ryūichi Abé, EALC

Core: Foreign Cultures, Buddhism and Japanese Culture

Gen Ed: Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding, Buddhism and Japanese Culture

Mary C. Brinton, Sociology

Gen Ed: Societies of the World, Inequality and Society in 21st-Century East Asia

Christina L. Davis, Sociology

Gen Ed: Societies of the World, Inequality and Society in 21st-Century East Asia

Andrew D. Gordon, History

Core: Historical Study, Tradition and Transformation in East Asian Civilization: Japan

Gen Ed: Societies of the World, Japan in Asia and the World

Shigehisa Kuriyama, EALC

Gen Ed: Culture and Belief, Medicine and the Body in East Asia and Europe

Ian J. Miller, History

Core: Historical Study, Japan’s Modern Revolution

Gen Ed: Societies of the World, Japan’s Modern Revolution (2010-11) / Japan’s Samurai Revolution (2011-12 and beyond)

Support for Departmental Teaching

RIJS encourages faculty and departments to invite outstanding scholars or other specialists of Japan to Harvard in order to enhance the educational experience in their particular field. Typically, visitors appear in classes and meet with faculty and students. RIJS also supports course excursions, travel, and other related activities. The Institute provides funding to these visits and activities, as well as funding for Harvard faculty to travel to Japan for purposes that will ultimately contribute to the educational experience of students.

The interest in Japan is broad among Harvard faculty and students and among the general public, extending to numerous art forms associated with Japanese culture, including film, kabuki, Noh drama, martial arts, tea ceremony, ikebana, and many others. RIJS plays an active role in sponsoring activities in which these cultural forms are linked to the educational mission of the University.

Courses on Japan at Harvard 2020-22

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

General Education (Gen Ed)

GENED 1017

Americans as Occupiers and Nation-Builders

Andrew Gordon and Erez Manela

GENED 1042

Anime as Global Popular Culture

Tomiko Yoda

GENED 1049

East Asian Cinema

Jie Li

GENED 1083

Permanent Impermanence: Why Buddhists Build Monuments

Jinah Kim and Yukio Lippit

GENED 1119

Law, Politics, and Trade Policy: Lessons from East Asia

Christina Davis

GENED 1145

Global Japanese Cinema

Alexander Zahlten

Freshman Seminars

FRSEMR 52G

Nuclear Dilemmas

Benjamin Wilson

FRSEMR 61K

Life Lessons from Professional Killers: What We Can Learn from the Samurai

David Atherton

FRSEMR 62Z

Buddhist Enlightenment: Visions, Words, and Practice

Ryūichi Abé

FRSEMR 70L

Ancient East Asia: Contested Archaeologies of China, Korea, and Japan

Rowan Flad

FRSEMR 70Y

Asian America

Diana Eck

FRSEMR 71D

Zen and the Art of Living: Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

James Robson

East Asian Languages and Civilizations

East Asian Studies

EASTD 97AB

Introduction to the Study of East Asia: Issues and Methods

Melissa McCormick

EASTD 98K

Economic Governance in East Asia

Daniel Koss

EASTD 115

Japanese Monsters

William Tsutsui

EASTD 140

Major Religious Texts of East Asia

Ryūichi Abé

EASTD 141

East Asian Religions: Traditions and Transformations

James Robson

EASTD 142

Wisdom

Shigehisa Kuriyama and Thomas Kelly

EASTD 143AB

Introduction to Digital Tools and Methods in East Asian Humanities

Kwok-Leong Tang

EASTD 153

Buddhism, Japanese Arts and Culture

Ryūichi Abé

EASTD 161

Animated Spirituality: Japanese Religion in Anime, Manga, and Film

Helen Hardacre

EASTD 194

Historical Legacies in East Asian Politics

Daniel Koss

EASTD 198

Political Parties of East Asia

Daniel Koss

EASTD 220R

Medieval Japanese Picture Scrolls

Melissa McCormick

EASTD 260

The Lotus Sutra: Texts, Narratives, and Translations

Ryūichi Abé

EASTD 261

Advanced Readings in East Asian Art

Melissa McCormick

East Asian Film & Media Studies

EAFM 201

Media Mix: Representations and Meaning Between Media in Japan

Alexander Zahlten

Japanese Language Courses

JAPAN BAB (2 courses each year)

Elementary Japanese

Yuko Kageyama-Hunt

JAPAN 106A

Classical Japanese

David Atherton

Courses on Japan at Harvard 2020-22

JAPAN 120AB (2 courses each year)

Intermediate Japanese I

Naomi Asakura 2020-21 / Miki Miyagawa 2021-22

JAPAN 130AB (2 courses each year)

Intermediate Japanese II

Tomoko Graham

JAPAN 140AB (2 courses each year)

Advanced Modern Japanese

Yoshimi Nagaya (2020-21) / Naomi Asakura (2021-22)

JAPAN 150AB (2 courses each year)

Readings and Discussion in Japanese Social Sciences

Yoshimi Nagaya (2020-21) / Naomi Asakura (2021-22)

JAPAN 210AB (2 courses each year)

Reading Scholarly Japanese for Students of Chinese and Korean

Wesley Jacobsen

Japanese History

JAPANHIST 120 (Cross-listed with HDS)

Japanese Religions in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Helen Hardacre

JAPANHIST 126

Shinto

Helen Hardacre

JAPANHIST 151A

Introduction to Edo and Meiji Period Hentaigana

Shigehisa Kuriyama

JAPANHIST 214R (Cross-listed with HDS)

Major Issues in the Study of Japanese Religions: Precarious Japan

Helen Hardacre

JAPANHIST 260R

Topics in Japanese Cultural History – Toward a History of the Here and Now

Shigehisa Kuriyama

JAPANHIST 270

Early Modern Japanese History

David Howell

Japanese Literature

JAPANLIT 124

The Tale of Genji in Word and Image

Melissa McCormick

JAPANLIT 170

Traditional Japanese Literature: From Mythology to (Early) Modernity

David Atherton

JAPANLIT 260

Early Modern Japanese Literature and Culture

David Atherton

JAPANLIT 270

Topics in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Fiction

Tomiko Yoda

Government

GOV 94NA

Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy

Aki Nakai

History

HIST 12U

The Social Life of Science in East Asia

Ian Miller

HIST 14Y

Between East Asia and the Americas: Migration, Diaspora, Empire

John Hayashi

HIST 1023

Japan in Asia and the World

Andrew Gordon and David Howell

HIST 1026

The Rise and Fall of Postwar Japan

Andrew Gordon

HIST 1610

East Asian Environments: China, Japan, Korea

Ian Miller

HIST 1623

Modern Japan: Empires and Aftermaths

Andrew Gordon

HIST 1951

Japanese Imperialism and the East Asian Modern

Ian Miller

HIST 2651

Japanese History

Andrew Gordon

HIST 2653

Historiography of Modern Japan

Andrew Gordon

History of Art and Architecture

HAA 18K

Introduction to Japanese Art

Melissa McCormick (2020-21)/ Steffani Bennett (2021-22)

HAA 81

Art of Monsoon Asia: Interconnected Histories

Jinah Kim

HAA 98BR

East Asian Painting: China, Korea, Japan

Joseph Koerner

HAA 183N

Nihonga: Modern Japanese Painting

Yukio Lippit

HAA 281M

Sesshū Tōyō and Medieval Japanese Ink Painting

Steffani Bennett

Courses on Japan at Harvard 2020-22

HAA 285P

Topography of Vision: Asian Cases

Eugene Wang

HAA 288

Chinese Paintings in Japanese Collections

Yukio Lippit

History of Science

HISTSCI 229

The Nuclear Age: Critical Historical Perspectives

Benjamin Wilson

Linguistics

LING 174

Tense and Aspect in Japanese

Wesley Jacobsen

LING 176

History and Prehistory of the Japanese Language

Wesley Jacobsen

Social Studies

SOCSTD 98NQ

Global East Asia

Nicole Newendorp

Sociology

SOCIOL 3323

Social Demography Workshop

Mary Brinton and Jason Beckfield

Harvard Divinity School

HDS 3958 (Cross-listed with EALC)

Japanese Religions in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Helen Hardacre

HDS 3968 (Cross-listed with EALC)

Major Issues in the Study of Japanese Religions: Precarious Japan

Helen Hardacre

Harvard Graduate School of Design

HIS 4377

Competing Visions of Modernity in Japan

Seng Kuan

HIS 4454

The Project and the Territory: Japan Story

Mohsen Mostafavi

HIS 4483

Late-modern Japan and the Wild Samurai Generation

Seng Kuan

STU 1321 (Spring 2021)

Fudo/Umwelt: Devising Transformative Environments in Japan

Mohsen Mostafavi

STU 1321 (Spring 2022)

Tokyo: Artifice and the Social World

Mohsen Mostafavi

SCI 6378

Data Analysis and Data Physicalization through ‘Wagashi’ Expressions

Sawako Kawajima

Harvard Law School

HLS 2136

Introduction to Japanese Law

J. Mark Ramseyer

HLS 2317

Advanced Readings in Japanese Human Rights

J. Mark Ramseyer

Harvard Extension School

HIST E-1026

The Rise and Fall of Postwar Japan

Andrew Gordon

HIST E-1842

East Asian Environments: China, Japan, Korea

Ian Miller

HIST E-1851

Japan in Asia and the World

Andrew Gordon and David Howell

HIST E-1852

Modern Japan: Empires and Aftermaths

Andrew Gordon

HIST E-1900

Americans as Occupiers and National Builders

Andrew Gordon and Erez Manela

HUMA E-160

Buddhism and Japanese Artistic Traditions

Ryūichi Abé

JAPA E-1

Buddhism and Japanese Artistic Traditions

Ryūichi Abé

JAPA E-2

Buddhism and Japanese Artistic Traditions

Ryūichi Abé

Ties to the Community

Building Social and Intellectual Networks on Campus

Like all of Harvard’s regional and international centers, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies has a university-wide mandate—to build ties with the broader Harvard community through collaboration with other Harvard centers and departments to sponsor programs and activities relating to Japan. RIJS serves as a clearinghouse for Japan-related endeavors; collaborates in the planning and organization of events and/or research programs; funds the Japan component of activities organized by other units or other cost-sharing; and advertises events and/or suggests participants. Such collaborations create and sustain social and intellectual networks around the University, across the country, between the U.S. and Japan, and all over the world.

Covid-19 Pandemic Impact on Campus Activities

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, RIJS was unable to hold large indoor events between 2020-22, including the annual Fall Reception, New Year’s Gathering (shinnenkai), and Associates Dinner. In order to foster community among Harvard students, faculty, and affiliates, as well as maintain ties both within the U.S. and around the world, the Institute explored several new online initiatives during this time.

RIJS on Instagram

In September 2020, RIJS created an Instagram account under the name @harvard_rijs_japan to continue connecting with the greater Japanese Studies community through an online platform. A colorfully curated collection of graphics and hashtags, this page shares upcoming events, student and faculty news, and other related activities and initiatives.

RIJS x Onigiri Action

During the fall semesters of 2020 and 2021, RIJS collaborated with Table for Two USA and Debra Samuels at Wa-Shokuiku to participate in “Onigiri Action,” a social good campaign during the month of October to celebrate World Food Day and raise awareness of food- and health-related issues around the world. In October 2020, RIJS took to Instagram to share onigiri photos and nominate other individuals and organizations to participate, including Harvard’s Japanese Language Program and MIT’s International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) Program, while also spreading word about Japan-related language and research opportunities for undergraduate students. In October 2021, RIJS hosted several lunchtime information sessions, both in-person and virtual, culminating in a two-part “Onigiri in the Yard” event and “Reischauer Institute Presents Onigiri-Making” online cooking class presented by Debra Samuels, Gavin Whitelaw, and Jenni Ting.

RIJS x Haiku and You

In April 2021, RIJS joined the Harvard Art Museums and Arnold Arboretum in promoting Haiku and You, inspired by the exhibition Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection, which remained closed to visitors throughout the pandemic. In addition to a series of writing workshops and virtual tours of the exhibition and the arboretum, this campaign invited participants to share their own haiku for a poetry gallery, to which RIJS contributed several submissions from the Japanese Studies community.

International Japanese Studies Events Database (iJSED)

In October 2020, RIJS launched the International Japanese Studies Events Database (iJSED) in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and shift to online event programming undertaken at institutions and programs worldwide. The database aims to assist individuals all over the world interested in learning about and attending public events, as well as institutions looking to share their events with a broader constituency and further promote opportunities for intellectual engagement and community-building. Over the past two years since its inception, iJSED has listed over 600 events from nearly 100 organizing institutions.

RIJS on Google Arts & Culture

In March 2021, RIJS joined Google Arts & Culture to share several virtual collections based on exhibitions and projects of years past, including Mizue Sawano’s Eternal Return (2012), Tomokazu Matsuyama’s Palimpsest (2013), Yoshiaki Shimizu’s Irresolution (2017), and student-curated photography exhibition Bāba, Babushka (2020). The Google Arts & Culture page also feature a number of stories and student voices related to the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, the Sanriku Project, and the Japan Disasters Digital Archive.

Fostering Networks in the Boston-Cambridge Community and Beyond

One of the greatest resources for Harvard’s faculty and students is the sheer concentration of knowledge and human resources relating to Japan in the greater Boston-Cambridge area. Because RIJS has long included area institutions’ scholars in its research activities, the networks linking Harvard faculty and students to scholars at nearby institutions are exceptionally vast. Harvard graduate students seek out faculty at local institutions for advice on their work and benefit from these scholars’ inclusion in RIJS activities. These networks lead to new ideas, academic jobs for Harvard graduate students, new faculty for Harvard, advice for Harvard College thesis writers, and access to data or archival resources elsewhere.

Associates in Research

Because of the mutual benefits for the research community at Harvard and the local Japanese Studies world, RIJS offers informal Associate-in-Research status to scholars and experts in various disciplines and fields relating to Japan. These scholars are based at MIT, Tufts University, Boston University, the MFA, and many other institutions, mainly in the Northeast region. Informal appointees receive library privileges and may attend Institute activities. These informal appointments are approved by the Executive Director after submission of a written application and curriculum vitae. Further, the appointments must be renewed annually. There were 202 Associates in Research during 2020-22. Please see the following pages for a complete list of RIJS Associates in Research, along with their affiliations and research topics.

Scott W. Aalgard

Wesleyan, Asst. Prof. of East Asian Studies

Singer-songwriters and critical praxis in modern and contemporary Japan

Marié Abe

BU, Asst. Prof. of Music

Intersection of sound, public space, and social difference in contemporary Japanese urban life through ethnographic analysis of chindon-ya

Marié Abe

UNC Chapel Hill, Research Collaborator, Dept. of Asian Studies

Social history of outcaste groups during the Tokugawa period

Barbara R. Ambros

UNC Chapel Hill, Prof. of East Asian Religions

Animals and religion in contemporary Japan; the life and teachings of a contemporary Shinshu healer

Galen D. Amstutz

Independent Scholar; Adj. Faculty, Inst. of Buddhist Studies

Transition of Shin Buddhism from Tokugawa to Meiji

Marnie S. Anderson

Smith, Assoc. Prof. of History

Social and political history of Meiji Japan

Anna V. Andreeva

Ghent, Research Prof. of Japanese Language and Culture, Dept. of Languages and Cultures

Japanese religions, cultural history, Buddhism, Shinto, history of medicine

Yuko Aoyama

Clark, Prof. of Geography; Assoc. Provost and Dean of Res., Office of Academic Affairs

Japan’s regional policy and role of aging population; social innovation and social entrepreneurship

Bruce P. Baird

UMass Amherst, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese

Butō, Japanese theater

Mikael Bauer

McGill, Asst. Prof. of Japanese Religions

Japanese premodern Buddhism and history

Jeffrey P. Bayliss

Trinity, Assoc. Prof. of History; Chair, Dept. of History

History and perception of Korean athletes who participated in Japanese sports during the colonial period

Thomas U. Berger

BU, Assoc. Prof. of Int’l Relations

The U.S. alliance system in Europe and East Asia in comparison

Rosemarie Bernard

Waseda, Asst. Prof. of Anthropology and Japanese Studies

Anthropology of religion and ritual; legal anthropology; Shinto; Ise Jingū; emperorship

Joanne R. Bernardi

Rochester, Prof. of Japanese and Film and Media Studies

Re-Envisioning Japan (digital humanities project); Itami Juzō monograph; two co-edited volumes (Japanese cinema, provenance and early cinema)

Laura E. Bernhart-Wong

Independent Scholar; FFD Koordinatorin, German Foreign Ministry

Informal Sino-German diplomatic relations

Victoria Lyon Bestor

North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources, Exec. Director

Library resources; development of new internetbased Open Source materials on Japan in support of undergraduate education

Phyllis Birnbaum

Independent Scholar; Writer

Biography of Okakura Tenshin

Herbert P. Bix

SUNY Binghamton, Prof. Emeritus of History

America’s path to perpetual war, 1820s-present

Thomas S. Blackwood

Tokyo International, Inst. for Int’l Strategy, Prof. of Sociology

Asylum seekers, visa-overstayers, and foreigners convicted of crimes in Japan

Verena K. Blechinger-Talcott

Free Univ. of Berlin, Prof. of Japanese Politics and Political Economy

Patterns of modernity in East Asia; collaborative project on the emergence of global governance due to epidemics

Mark L. Blum

UC Berkeley, Prof. of Buddhist Studies and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies Nenbutsu history; Edo-period Tannisho commentaries; seishinshugi philosophy in modern Japan

Robert Borgen

UC Davis, Prof. Emeritus of East Asian Languages and Culture

Heian Sino-Japanese cultural relations

Daniel Botsman

Yale, Prof. of History

Emancipation in 19th-century Japan; translations of recent work on Tokugawa social history

Ethan D. Bushelle

Western Washington, Visiting Asst. Prof., Dept. of Liberal Studies

The Mandalization of the World: Esoteric Buddhism and the Reconfiguration of the Classical Imaginary

Anne C. Buxton

Market Insights Director, EF Education First History of Japanese Americans who weathered the years of WWII on Japanese soil

Patrick Caddeau

Princeton, Dean, Forbes College

Study of ways in which environmental factors and critical inquiry have shaped national identity

Gavin J. Campbell

Doshisha, Prof. of American Studies

Transnational history of Japanese menswear, 1600-1935

Matthew M. Carlson

Vermont, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science Campaign finance; political corruption; scandals

Haeng-ja Sachiko Chung

Okayama, Inst. of Global HR Dev., Assoc. Prof. Semi-refugees, disaster, and marginalization

Ellen P. Conant

Independent Scholar

Continuation of reappraisal of lives/careers of Ernest/Mary Fenollosa

Ian Condry

Associates in Research 2020-22

MIT, Prof. of Comp. Media Studies/Writing Ethnographic study of music and musicians after the end of the recording industry: Tokyo, Boston, Berlin

Thomas D. Conlan

Princeton, Prof. of East Asian Studies and History

A study of the Ouchi daimyo house and their political, ritual, economic and social significance

Theodore F. Cook

William Patterson, Prof. of History; Director, Asian Studies Program

War and memory in shaping Japanese culture

Teruko Craig

Tufts, Sr. Lecturer Emerita in Japanese

Translating essays by Fukuzawa Yukichi

Michael P. Cronin

William and Mary, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Studies

Alternate histories; Kansai region; 1995 in literature

Julia Cross

Yale, Postdoc Fellow, Council on East Asian Studies

Relic worship in medieval Japan; focus on the body, death; understandings of the sacred dead; how the dead are worshipped among the living

Jennifer Cullen

Northeastern, Lecturer, Dept. of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies

Father-daughter incest in Japanese manga

Michael A. Cusumano

MIT Sloan, Sloan Management Review, Distinguished Prof. of Management

Japanese corporate entrepreneurship

Brett de Bary

Cornell, Prof. of Asian Studies and Comp. Literature

Translation as practice and theory in the works of Tawada Yoko, Morisaki Kazue, Lee Chonghwa, and Ukai Satoshi

Wiebke Denecke

BU, Assoc. Prof. of East Asian Literatures

History of early Japanese literary culture through Chinese and Korean eyes

Jennifer F. deWinter

WPI, Assoc. Prof. of Rhetoric; Director, Interactive Media and Game Dev. Prgm. Japanese game studies, game development; Urban renewal and sustainability in Kyoto

Frederick R. Dickinson

UPenn, Prof. of History

Global history of modern Japan

Rachel DiNitto

Oregon, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Literature

Cultural responses to the 2011 triple disaster in literature, film, manga

Eric G. Dinmore

Hampden-Sydney, Elliot Assoc. Prof. of History

Monograph on resource anxieties in 20thcentury Japan, legacies of the co-prosperity sphere in Japan’s aid to Indonesia’s oil industry; monograph on Kurobe Dam

Sharon H. Domier

UMass Amherst, East Asian Studies Librarian

Reading techniques that will enable students to read authentic foreign language materials more confidently

James Dorsey

Dartmouth, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese

Japan in the 1960s; music and social movements; Japan’s wartime culture; translation

John W. Dower

MIT, Prof. Emeritus of History

American Century: War and Terror Since WWII

Fabian Drixler

Yale, Prof. of History

Demographic history and history of mentalities, especially with regard to social change in the 17th century

Edward R. Drott

Sophia, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Religions

Buddhist medicine in premodern Japan; religion and the senses

Alexis Dudden

UConn, Prof. of History

The current trend toward territorialization of sovereignty through Japan’s island disputes

Steven J. Ericson

Dartmouth, Assoc. Prof. of History

Business reform in occupied Japan

Margarita Estévez-Abe

Syracuse, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science

Demographic aging, gender, social policy, electoral politics

William R. Farrell

Honorary Consul, Japan for Rhode Island

Currently representing Japan and lecturing at RI universities and colleges on Japan

Matthieu Felt

Univ. of Florida, Asst. Prof. of Japanese, Dept. of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Reception of classical Japanese literature

William D. Fleming

UC Santa Barbara, Asst. Prof. of Japanese Literature

Early modern Japanese literature and reception of Chinese fiction in Japan

Lawrence A. Fouraker

St. John Fisher College, Assoc. Prof. of History

Political economy of interwar Japan

Associates in Research 2020-22

Matthew P. Fraleigh

Brandeis, Asst. Prof. of East Asian Literature and Culture

Sinitic literature (kanshi) in Edo/Meiji Japan; Japan-Taiwan cultural interaction

Sarah A. Frederick

BU, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese and Comp. Literature Book about Yoshiya Nobuko; digital humanities project on Natsume Soseki’s Kyoto

Nicole Freiner

Bryant, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science

Local responses to the repeal of the seed law in Japan

Naomi Fukumori

Ohio State, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Depictions of ritual and ceremony as mise-enscène in mid-Heian period vernacular texts

Terence Gallagher Independent Scholar

Translation of Japanese texts to English (business, finance, legal, literary)

Timothy S. George

Rhode Island, Prof. of History

Toroku arsenic poisoning

William L. Givens

The Japan Fund, Former Chairman U.S.-Japan trade competition

Ryan S. Glasnovich

Brandeis, Instructor, Dept. of History

Development of Japanese police identity in the latenineteenth century

Carol Gluck

Columbia, George Sansom Prof. of History

Memory in hypernationalist times

Janet E. Goff

Independent Scholar

Famous fox characters in classical Japanese theater and their literary, religious, and historical impact

Yoshie Gordon

Boston Higashi School, Director of Development and Corporate Relations

Autism education in Japan and in the US

Robert D. Goree

Wellesley, Asst. Prof. of Japanese

Illustrated book genre of meisho zue and the popular geography of the late Tokugawa period

Peter Grilli

Japan Society of Boston, President Intercultural exchange

William W. Grimes

BU, Prof. of Int’l Relations; Assoc. Dean for Academic Affairs

East Asian financial cooperation, U.S.-JapanChina economic relations

Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis

BU, Prof. Emerita for Japanese Art; Head, Birches School

Received start-up grant to construct middleschool curriculum on immigration from China and Japan which she taught at Birches School

Tristan R. Grunow

Pacific, Visiting Asst. Prof. of Modern Japanese History

Empire by Design: Engineering Networks of Modernity in Tokyo, Taipei and Seoul

Christine M. E. Guth

Independent Scholar

Craft in early modern Japan

Mary Alice Haddad

Wesleyan, Prof. of Government; Chair, College of East Asian Studies

Environmental politics in East Asia and urban diplomacy

Kenneth Haig

Hokkaido, Research Associate; Sr. Director, Oracle Japan

Energy policy and and market innovation

William M. Hammell

Independent Scholar

Scholarly publishing, voiceover narration, international school culture

Jeffrey E. Hanes

Oregon, Assoc. Prof. of History; Director, Ctr. for Asian and Pacific Studies

Social history of occupied Japan

Walter F. Hatch

Colby, Assoc. Prof. of Government; Director, Oak Inst. for the Study of Int’l Human Rights

Politics of U.S. military basing in Asia and Europe

Tom Havens

Northeastern, Prof. of History

History of science in Japan and East Asia

Kenji Hayao

BC, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science

Changing impact of the prime minister in Japanese politics

Robert Hegwood

Independent Scholar

Role of Japanese Americans in U.S.-Japan cultural and commercial relations

Robert I. Hellyer

Wake Forest, Assoc. Prof. of History

Japan’s role in the global tea trade in the 19th and 20th centuries

Mariko I. Henstock

BU, Sr. Lecturer Emerita of Japanese

Assessing Japanese text readability for collegelevel Japanese language learners

Money L. Hickman

Independent Scholar

History of Parinirvana Imagery Japanese painter

Myoyo Kokan (1653-1717)

Junji Himeno

Keio Medical, Assoc. Coach of Kendo Club

The concept of kendo

Hosea Hirata

Tufts, Prof. of Japanese Literature

A study of Kobayashi Hideo

Allen F. Hockley

Dartmouth, Assoc. Prof. of Art History

Visual histories published during the Meiji Period

Hilary Holbrow

Harvard, Lecturer in Sociology

Changing stratification in times of demographic decline

Todd J. M. Holden

Bentley, Lecturer in Sociology

Japan 3/11

Saburo Horikawa

Hosei, Prof. of Sociology

Place, Preservation and Politics: A U.S.-Japan Comparison

Yusaku Horiuchi

Dartmouth, Prof. of Government and Mitsui

Prof. of Japanese Studies

Japanese public opinion, political behavior, Japanese politics, electoral politics

Christopher W. Hughes

Warwick, Prof. of Japanese Studies and Int’l Politics

Japan’s international relations and security policy

Takaharu Ichimura

Harvard Medical School, Instructor of Medicine

Study of Minakata Kumagusu and Miyatake Gaikotu

Kimberly H. Icreverzi

Independent Scholar

Postwar Japanese cinema; gender and labor

Evan S. Ingram

Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Asst. Prof. of Japanese Studies

Chogen and Shunjo’s interpretation and transference of Chinese Buddhism and culture to Japan

Charles Shirō Inouye

Tufts, Prof. of Japanese

The attractiveness of things (mono), a study of neo-animism

Rei O. Inouye

Northeastern, World Languages Ctr., Teaching Prof. of Japanese

Integrating popular culture into Japanese language pedagogy

Mari Ishida

Wake Forest, Asst. Prof. of Japanese Japanophone literature and the ideological visions of the multi-ethnic Japanese empire

James P. Ito-Adler

Association for Central Asian Civilization and Silk Road Studies, Exec. Officer

Adoption in Japan: A case study of fictive kinship

Christopher A. Ives

Stonehill, Prof. of Religious Studies

Zen approaches to nature and environmental ethics

D. Colin Jaundrill

Providence, Asst. Prof. of East Asian History

A multi-layered history of the 1868 battle of Toba-Fushimi

William D. Johnston

Wesleyan, Prof. of History

History of disease, epidemics, and public health disasters in modern Japan

Colin P. Jones

Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Inst., Frankfurt

History of modern Japanese legal history from the perspective of political economy

Mark A. Jones

Central Connecticut State, Assoc. Prof. of History

Romantic love and marriage in interwar Japan

Jason A. Josephson Storm

Williams, Assoc. Prof. of Religion; Chair, Dept. of Religion

Japanese religions; East Asian philosophy; science and technology; philosophy of social science

Naoki Kamimura

Nanzan, Prof. of British and American Studies

Japan-U.S. security relations; U.S. policy toward the 1952 Bolivian Revolution

Ikumi Kaminishi

Tufts, Assoc. Prof. of Asian Art History

The history and politics of Japanese medieval emakimono

Miki Kaneda

BU, Asst. Prof. of Music

Transpacific musicology: race/gender/power in 20th- and 21st-century music

Nikhil Kapur

Rutgers-Camden, Asst. Prof. of History

1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty protests and their aftermath

Taizo Kato

Waseda, Prof. Emeritus of Psychology

Unhealthy nature of Japanese addictive relationships

Sachiko Kawai

USC, Postdoctoral Scholar, Dept. of History

Premodern Japanese history; women and gender; medieval estates; hot springs

Associates in Research 2020-22

Terry Kawashima

UMass Boston, Prof. of Asian Studies; Chair, Dept. of Asian Studies

Discourses of rebirth in premodern Japan

Adam L. Kern

Wisconsin, Prof. of Japanese Literature and Visual Culture; Director, Ctr. for Visual Cultures

Japanese literature and visual culture from 1600 to 1900

Masato Kimura

Kansai, Visiting Prof.

Shibusawa Eiichi’s thoughts and activities from the viewpoints of global capitalism and transnational relations

Takako Kishima

Waseda, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science

Transnational civic participation and digital activism: a case of “comfort women” movement

Aleksandra Kobiljski

Nat’l Ctr. for Scientific Research, Assoc. Prof. of Modern and Contemporary History

Engineering the Restoration: Envirotech History of Steel in Japan

Gabriele Koch

Yale-NUS, Asst. Prof. of Anthropology

Gender and sexuality; labor, rights, care

T. James Kodera

Wellesley, Prof. of Religion

Takashi Paul Nagai (1908-1951): radiologist, Roman Catholic convert, Hibakusha and Pacifist

Takeshi Kokubo

UMass Boston, Lecturer Emeritus on Japanese

A history of the Musashi Koku with emphasis on the influence of the Uesugi Clan

Keigo Komamura

Keio, Vice President; Prof. of Law

Constitutional law; constitutional politics; historical development of the Japanese constitution

Yukinori Komine

American Public, Assoc. Prof. of Int’l Relations

U.S.-Japan-China security relations over Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands disputes

Kimberly T. Kono

Smith, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese

Images of Japanese women in colonial Manchuria

Hiroko Kumaki

Dartmouth, Postdoctoral Fellow, SOF

Environmental health, science policy, and technological innovation in Japan

Thomas LaMarre

McGill, James McGill Prof. of Japanese Studies and Media Studies

Sciences and literature in Meiji Japan, on Sōseki, Ōgai, Tōson

Jinhee J. Lee

Eastern Illinois, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese History

Border-crossing women in transnational Japan and Koreans in the Japanese empire

Gary P. Leupp

Tufts, Prof. of History

Editing a large compilation of papers on Tokugawa Japan for Routledge Publishers

Andrew Levidis

Central Lancashire, Asst. Prof. of East Asian History

International history of the Japanese right-wing, historical rise of militarism, imperial thought

Adam P. Liff

Indiana, Asst. Prof. of East Asian Int’l Relations

International security in East Asia; Japanese security policy; U.S.-Japan-China relations

Mark E. Lincicome

Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies, Director Comparative study of national and regional identity formation in Japan and Australia, 1850-1950

Jennifer M. Lind

Dartmouth, Assoc. Prof. of Government

How countries develop economic and military power

Andrew Littlejohn

Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow, Sainsbury Inst.

Post-disaster reconstruction and local identity in Northeast Japan

Andrew Littlejohn

Montreal, Asst. Prof. of Religious Studies

Religion and social work, prison chaplaincy, new religions

Terry E. MacDougall

Stanford Japan Ctr., Bing Overseas Prgm., Director Emeritus

Immigration, ethnicity, and citizenship in contemporary Japan

Edward T. Mack

Washington, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese

Japanese-language literacy activities in Brazil prior to the Second World War

Tamaki Maeda

Independent Scholar

Sino-Japanese artistic interchanges in the 19th and 20th centuries

Ayu Majima

Meiji, Sr. Asst. Prof. Socio-cultural history of modern Japan; cultural anthropology

Federico Marcon

Princeton, Asst. Prof. of East Asian Studies and History

Introduction of Western philosophy in 19thcentury Japan

Associates in Research 2020-22

Andrew L. Maske

Kentucky, Assoc. Prof. of Art History

Preparing an exhibition on Japanese women artists for Denver Art Museum, Sept. 2021

Thomas Mason

ALLEX Foundation, Exec. Director

Chinese and Japanese pedagogy, study abroad

Yoshihisa Tak Matsusaka

Wellesley, Prof. of History

Imperialism and the Nationalist Opposition in Late Meiji Japan: A Study of the Seikyōsha, 1888-1918

Reo Matsuzaki

Trinity, Asst. Prof. of Political Science

Institutional legacy of Japanese wartime occupation in Southeast Asia

Trent E. Maxey

Amherst, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese History

Cultural history of the automobile in 20thcentury Japan

Hiram James McLendon, Jr.

Independent Scholar

Sociocultural organization of a Japanese sogo shosha; Japan’s political economy

Sean H. McPherson

Bridgewater State, Asst. Prof. of Art History

Architecture and social history of spaces for Buddhist worship constructed by JapaneseAmerican communities

Matthew Mewhinney

Florida State, Asst. Prof. of Japanese Architecture and social history of spaces for Lyric poetry, lyric theory, literati culture, prose and poetry (premodern and modern)

Jennifer M. J. Milioto Matsue

Union, Assoc. Prof. of Music, East Asian Studies, and Anthropology

Cross-cultural comparison of religious dance in Bali and Japan; research on iconic Icelandic avant-garde artist Bjork

Richard H. Minear

UMass Amherst, Prof. Emeritus of History Tokyo University in the 1930s

Shigeru Miyagawa

MIT, Prof. of Linguistics

Linguistics; open education

Kuniko Miyanaga

Independent Scholar/Researcher

The Iconic Action- A society coded by rituals

Jiro Mizuno

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific, Visiting Prof. of Japanese Diplomacy and Int’l Law

Japan and Iran, two friendly states and Iran’s nuclear policy

Robert H. Morehouse

Chairman, The December Inst.

The “Reverse Course”; American defense attorneys of Japanese accused of war crimes

Ryo Morimoto

Princeton, Asst. Prof., Dept. of Anthropology Fukushima nuclear disaster; decontamination; nuclear waste management; memory; archive

Kiyoko Morita

Tufts, Lecturer Emerita in Japanese Incense ceremony utensils found outside Japan

Carolyn A. Morley

Wellesley, Prof. of Japanese Literature and Theatre Buddhist nun plays in Noh and Kyōgen

James W. Morley

Columbia, Ruggles Prof. Emeritus of Political Science

Current affairs and U.S. policy

Anne Nishimura Morse

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William and Helen Pounds Sr. Curator of Japanese Art

Buddhist art and ritual practice; Japanese sheet music, contemporary photography, 1900-1950

Samuel C. Morse

Amherst, Howard M. and Martha P. Mitchell

Prof. of Art and History of Art

History of the sculpture of the Kamakura period, with a focus on its ritual context

Mark Mulligan

WIT, Assoc. Dean, Sch. of Architecture and Design

Modern/contemporary Japanese architecture and urbanism

Andrea Murray Independent Scholar

Book manuscript on tourism and environmental problems in Okinawa

Hiromu Nagahara

MIT, Assoc. Prof. of History

Cultural history of modern Japanese diplomacy, with focus on the inter-war period

Susan J. Napier

Tufts, Goldthwaite Prof. of Rhetoric

Finishing book on Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki

Jeffrey Niedermaier

Brown, Mulberry Essence Asst. Prof. of Japanese Literature

Boss Rule and Democracy in Post-Defeat Japan, 1945-1960

Emer S. O’Dwyer

Oberlin, Assoc. Prof. of History and East Asian Studies

Japan’s Postwar Democracy: The First Decade

Misako Ohta

Kobe, Assoc. Prof. Grad School of Human Development

Music and empathy during the occupation of Japan: A bicultural perspective

Halle O’Neal

Edinburgh, Chancellor’s Fellow; Lecturer of Japanese Art History

Buddhist palimpsests, medieval epistolary; death ritual; memory and embodiment; sacred paper

John C. Perry

Tufts, Fletcher School, Henry Willard Denison

Prof. of History

An imperial history of the China Seas

Samuel E. Perry

Brown, Assoc. Prof. of East Asian Studies

Japan’s Korean War; queer Korean literature

Lizbeth H. Piel

Lasell, Asst. Prof. of History

Childhood in wartime Japan

Joan R. Piggott

USC, Gordon L. Macdonald Prof. of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures

Book manuscript “Visions of Heian Kyoto” and collection of annotated translations “Obe Estate and its Residents—the World of a Medieval Estate”

Tamae K. Prindle

Colby, Oak Prof. of East Asian Languages and Literature

Shintoism in Nakamura Ryūtarō’s anime, (shinrei-gari 2007-08)

Aaron P. Proffitt

SUNY Albany, Asst. Prof. of Japanese Studies

East Asian and Japanese Buddhism, Esoteric Pure Land Buddhism in medieval Japan

Ronald Richardson

BU, Assoc. Prof. of History

Popular Movements and the Opening of Japan

Amanda Robinson

Independent Scholar

Japanese animal cafes, human-animal relations, sociality in Japan, affect economy

Paul Roquet

MIT, Asst. Prof. of Japanese Studies

Cultural politics of virtual reality and immersive media in Japan

Brian D. Ruppert

Bates, Hirasawa Prof. of Japanese Studies; Chair, Asian Studies Prgm.

Cultural history of Buddhist scripture in Japan

Atsuko Sakaki

Toronto, Prof. of East Asian Studies

Sports narrated, Trains of intensities, Photographic books as sites of translation

Richard J. Samuels

MIT, Ford Int’l. Prof. of Political Science; Director, Ctr. for Int’l. Studies

Japanese security policy

Ernesto F. Sanz

UMass Lowell, Prof. Emeritus of Economics Trade changes between the European Union and Japan

Minae Savas

Bridgewater State, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Studies; Chair, Dept. of Global Languages and Literatures Monogurui or madwoman motif in the Japanese Noh Theatre

Janine T. A. Sawada

Brown, Prof. of History of Japanese Religions Lay mountain religion in early Tokugawa Japan

Ellen Schattschneider

Brandeis, Assoc. Prof. of Anthropology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies WWII memorialization and ritual processes; material culture; trauma theory

Sachi Schmidt-Hori

Dartmouth, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Literature Representations of gender, sexuality, class, and (pseudo-) kinship in premodern Japanese prose narratives

Frank J. Schwartz

Showa Boston Inst., President International education in Japan

Amanda C. Seaman

UMass Amherst, Prof. of Japanese Literature Illness narratives (fictional and non-fictional) in postwar Japan

Vyjayanthi R. Selinger

Bowdoin, Assoc. Prof. of Asian Studies

Legal imagination of medieval literature

Franziska Seraphim

BC, Assoc. Prof. of Modern Japanese History

Geographies of Justice: Japan and German war criminals in the postwar world, 1945-1958

James M. Shields

Bucknell, Assoc. Prof. of Comp. Humanities and Asian Thought

Progressive and radical Buddhist thought and practice in East Asia, especially Japan

Yumiko Shimabukuro

Columbia, Lecturer of Int’l and Public Affairs; Director of Urban & Social Policy Prgm. East Asia’s brewing social welfare crisis and the decline in human capital/labor

Toru Shinoda

Waseda, Prof. of Social Sciences

Trans-pacific history of industrial democracy among Japan, China, and the United States

Associates in Research 2020-22

Eiko M. Siniawer

Williams, Prof. of History

Global history of 1973

Daniel M. Smith

Columbia, Visiting Assoc. Prof. of Modern Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy

Japanese politics, comparative politics, political economy, and political behavior

Kerry Smith

Brown, Assoc. Prof. of History

Disasters, disaster science, and earthquake prediction in 20th-century Japan

John P. Solt

Independent Scholar

History of Japanese visual poetry

Amanda M. Stinchecum

Independent Scholar; Hosei, Inst. for Okinawan Studies, Research Assoc.

Changing parameters, expressions, meanings of a sash from the Yaeyama Islands: legend, history, identity

Sarah M. Strong

Bates, Prof. Emerita of Japanese Language and Literature

Ainu oral traditions, animism in the works of Miyazawa Kenji, haikai traditions

Shizuko Suenaga

Seattle, Sr. Instructor of Japanese Japanese war brides today

Noriko Sugimori

Kalamazoo, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Language ideology, language policy; sociolinguistics, honorifics; critical discourse analysis; corpus linguistics

Ronald Suleski

Suffolk, Prof. of History

Using hand-written materials to reconstruct life for the common people of China from 1850-1950, including Japanese materials

Rebecca M. Suter

Sydney, Assoc. Prof. and Chair of Japanese Studies

Comparing Australian and Japanese beverage consumption cultures

Paul L. Swanson

Nanzan, Inst. for Religion and Culture, Permanent Research Fellow

Translating 6thcentury Tiantai Buddhist texts

Paul D. Talcott

Independent Scholar

The spread of market mechanisms in health care policy in Japan and East Asia; the relationship between economic development, democracy, and the introduction of market principles into social insurance systems

Wako Tawa

Amherst, Prof. of Asian Languages and Civilizations; Director of Language Study

Japanese grammar for learners of Japanese as a foreign language

Sarah Thompson

MFA, Curator of Japanese Art

Japanese prints in the MFA collection, especially ukiyo-e woodblock prints

R. Kenji Tierney

SUNY New Paltz, Lecturer of Anthropology

Sumo; food; globalization; sports; the body

Maria Toyoda

Suffolk, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences

Macroprudential financial regulation; material attributes and infrastructure complexity

Alice Y. Tseng

BU, Assoc. Prof. of Art History; Chair, Dept. of History of Art and Architecture

Modern Kyoto art and architecture; imperial portraiture and spaces; history of exhibitions and collections

Yolanda A. Tsuda

Kobe, Prof. of Global Studies

Religion and migration in Japan

Mary Evelyn Tucker

Yale, Sr. Lecturer and Sr. Research Scholar

Religion and ecology; book “Thomas Berry and the Arc of History” (2019)

Timothy J. Van Compernolle

Amherst, Prof. of Japanese

The creative exchanges between literature and cinema in interwar Japan

Floris van Swet

Northumbria, Postdoc Research Fellow

Social and political consequences of attainder in early Tokugawa Japan

Elena Varshavskaya

Rhode Island School of Design, Senior Lecturer

Ukiyo-e prints as historic documents

Alexander M. Vesey

Meiji Gakuin, Assoc. Prof. of Global & Transcultural Studies

Early modern Japanese Buddhist social history

James Keith Vincent

BU, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese and Comp. Literature

Natsume Soseki and Masaoka Shiki; haiku and the novel

Louise E. Virgin

Independent Curator of Japanese Art

Shijo surimono with emphasis on their included haiku and the haiku poets who composed them

Associates in Research 2020-22

Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano

Carleton (Ottawa), Prof. of Film Studies

Post-Occupation Cinema, especially the 1950s Japan; “Japan” in the cultural discourses after 3.11

Mariko N. Walter

Independent Scholar, Exec. Director of ACANSRS

The Silk Road: Interwoven History, vol. 2 Buddhism

Garrett L. Washintgon

UMass Amherst, Asst. Prof. of History

Social impact of urban, built, and social spaces of Japanese Protestant Churches, 1879-1923

Takeshi Watanabe

Wesleyan, Asst. Prof. of East Asian Studies

Pre-Edo representations of foodways through text and image

Robert Weiner

Naval Postgrad. School, Lecturer in Political Science

Comparative/domestic politics of Japan, the Koreas, East and Southeast Asia

Victoria Weston

UMass Boston, Assoc. Prof. of Art

Okakura Kakuzo in his international context; Meiji-period Tokyo nihonga

Merry White

BU, Prof. of Sociology and Anthropology

Ethnographic research on “work” in Japan in food from domestic to artisanal to industrial work

Ellen B. Widmer

Wellesley, Mayling Soong Prof. of Chinese Studies

A 17th century Chinese poet; Dual identity of a Chinese revolutionary woman; How biographies of heroines made their way from America to China via Japan

Michael A. Witt

INSEAD, Prof. of Strategy and International Business

Varieties of capitalism, de-globlalization, comparative corporate governance

David Wittner

Utica, Prof. of East Asian History

Meiji industrialization, visual and material culture

Aida Yuen Wong

Brandeis, Assoc. Prof. of Asian Art China-Japan relations and transnationalism; Nakamura Fusetsu and his circle of Japanese calligraphers who popularized metal-and-stone aesthetic in late 19th and early 20th centuries

Tadashi Yamamoto

Independent Scholar

Japanese mythology and coronations; computational intelligence; food culture

Emi Yamanaka

BU, Sr. Lecturer in Japanese Language pedagogy; second language acquisition, technology in education

Kikuko Yamashita

Brown, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Studies

Historical background of Buddhist writings used in the medieval temple schools

Midori Yoshii

Albion, Prof. of Int’l Studies

Japan’s role in the JFK/LBJ era U.S. policy toward Taiwan

Anna M. Zielinska-Elliott

BU, Master Lecturer in Japanese; Director, BU

Translation Initiative

History of translation of Tanizaki’s “Kagi” around the world

Eve Zimmerman

Wellesley, Assoc. Prof. of Japanese Trope of girlhood in modern Japanese literary culture

Administration

Through 2020-22, the Institute was administered on a day-to-day basis by the individuals listed below. Due to limitations caused by Covid-19, there were no Japan Summer Student Program Coordinators or Student Assistants during this time.

Reischauer Institute Staff

›› Director Mary C. Brinton

›› Executive Director Gavin H. Whitelaw

›› Assistant Director Stacie Matsumoto

›› Assistant to the Director/ Mizuka Yasuhara (2020-21) Event Coordinator

›› Graduate Program Coordinator Catherine Glover

›› Undergraduate Program Coordinator Wei-Hsuan Jenni Ting

›› Project Coordinator Hannah Perry

›› Financial Assistant Yitsy Ooi

›› Japan Digital Scholarship Librarian Katherine Matsuura

›› Japan Digital Project Manager Sachie Shishido

Cover image: 2020-21

RIJS Holiday Card Photo “teamLab Borderless” (Tokyo, Japan) Diane Lee, Harvard Class of 2020