2018 Newsletter Now On-Line Over the last year, the distinguished faculty and staff affiliated with the University of Washington’s Japan Studies Program have received numerous awards and recognition for their outstanding achievements in the field. What follows is a brief summary of these commendations.

As an international relations scholar who studies space law and policy, I have come to realize what most people do not fully appreciate: Dealing with space debris is as much a national security issue as it is a technical one. Considering the debris circling the Earth as just an obstacle in the path of human

Please introduce yourself. My name is Daniel White and I am a second year student in the Jackson School Japan Studies MA program at the University of Washington. Born and raised in Washington State, I completed my undergraduate studies at the UW where I also had the opportunity to study for a year at Waseda

Jackson School Professor Mark Metzler co-hosted Episode 22 of the University of British Columbia’s “The Meiji at 150 Podcast Series”. In observance of the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration, the project highlights the recent research and pedagogical approaches of specialists of Japanese history, literature, art, and culture. In the podcast, Professor Metzler discusses with host

The East Asia Library at UW is home to one of the most extensive collections of information about Japan, Korea and China in the USA. It’s also home to one-of-a-kind materials, each with its own unique story of how it was made and how it ended up at the library. This series tells some of

Mark your calendars! The 71st Japan-America Student Conference (JASC) will begin accepting delegate applications on Tuesday, October 2, 2018.  Students from all academic backgrounds are welcome to apply, and no previous experience in Japan studies or Japanese language is required. 2019 Application Information The 71st JASC will bring together Japanese and American college students from

Griffith Way, a lawyer in both the United States and Japan and a long-time collector of Japanese art, passed away on July 27, 2018. Griff was for decades a friend to the Japan Studies Program. His work as Trustee for the Blakemore Foundation, and his service on the Jackson School’s Visiting Committee were just two

Jackson School Professor Saadia Pekkanen is interviewed for the cover story “The US-Japan Space Alliance — the Most Critical Bilateral Relationship for Peace & Prosperity” of Japan Spotlight, a Japan Economic Forum journal. In her interview, Professor Pekkanen, an expert in outer space security, law, and policy, says that as the most important bilateral space relationship, the United

We are happy to share the news that today, July 17, 2018, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan announced the recipients of the Foreign Minister’s Commendation for 2018. The Japanese Language and Literature Program, Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle was among those selected for this honor. Since

Robert Pekkanen is co-editor of two new volumes this year. The first is  The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems. Contributions from the top scholars in the field cover the design and adoption of election rules, how rules influence representation, policy, and the functions of other institutions, and the emerging horizons of electoral systems research. In