Professor Izumi Matsuda-Kiami in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Teacher Award (Post-secondary category) by the American Association of Teachers of Japanese.  You can read more about the organization and the award, as well as Professor Matsuda-Kiami’s acceptance message, at AATJ Teacher Award Recipients 2022.  Congratulations!

Manzanar, Diverted is a powerful documentary film on the linked histories of Indigenous dispossession, Japanese American incarceration, and struggles over water in the desertified Owens Valley of California, lands once known as Payahüünadü—the place where the water always flows. Join us for a screening of the film and discussion with director Ann Kaneko. Ann will be

Alice Tseng investigates the multiple demands on architectural design and expression at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Whereas architectural nationalism, which Mitchell Schwarzer defines as design that advances ideas of a nation, may have been a dominant concern for scholarship up to now, diplomacy, commerce, and amusement deserve in-depth investigation as well.

When the U.S. demanded Japanese “boots on the ground” to support its 2003 invasion of Iraq, Prime Minister Jun’ichiro Koizumi responded by deploying a small contingent of Self-Defense Forces in the first significant display of SDF force. On the day following deployment, three antiwar protesters demonstrated by walking the corridors of SDF buildings in Tachikawa.

Jackson School Professor Robert Pekkanen, an expert on Japan and electoral systems, has co-edited a new book, Japan Decides 2021: The Japanese General Election.  The essays in this volume analyze the October 31, 2021, national parliamentary election in Japan. Individual chapters focus on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the postponed Tokyo Olympics, monetary policy,

Manzanar, Diverted is a powerful documentary film on the linked histories of Indigenous dispossession, Japanese American incarceration, and struggles over water in the desertified Owens Valley of California, lands once known as Payahüünadü—the place where the water always flows. Join us for a screening of the film and discussion with director Ann Kaneko. Ann will be

Manzanar, Diverted is a powerful documentary film on the linked histories of Indigenous dispossession, Japanese American incarceration, and struggles over water in the desertified Owens Valley of California, lands once known as Payahüünadü—the place where the water always flows. Join us for a screening of the film and discussion with director Ann Kaneko. Ann will be

Today, Americans are some of the world’s biggest consumers of black teas. In Japan, green tea, especially sencha, is preferred. Through an examination of the history of the Japan-U.S. tea trade, Robert Hellyer will take us through the relationships of how these national partialities are deeply entwined and also offer us examples of how Japanese

Read the annual newsletter of the UW Japan Studies Program! We are excited to share what our faculty, alumni, and students have been doing over the past year. We wish you a safe and healthy holiday season, and appreciate you being a part of our community.

Ghosts in the Neighborhood: Why Japan is Haunted by its Past and Germany is Not is now available for pre-order. In his newest book Walter Hatch debunks the conventional wisdom about why Japan remains haunted by its militarist past in Asia, but Germany does not face such ghosts in Europe. Read about it in his