Robert Butow who taught in the UW Jackson School and History Department for three decades (1960-1990) died at the age of 93 on October 17, 2017. He was a preeminent historian of US-Japan relations, focusing much of his work on the diplomatic efforts to avoid war in 1941 and to end the war in 1945.

In her latest Forbes blog, Professor Saadia Pekkanen examines U.S.-Japan relations when it comes to dealing with North Korea, given the shape of military and political uncertainties about the U.S. role in Asia’s future in “To contend with North Korea, can Japan rely on the U.S.?“

The East Asia Library are pleased to announce that they have recently added two new databases to their collection; Web Oya-bunko and The Japan Times Archives. Web Oya-bunko primarily holds popular magazines from the Meiji Era and onwards, and the titles of all the magazines included in this database can be found here. The Japan

The Nikkei Newspapers Digital Archive (NNDA) is a project of the Hokubei Hochi (North American Post) Foundation and the University of Washington Libraries.  The project goal is to make accessible two significant newspapers which tell the story of Japanese immigration and Japanese American community life in Seattle and beyond, from 1902 to 1950, and continuing

Professor Paul Atkins’s new book Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet has been published by the University of Hawai’i Press. Atkins, who is the Department Chair of the UW Asian Languages and Literature department and an associate professor of Japanese, specializes in pre modern Japanese literature, drama and poetry. Below are

As part of the 2016-2017 Mitsubishi Corporation Lecture Series, acclaimed director Hirokazu Kore-eda was interviewed by Professor Davinder Bhowmik on his life in film. Hirokazu (1962 – ) is an award-winning Japanese director whose work blurs the line between documentary and feature film in such films as Maboroshi, Afterlife, Nobody knows, Still Walking, Like Father, Like

Japan’s recent efforts in cyberspace reflects its ambition to have a more proactive military posture and expand the scope of the US-Japan alliance. Under the current Abe administration, Japanese policy-makers have significantly enhanced Japan’s cyber-defense capabilities due to the growing cybersecurity tensions between the United States’s relationships with China, Russia, and North Korea. Given Japan’s position as a

Professor Ken Oshima, the Chair of the Japan Studies Program, was featured in the April edition of Columns Magazine, the University of Washington’s Alumni magazine. Professor Oshima was mentioned in relation to being named President of the Society of Architectural Historians. He is the first president of this organization from the UW. You can read

Outer space security expert and Japan specialist Prof. Saadia Pekkanen argues in her latest Forbes column “North Korea’s Threats Revitalize Preemptive Strike Debate In Japan” that as the idea of preemptive strikes is flying around following recent tension between the U.S. and North Korea, Japan’s preemptive capabilities are being brought into sharper focus.

The Foundation and the Jackson School of International Studies recently celebrated the induction of Daniel Bessner as the first Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Professorship in American Foreign Policy, with Bessner speaking on “Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Defense Intellectual.”  This professorship was created by the Jackson Foundaiton to honor Ken Pyle and