Japan’s 2024 general election for the House of Representatives marked a turning point. The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered its second-worst showing since 1955, while the far-right populist party Sanseito entered the lower house for the first time, signaling potential shifts in governance with global implications. The fifth volume of “Japan Decides,” co-edited by

Earlier this month, the Government of Japan announced the recipients of the 2025 Autumn Conferment of Decoration on Foreign Nationals. Among the recipients is Marie Anchordoguy, a professor emerita at the Jackson School and former chair of the Center for Japanese Studies. Anchordoguy was honored with the Order of the Rising Sun in the third

Recording available at TownHall Youtube:   Monday, Dec. 8, 2025 | 6 – 8 p.m. | Town Hall Seattle When “Shogun” was released last year, it was a commercial and critical success. So of course, academic historians fretted. Were they concerned that it painted sixteenth-century Japan as another Game of Thrones (with more ninjas and

On Oct. 24, the Jackson School’s Program on Strategy, Policy and Diplomacy Research (SPDR) hosted the public panel, “Positioning Japan in Cybersecurity Trajectories.” Sponsored through a grant from the United States-Japan Foundation, the panel is part of the SPDR Speaker Series. Professor Saadia Pekkanen, the SDPR director, welcomed the panel, moderated and chaired by Steven Vogel, a professor

Join Jackson School Acting Assistant Professor ​​​​​​​Andrea Gevurtz Arai on Wednesday, Nov. 12 as she dives into the world “Spaces of Creative Resistance: Social Change Projects in 21st-Century East Asia,” of which she is the editor. Over the last two decades, social disconnection, increased income disparity, and new burdens have been placed on the young,

During her 2024-2025 research leave, Japan Studies Librarian Azusa Tanaka addressed a longstanding challenge in Japanese book history: dating premodern books (pre-1868) that lack publication dates. Traditional methods are often subjective or invasive, but Tanaka used a novel, non-invasive approach combining microscopic imaging and machine learning. Using a digital microscope, Tanaka captured over 13,000 images

A new edited volume, “Spaces of Creative Resistance: Social Change Projects in Twenty-First Century East Asia” (Rutgers University Press, 2025), brings together case studies of youth- and community-led movements across the region. Edited by Jackson School Acting Assistant Professor Andrea Gevurtz Arai, the book is the outcome of a multi-year cross-college and cross-regional research initiative

Join Center for Japanese Studies Acting Assistant Professor Andrea Gevurtz Arai on Friday, July 11 from 7-8 p.m. at the Elliot Bay Book Company for a discussion on the new book, “Spaces of Creative Resistance: Social Change Projects in Twenty-First-Century East Asia.” She will be joined by Summer Dai, a Ph.D. student in the University

What if statistics could solve a literary mystery centuries in the making? That’s exactly what Department of Asian Languages and Literature Professor Paul Atkins, along with mathematics Ph.D. students Herman Chau and Michael Zeng, set out to do. Using data analysis and machine learning, the three discussed how they used statistical analysis of hiragana usage

The “Omoro sōshi” — a rich tapestry of 1,500 songs, poems, and prayers — offers a rare glimpse into the everyday lives, landscapes, and spirit of the Ryukyu Islands’ golden age. On April 8, as part of the 2025 Washin Kai Spring Lecture, Department of Asian Languages & Literature Associate Professor Davinder Bhowmik introduced the