We are saddened to announce that Kyoko Tokuno, one of the longest serving senior lecturers at the Jackson School with Comparative Religion and Japan Studies, passed away on September 28, 2021, in Seattle. She was 77 years old. Tokuno joined the University of Washington and the Jackson School nearly 20 years ago, and taught courses on Buddhism and world

UW Japan Studies professor of architecture Ken Tadashi Oshima will join Hitoshi Abe (UCLA) to host the second event of JAPAN HOUSE LA’s lecture series on the application of MA (time/space consciousness) in a variety of cultural spheres. This webinar in the Rethinking of MA Webinar Series will examine MA in Japanese contemporary architecture. Manabu Chiba, Professor of Tokyo University and Principal

The new Kenneth B. Pyle Prize for Best Article in the JJS honors the founding editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies.  The prize —  accompanied by $250 — will be awarded annually for a JJS research article published in the previous year.  The winner of the 2020 prize will be announced in the summer

On November 3, 2019, the Government of Japan announced that Dr. Donald C. Hellmann, Professor Emeritus of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, in recognition of his contributions in promoting academic exchanges and mutual

Justin Jesty, associate professor of Japanese language and literature, was recently awarded the 2019 ASAP (Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present) Book Prize for his book titled Art and Engagement in Early Postwar Japan (2018). In assessing the work, ASAP wrote “A virtuosic study of the intersection of art and politics,

Read Architect’s Newspaper article by Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima, co-chair of the UW Japan Studies Program.  Prof. Oshima was in Versailles, France for the 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize award ceremony where Arata Isozaki was honored for his lifetime achievement in architecture.  “When I was old enough to begin an understanding of the world,” writes Isozaki,

Paul S. Atkins, Professor and Department Chair of Asian Languages and Literature, will be giving a talk at Japan Fair 2019 titled “REIWA: Origins and Significance of the New Japanese Reign Name“. Professor Atkins will give his talk on Saturday, June 29, 2019 at 4:10 p.m. at the Meydenbauer Center, Room #407 in Bellevue, WA. Everyone is welcome

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.

Congratulations to Don Hellmann on the selection of his dissertation for republication in the Voices Revived series from the University of California Press.  Japanese Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics: The Peace Agreement with the Soviet Union is now available in on-demand paperback. “UC Press Voices Revived commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and

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