The University of Washington’s own Paul S. Atkins, Professor of Asian Languages and Literature, was recently awarded the 28th Yamagata Bantō Prize for his book “Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet”. This award honors individuals whose work contributes to introducing international audiences to Japanese culture. In his book, Atkins explores the

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

Looking to spend a year studying in Tokyo? Applications are now being accepted for the 2026-2027 Global Leadership Fellow Program. Hurry, the deadline to apply is November 30. Learn more about the application process here.

  Every spring, as the cherry blossoms on the University of Washington’s quad start thinking about blooming, students from the Institute of Science Tokyo (IST; formerly known as Tokyo Medical & Dental University) come to Seattle for a two-week study abroad program. Participants, who are both undergraduate and graduate students, get a first-hand look at

Join us on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at 5:30 PM in Kane Hall 225 for a special evening lecture: Consolidating Constitutional Legitimacy in Japan: Concepts, Metrics, and Pathways Forward Kenneth Mori McElwain, University of Tokyo and Columbia University Amidst global challenges to established institutions, rights, and norms, the role of constitutions in preserving democratic governance

Join us for the 2024 Griffith and Patricia Way Lecture Thursday, April 25 5:30 – 7:00 PM Kane Hall 225 Walker-Ames Room Reception to follow What was the moment of death supposed to look like for people living in premodern Japan? While most people surely envisioned seeing the Buddha and his retinue descend at this

Join us for a special book talk: Public Interest and State Legitimation: Early Modern England, Japan, and China. Wenkai He (Ph.D., MIT, 2007), is associate professor of Social Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Before joining HKUST, he was An Wang postdoctoral fellow at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at

Juan Felipe Arroyave (MA/PhD Japanese) spent the summer in Japan with support from the Kasai-Buerge Scholarship. “Thanks to this award, I was able to spend two weeks in Japan as a Seminar Leader for the last edition of Komatsu Summer School (KSS),” reports Arroyave. “This bilingual summer camp, held in a rural area of Ishikawa Prefecture,

Christopher B. Johnstone, senior adviser and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, explores the evolution of the U.S.-Japan alliance over the last 30 years from the view of a policy practitioner who was directly involved in key developments at the White House and the Department of Defense. The U.S.-Japan alliance slowly,

Ken Tadashi Oshima, UW professor of architecture, has long been a keen observer and researcher of the work of architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright. ‘Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture that Connects the World’ an exhibit curated by Oshima, is the first full-scale retrospective of Wright’s work in Japan in 26 years and shows the breadth