Japanese Studies

Japanese Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Japan about their new books.

WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration with Bruce Rutledge

August 19, 2026

WE HEREBY REFUSE

Bruce Rutledge

John talks to Bruce Rutledge, founder of Chin Music Press, about running an independent Asia-focused press, the origins of the company in Tokyo, and t…

Vincent Haddad, "Next Time on Dragon Ball: Playing with a Manga and Anime Franchise" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

August 18, 2026

Next Time on Dragon Ball

Vincent Haddad
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Since its debut in 1984, Dragon Ball has become one of the most popular, influential, and lucrative media franchises in the world. In Next Time on Dra…

Mithi Mukherjee, "Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom" (U California Press, 2026)

August 16, 2026

Asianism and the Fall of Empire

Mithi Mukherjee
Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall

Offering a new global perspective on modern Indian history, Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom (University of California Press, …

Echoes of Incense on the Shikoku Pilgrimage with Don Weiss

August 16, 2026

Echoes of Incense on the Shikoku Pilgrimage

Don Weiss

Amy Chavez talks to Don Weiss, currently mid-way through the Shikoku Pilgrimage — Japan's 1,300 km Buddhist route that has been walked for almost as…

Marco Pompili, "Public Housing in Japan: The Dōjunkai Apartments One Hundred Years On" (Brill, 2026)

August 10, 2026

Public Housing in Japan

Marco Pompili

Public Housing in Japan: The Dōjunkai Apartments One Hundred Years On (Brill, 2026) is the first comprehensive English-language examination of the Dōj…

Hiroshima's Last Witnesses and Japan's Nuclear Future

August 8, 2026

Hiroshima's Last Witnesses and Japan's Nuclear Future

M. G. Sheftall

M. G. Sheftall has lived in Japan since 1987. He has a PhD in international relations and modern Japanese history from Waseda University in Tokyo. S…

Nozomi Naoi, "The Land of Happiness: How the Japanese Department Store Visualized Modern Life" (MIT Press, 2026)

August 4, 2026

The Land of Happiness

Nozomi Naoi
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Land of Happiness: How the Japanese Department Store Visualized Modern Life (MIT Press, 2026) explores the far-reaching influence of the Japanes…

Ashton Lazarus, "Performing Transgression: Crowds and Bodies in Heian Japan" (Harvard UP, 2026)

July 24, 2026

Performing Transgression

Ashton Lazarus
Hosted by Jingyi Li

What happens when performance defies social and political boundaries? Performing Transgression: Crowds and Bodies in Heian Japan (Harvard University P…

Stephen G. Covell, "The Teaching and Teachings of Temple Buddhism in Contemporary Japan" (U Hawaii Press, 2024)

July 12, 2026

The Teaching and Teachings of Temple Buddhism in Contemporary Japan

Stephen G. Covell

How have Buddhist teachings come to be in modern and contemporary Japan and how are they taught? This pioneering work seeks to answer these questions …

Gregory Smits, "The Ryukyu Islands: A New History from the Stone Age to the Present" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

July 9, 2026

The Ryukyu Islands

Gregory Smits
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Most people only know one of the Ryukyu Islands: the island of Okinawa, home to sandy beaches and one of the U.S.’s most important bases in Asia. Ther…

Martina Baradel, "21st Century Yakuza: Death of Japanese Organised Crime" (Oxford UP, 2026)

July 5, 2026

21st Century Yakuza

Martina Baradel
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Once dominant and institutionalised, the Yakuza, one of Japan's best known criminal organisations, is now shrinking under the combined pressure of…

Alan Brender, "Pink Tsunami: The Hello Kitty Kawaii Wave that has Swept the World" (Headpress, 2026)

July 1, 2026

Pink Tsunami

Alan Brender
Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

In his latest book, Pink Tsunami: The Hello Kitty Kawaii Wave that has Swept the World (Headpress 2026), Alan Brender delves into Hello Kitty the mark…

Yoshiko Nakano and Georgina Challen, "Meiji Graves in Happy Valley: Stories of Early Japanese Residents in Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2024)

June 17, 2026

Meiji Graves in Happy Valley

Yoshiko Nakano and Georgina Challen
Hosted by Bing Wang

The connections between Hong Kong and Japan began far earlier than many realise. Yet only recently has Hong Kong’s historic Japanese community receive…

Hannah Shepherd, "The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region" (U California Press, 2025)

May 27, 2026

The Narrowing Sea

Hannah Shepherd
Hosted by Samee Siddiqui

In The Narrowing Sea: Fukuoka, Pusan, and the Rise and Fall of an Imperial Region (U California Press, 2025), Hannah Shepherd examines the shared hist…

Matthieu Felt, "Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan" (Harvard UP, 2023)

May 25, 2026

Meanings of Antiquity

Matthieu Felt
Hosted by Jingyi Li

Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, record…

Jeremy Yellen, "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War" (Cornell UP, 2019)

May 25, 2026

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Jeremy Yellen
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Jeremy Yellen’s The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War (Cornell University Press, 2019) is a challenging transnat…

Evelyn Iritani, "Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During World War II" (FSG, 2026)

May 21, 2026

Safe Passage

Evelyn Iritani
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In October 1943, the Gripsholm—a Swedish ocean liner—and the Teia Maru—a Japanese troop ship—sat in Mormugao, a port in Portuguese India. There, the t…

Tom Meschery, "The Mad Manchurian: From the Internment Camps of Tokyo to the Hardwood Courts of the NBA" (Coffeetown Press, 2025)

May 19, 2026

The Mad Manchurian

Tom Meschery
Hosted by Paul Knepper

I was born in Harbin, Manchuria, (later China), in 1938. At the outbreak of the Second World War my mother, sister and I, along with other non-combata…

Patrick Noonan, "Age of Disaffection: The Aesthetic Critique of Politics in 1960s Japan" (Columbia UP, 2025)

May 10, 2026

Age of Disaffection

Patrick Noonan
Hosted by Jingyi Li

The 1960s in Japan have long been understood as a period of radical political engagement. But as political movements from Old Left Communism to New Le…

Lucy Stewart, "The Japanese Garden: Ella Christie and Cowden" (Birlinn, 2026)

May 7, 2026

The Japanese Garden

Lucy Stewart
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

As detailed in The Japanese Garden: Ella Christie and Cowden (Birlinn, 2026) by Lucy Stewart, at the turn of the twentieth century, Scottish adventure…