Japanese Studies

Japanese Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Japan about their new books.

Alone in Japan: A Journey to the Future with Tom Feiling (Allen Lane, 2025)

October 1, 2026

Alone in Japan

Tom Feiling
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Japan has been aging for decades. The country’s birth rate first fell below the replacement rate in 1974, long before phrases like the “demographic tr…

Museums in Digital Age

September 18, 2026

Museums in Digital Age

Aya Kimura

How are museums adapting to the digital age, and what transformations are taking place in institutions we often consider to be highly conservative? In…

Chika Watanabe, "Play to Survive: Disaster Preparedness Along the Ring of Fire" (Stanford UP, 2026)

September 4, 2026

Play to Survive

Chika Watanabe
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

We live in a fragile world. This much is evident as stories abound of natural disasters that wipe out communities in an instant. How can we survive th…

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…