Japanese Studies

Japanese Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Japan about their new books.

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…

Andrea Horbinski, "Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989" (U California Press, 2025)

April 30, 2026

Manga's First Century

Andrea Horbinski
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Andrea Horbinski's Manga's First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989 (U California Press, 2025) centers the fans and creato…

Charlotte Linton, "Dyeing with the Earth: Textiles, Tradition, and Sustainability in Contemporary Japan" (Duke UP, 2025)

April 24, 2026

Dyeing with the Earth

Charlotte Linton
Hosted by Lucas Tse

The past, present and future of ethical production in fashion In Dyeing with the Earth, Charlotte Linton explores the intersection of small-scale tra…

Daisuke Miyao, "Ozu and the Ethics of Indeterminacy" (Duke UP, 2026)

April 22, 2026

Ozu and the Ethics of Indeterminacy

Daisuke Miyao
Hosted by Ailin Zhou

Ozu and the Ethics of Indeterminacy (Duke University Press, 2026) re-examines cinema studies through the work of Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu, empl…

Masako Ichihara, "Climate Change Litigation in Japan: Cases, Challenges, and Opportunities for Environmental Law" (Brill, 2026)

April 19, 2026

Climate Change Litigation in Japan

Masako Ichihara
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Climate Change Litigation in Japan: Cases, Challenges, and Opportunities for Environmental Law (Brill, 2026) provides the details of Japanese climate …

New Book Releases 2026 on Japan, Taiwan

April 17, 2026

New Book Releases 2026 on Japan, Taiwan

This episode of the Books on Asia podcast introduces new fiction and non-fiction on Japan to be published this year, 2026, along with two upcoming boo…

Ted Goossen on translating Hiromi Kawakami’s “Third Love”

April 10, 2026

Ted Goossen on translating Hiromi Kawakami’s “Third Love"

Books on Asia Podcast

Translator Ted Goossen talks about everything from first landing in Japan in 1968 to the differences between translating Haruki Murakami and Hiromi Ka…

Ruth Mandujano López, "Steamships Across the Pacific: Maritime Journeys between Mexico, China, and Japan, 1867–1914" (Hong Kong UP, 2025)

April 9, 2026

Steamships across the Pacific

Ruth Mandujano López

How did the movement of people, goods, and ships reshape connections between Latin America and Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuri…

Marty Friedman with Jon Wiederhorn, "Dreaming Japanese" (Permuted Press, 2024)

April 3, 2026

Dreaming Japanese

Marty Friedman with Jon Wiederhorn

Marty Friedman is a multi-platinum recording artist and government-appointed Ambassador to Japan Heritage. He has written three books in Japanese and …