Japanese Studies

Japanese Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Japan about their new books.

Thomas D. Conlan, "Kings in All But Name: The Lost History of Ouchi Rule in Japan, 1350-1569" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 17, 2024

Kings in All But Name

Thomas D. Conlan
Hosted by Jingyi Li

In the sixteenth century, members of the Ouchi family were kings in all but name in much of Japan. Immensely wealthy, they controlled sea lanes stretc…

Ben Rothenberg, "Naomi Osaka: Her Journey to Finding Her Power and Her Voice" (Dutton, 2024)

March 7, 2024

Naomi Osaka

Ben Rothenberg
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In July 2021, Naomi Osaka—world number 1 women’s tennis player—lit the Olympic Cauldron at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The half-Japanese, half-American, …

Jinying Li, "Anime's Knowledge Cultures: Geek, Otaku, Zhai" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)

March 3, 2024

Anime's Knowledge Cultures

Jinying Li
Hosted by Anthony Kao

With comics franchises getting turned into multi-billion dollar revenue opportunities and consumer technology companies dominating daily headlines — t…

Fynn Holm, "The Gods of the Sea: Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600-2019" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

February 29, 2024

The Gods of the Sea

Fynn Holm
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Japan is often imagined as a nation with a long history of whaling. In The Gods of the Sea: Whales and Coastal Communities in Northeast Japan, c.1600-…

Peter Harmsen, "Bernhard Sindberg: The Schindler of Nanjing" (Casemate, 2024)

February 28, 2024

Bernhard Sindberg

Peter Harmsen
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

In December 1937, the Chinese capital, Nanjing, falls and the Japanese army unleash an orgy of torture, murder, and rape. Over the course of six weeks…

Peter Harmsen, "Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze" (Casemate, 2015)

February 26, 2024

Shanghai 1937

Peter Harmsen
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Peter Harmsen's book Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze (Casemate, 2015) describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At it…

Simon Partner, "Koume's World: The Life and Work of a Samurai Woman Before and After the Meiji Restoration" (Columbia UP, 2023)

February 22, 2024

Koume's World

Simon Partner
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 1864, on a midsummer’s day, Kawai Koume, a 60-year old matriarch of a samurai family in Wakayama, makes a note in her diary, which she had dutifull…

Max Ward, "Thought Crime: Ideology and State Power in Interwar Japan" (Duke UP, 2019)

February 21, 2024

Thought Crime

Max Ward
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Max Ward’s Thought Crime: Ideology and State Power in Interwar Japan (Duke University Press, 2019) analyzes the trajectory and transformations of the …

Ricky W. Law, "Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919-1936" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

February 20, 2024

Transnational Nazism

Ricky W. Law
Hosted by Craig Sorvillo

In his new book, Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919-1936 (Cambridge University Press, 2019), associate prof…

Gwyn McClelland, "Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki: Prayers, Protests and Catholic Survivor Narratives" (Routledge, 2019)

February 19, 2024

Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki

Gwyn McClelland
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

On 9th August 1945, the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Of the dead, approximately 8500 were Catholic Christians, representing over six…

Joshua Paul Dale, "Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World" (Profile Books, 2023)

February 10, 2024

Irresistible

Joshua Paul Dale
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Why are some things cute, and others not? What happens to our brains when we see something cute? And how did cuteness go global, from Hello Kitty to D…

Paul D. Barclay, "Kondo the Barbarian: A Japanese Adventurer and Indigenous Taiwan's Bloodiest Uprising" (Eastbridge Books, 2023)

January 22, 2024

Kondo the Barbarian

Paul D. Barclay
Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg

Kondo the Barbarian: A Japanese Adventurer and Indigenous Taiwan's Bloodiest Uprising (Eastbridge Books, 2023) is a gripping and revealing account of …

Sujin Lee, "Wombs of Empire: Population Discourses and Biopolitics in Modern Japan" (Stanford UP, 2023)

January 17, 2024

Wombs of Empire

Sujin Lee
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

In 2007, Japan’s health minister referred to women ages 15-50 as “birthing machines.” The context was a speech about Japan’s declining birthrate and p…

Amanda Kennell, "Alice in Japanese Wonderlands: Translation, Adaptation, Mediation" (U Hawaii Press, 2023)

January 4, 2024

Alice in Japanese Wonderlands

Amanda Kennell
Hosted by Jingyi Li

Since the first translations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books appeared in Japan in 1899, Alice has found her way into nearly every facet of Japanese lif…

Grammar, Identity, and Ideology in Early 20th-Century Japan

December 29, 2023

Grammar, Identity, and Ideology in Early 20th-Century Japan

Jonathan Puntervold

Have you ever felt that the grammar of Asian languages does not fit with the framework that we use to describe them? In the late 19th century, Asian g…

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

December 29, 2023

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…

Scott D. Seligman, "Murder in Manchuria: The True Story of a Jewish Virtuoso, Russian Fascists, a French Diplomat, and a Japanese Spy in Occupied China" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

December 28, 2023

Murder in Manchuria

Scott D. Seligman
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

On an August night in 1933 Harbin in then-Japanese controlled Manchuria–Semyon Kaspe, French citizen, famed concert musician, and Russian Jew, is abdu…

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

December 26, 2023

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…

Meredith Oda, "The Gateway to the Pacific: Japanese Americans and the Remaking of San Francisco" (U Chicago Press, 2019)

December 25, 2023

The Gateway to the Pacific

Meredith Oda
Hosted by Ian Shin

In The Gateway to the Pacific: Japanese Americans and the Remaking of San Francisco (University of Chicago Press, 2019), Meredith Oda shows how city l…

Nobuko Ishitate-Okunomiya Yamasaki, "Prostitutes, Hostesses, and Actresses at the Edge of the Japanese Empire" (Routledge, 2023)

December 25, 2023

Prostitutes, Hostesses, and Actresses at the Edge of the Japanese Empire

Nobuko Ishitate-Okunomiya Yamasaki
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Analysing materials from literature and film, this book considers the fates of women who did not or could not buy into the Japanese imperial ideology …