About Nathan Hopson

Nathan Hopson is an associate professor of Japanese language and history in the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen. He is currently completing a manuscript on the social history of nutrition science in modern Japan as a technology of nation building, focusing on school feeding (gakkō kyūshoku) and government-led nutritional activism as its central case studies. Recent publications from this research include
  1. “Nutrition as National Defense: Japan’s Imperial Government Institute for Nutrition, 1920-1940” (Journal of Japanese Studies 2019)
  2. “Ingrained Habits: The ‘Kitchen Cars’ and the Transformation of Postwar Japanese Diet and Identity” (Food, Culture & Society 2020)
  3. “‘Humans Bring Food to Their Mouths, Animals Bring Their Mouths to Food’: The Morality Politics of School-Lunch Sporks in 1970s Japan.” (Food & Foodways 2023)

Nathan Hopson is an associate professor of Japanese language and history in the University of Bergen's Department of Foreign Languages.

Nathan's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Nathan:

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-…

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 …

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…

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…

Ran Zwigenberg, "Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

November 27, 2023

Nuclear Minds

Ran Zwigenberg
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Ran Zwigenberg’s Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (U Chicago Press, 2023) explores early effor…

Florentine Koppenborg, "Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance" (Cornell UP, 2023)

November 18, 2023

Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance

Florentine Koppenborg
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Florentine Koppenborg’s Japan’s Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance (Cornell UP, 2023) begins with the understated observation that…

Xaq Frohlich, "From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age" (U California Press, 2023)

November 10, 2023

From Label to Table

Xaq Frohlich
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Xaq Frohlich’s From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age (U California Press, 2023) is a biography of the Nutrition Facts…

Gitte Marianne Hansen and Fabio Gygi, "The Work of Gender: Service, Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan" (NIAS, 2022)

November 4, 2023

The Work of Gender

Gitte Marianne Hansen and Fabio Gygi
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

The Work of Gender: Service, Performance and Fantasy in Contemporary Japan (NIAS Press, 2022) is an edited volume of ethnographic research organized a…

Anne Allison, "Being Dead Otherwise" (Duke UP, 2023)

October 4, 2023

Being Dead Otherwise

Anne Allison
Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Listen:

In contemporary Japan, death isn’t what it used to be. Anne Allison’s Being Dead Otherwise (Duke UP, 2023) examines the changing realities of death as…

Ben Whaley, "Toward a Gameic World: New Rules of Engagement from Japanese Video Games" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

October 2, 2023

Toward a Gameic World

Ben Whaley
Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Listen:

Ben Whaley’s Toward a Gameic World: New Rules of Engagement from Japanese Video Games (U Michigan Press 2023) examines the pathbreaking engagement str…

Ines Prodöhl, "Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900–1950" (Routledge, 2023)

September 11, 2023

Globalizing the Soybean

Ines Prodöhl
Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Listen:

Ines Prodöhl’s Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900-1950 (Routledge, 2023) is a history of how, why, and where the soybean …

David Humphrey, "The Time of Laughter: Comedy and the Media Cultures of Japan" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

August 15, 2023

The Time of Laughter

David Humphrey
Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Listen:

David Humphrey’s The Time of Laughter: Comedy and the Media Cultures of Japan (U Michigan Press, 2023) examines the roles of mediated laughter in the …

Victoria Lee, "The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

July 16, 2023

The Arts of the Microbial World

Victoria Lee
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Victoria Lee’s The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan (U Chicago Press, 2021) is an in-depth exploration of …

Anne Giblin Gedacht, "Tōhoku Unbounded: Regional Identity and the Mobile Subject in Prewar Japan" (Brill, 2022)

July 11, 2023

Tōhoku Unbounded

Anne Giblin Gedacht
Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Listen:

Anne Giblin Gedacht’s Tōhoku Unbounded: Regional Identity and the Mobile Subject in Prewar Japan (Brill, 2022) centers cross-border mobility in its na…

Garrett L. Washington, "Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

May 16, 2023

Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan

Garrett L. Washington
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Garrett Washington’s Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan (Hawai’i 2022) brings a fresh perspective to the question of Protestant Christianity…

Jonathan E. Abel, "The New Real: Media and Mimesis in Japan from Stereographs to Emoji" (U of Minnesota Press, 2023)

April 28, 2023

The New Real

Jonathan E. Abel
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Jonathan Abel’s The New Real: Media and Mimesis in Japan from Stereographs to Emoji (U of Minnesota Press, 2023) is a history of our relationships to…

Kate Sylvester, "Women and Martial Art in Japan" (Routledge, 2022)

March 18, 2023

Women and Martial Art in Japan

Kate Sylvester
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Kate Sylvester’s Women and Martial Art in Japan (Routledge 2023) examines sport, gender, and society in Japan through the author’s extensive experienc…

Aya Homei, "Science for Governing Japan's Population" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

March 10, 2023

Science for Governing Japan's Population

Aya Homei
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Aya Homei’s Science for Governing Japan’s Population (Cambridge UP, 2022) examines the science and policy of population in Japan, 1860s-1960s. As in o…

Timothy O. Benedict, "Spiritual Ends: Religion and the Heart of Dying in Japan" (U California Press, 2022)

March 7, 2023

Spiritual Ends

Timothy O. Benedict
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Timothy Benedict’s Spiritual Ends: Religion and the Heart of Dying in Japan (U California Press, 2023) is an exploration of spiritual care in the cont…

Seiji Shirane, "Imperial Gateway: Colonial Taiwan and Japan's Expansion in South China and Southeast Asia, 1895-1945" (Cornell UP, 2022)

February 24, 2023

Imperial Gateway

Seiji Shirane
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Seiji Shirane’s Imperial Gateway: Colonial Taiwan and Japan's Expansion in South China and Southeast Asia, 1895-1945 (Cornell UP, 2022) demonstrates t…

Lisa Haushofer, "Wonder Foods: The Science and Commerce of Nutrition" (U California Press, 2022)

February 14, 2023

Wonder Foods

Lisa Haushofer
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

From Gail Borden’s meat biscuit to John Harvey Kellogg’s peptogenic foods for race betterment and Fleishmann’s yeast as both technology of empire and …

Daniel White, "Administering Affect: Pop-Culture Japan and the Politics of Anxiety" (Stanford UP, 2022)

January 7, 2023

Administering Affect

Daniel White
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

In Administering Affect: Pop-Culture Japan and the Politics of Anxiety (Stanford UP, 2022), Daniel White draws on extensive fieldwork in government mi…

Annika A. Culver, "Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

December 9, 2022

Japan's Empire of Birds

Annika A. Culver
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Annika Culver’s Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology (Bloomsbury Academic 2022) uses a previously unavailab…

Ayelet Zohar, "The Curious Case of the Camel in Modern Japan: (De)Colonialism, Orientalism, and Imagining Asia" (Brill, 2022)

December 7, 2022

The Curious Case of the Camel in Modern Japan

Ayelet Zohar
Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Ayelet Zohar’s The Curious Case of the Camel in Modern Japan: (De)Colonialism, Orientalism, and Imagining Asia (Brill, 2022) traces the use of camels …