This section is under construction.
Fall 2020
November 17: David Janes and Mary Collins (OIST)
“The OIST Experiment: Building a World Class Science and Technology University in Okinawa”
Race, Citizenship, and Inclusion (or Exclusion) Fall 2020 Lectures Series
November 5: Glenda Roberts (Waseda University)
“Demographic Decline, Population Aging, and Immigration in Japan: Changes in Store for the Ethno-nation?”
October 20: Tessa Morris-Suzuki (Australian National University)
“Citizenship in Japan: From “Closed Country” to “Unity in Diversity””
October 6: Scott Kurashige (Texas Christian University)
“Japanese Americans in Postwar Portland”
Summer 2020
July 7: Robert Hegwood (Independent scholar of Japanese and Japanese American history, with a PhD in Modern Japanese History at the University of Pennsylvania)
“Barriers to Re-entry: the Racial Exclusion of Japanese-American in Postwar Portland”
Spring 2020
May 7: Laurence Kominz (Professor Emeritus, Portland State University)
“Yukio Mishima's Remarkable Kabuki Plays”
Winter 2020
February 25: Ken Ruoff (Portland State University)
“The Future of Japan: The Imperial House as a Window into Changing Definitions of What it Means to be Japanese”
February 6: Carol Gluck (Professor Emerita, Columbia University)
“Postwar Japan: A Pre-Postmortem”
Fall 2019
November 21: Richard Samuels (MIT)
“Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence Community”
October 29: Aiko Doden (NHK World)
“Reinventing Japan: The Way Forward through Women’s Empowerment”
October 10: Haruo Shirane (Columbia University)
“Demons and Vengeful Ghosts in Japanese Culture”
Spring 2019
May 9: Betty Izumi (Portland State University)
3rd Installment in the Kikkoman Japanese Food Culture Lecture Series
“Shokuiku: Japan’s Radically Holistic Approach to School Lunch (That Kids Love!)”
April 25: Noriko Tsuya (Keio University)
“Japan’s Low Fertility: Patterns, Factors, and Policy Responses”
April 10: Park Young-June (Korea National Defence University)
“A Korean Perspective on Japan's Changing Security Policy”
Winter 2019
March 5: Katsutoshi Takami (Professor Emeritus Sophia University)
“The History of Article 9 (the no-war clause) of the Postwar Constitution of Japan: Its Establishment, Evolution, and Hollowing Out”
February 12: Helen Hardacre (Harvard University)
“The History of Religious Freedom and Separation of Religion from State Under the Constitution of Japan”
January 29: Koichi Yokota (Professor Emeritus Kyushu University)
“Constitutional Amendments for the Future”
Fall 2018
November 1: Bin Sugawara (Poet)
“What if Poems were Water?”
October 22: Joshua Hunt (Author, Journalist, and PSU Japanese Studies Alumnus)
Special Book Signing Event
“University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education”
October 11: Ryutaro Nakagawa (Director of Summer Blooms, August in Tokyo, Tokyo Sunrise)
“Japanese Films in the Modern Era”
October 4: Leo Kominz (Founder of THYNK and CEO of Blank Inc.)
“Surviving the Creative Industry in Japan”
Spring 2018
June 7: PSU Student Japanese Theater Performance
Kyôgen! Dance! Drums!
May 22: Professor Ken Ruoff (Portland State University)
“The Abdication of Japan’s Emperor Akihito in Historical Perspective”
May 1: James Farrer (Sophia University)
Kikkoman Japanese Food Culture Lecture Series
“Tucking Inn: Small Culinary Spaces in Tokyo”
April 20: Ken Ruoff (Portland State University)
“Japanese tourism to Nanjing, Mukden, and Qufu from 1938 to 1943”
Winter 2018
March 8: Yamato Watanabe (Denstu Ventures)
Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Japan Series
“Redefining Creativity: Reinventing Advertising Agency Business”
February 15: Mayuko Yamaura (Co-Founder of Edison.AI)
Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Japan Series & Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“What It Takes To Be a Global Entrepreneur: A Perspective From Japan”
January 30: Danny Kim (Portland State University)
“Colonial Korea’s Short Haired Rebels: Actresses, Cross-dressers, Gisaeng, and the Refashioning of Femininity in 1920s Korea”
January 25: Joshua Fogel (York University)
“A Friend in Deed: Lu Xun and Uchimura Kanzo in Shanghai, 1927-1936”
January 16: Hajime Kuwayama (Co-founder and Founding CEO of Emotion Intelligence, Inc.)
Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Japan Series & Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“Contemporary Startup Scene in Tokyo”
Fall 2017
November 30: Junichi Isomae (International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto)
“Hear the Voices of the Dead? Religious Experiences and the Northwest Japan Disaster”
November 1: Tim Boyle (President and CEO of Columbia Sportswear)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“How Japan Saved Columbia Sportswear”
October 13: Matthew Canepa
Art and Archaeology of the Silk Road Series (The Center for Japanese Studies Co-Sponsored)
"The Lord of the Seven Climes: Iran at the Center of Eurasian Exchange."
October 12: Annette Juliano
Art and Archaeology of the Silk Road Series (The Center for Japanese Studies Co-Sponsored)
"The 'Iconic' Silk Road: Asset and Liability."
October 11: Daniel C. Waugh
Art and Archaeology of the Silk Road Series (The Center for Japanese Studies Co-Sponsored)
"Searching for the 'Silk Road': How will We Know that We have Found it?"
Spring 2017
May 30 - June 1: PSU Student Japanese Theater Performance
“Kabuki, Dance, Drums: The Castle Tower & The Puppeteer”
May 24: Cody Poulton (University of Victoria)
“Izumi Kyōka’s Castle Tower: Love, War, and Spirits of Another Sort”
May 9: Katarzyna Cwiertka (Leiden University)
“Washoku and Japanese Culinary Nationalism”
April 20: Eiichiro Azuma (University of Pennsylvania)
“A Japanese American Origin of Japanese Studies in the United States: Intersections of Minority Ethnic Politics and State-sponsored Academic Propaganda”
April 6: Nobuto Hosaka (Setagaya-ku Mayor)
“Issues Faced by a Mayor in Japan”
Winter 2017
March 2: Carol Gluck (Professor Emerita, Columbia University)
“What the World Owes the Comfort Women”
February 9: Brett L. Walker (Montana State University)
“Natural and Unnatural Disasters: 3/11, Asbestos, and the Unmaking of Japan's Modern World”
January 19: Cheol Hee Park (Seoul University)
“Korea-Japan Relations in an Era of Power Transition in East Asia”
Fall 2016
November 29: Nissim Otmazgin (University of Jerusalem)
“Hello Kitty to Cool Japan: The Political Economy of Japanese Popular Culture in Asia”
November 15: John Junkerman (Tokyo-based Filmmaker)
“Screening of the documentary film Okinawa: The Afterburn followed by a discussion with the film’s director”
October 20: Laurence Kominz (Portland State University)
“How the Danjuros Created Kabuki Super-heroes—from Humiliation to Innovation”
October 6: Chari Pradel (Cal Poly Pomona)
“The Tenjukoku Shūchō Mandara within the East Asian Context”
Spring 2016
May 17: Andrew Gordon (Harvard University)
“Toward a Social History of Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’”
April 28: Hideaki Shibata (Hokkaido University)
“Protecting Welfare in Japan—Keeping Article 25 Alive”
April 7: Yoshiaki Shimizu (Professor Emeritus, Princeton University)
“Two Painterly Responses to Nuclear Weapons Over the Pacific, 1945-1954”
March 7: Dr. Donald Keene (Professor Emeritus Columbia University) and Tsuruzawa Asazo
“A Journey through Sin, Redemption, Miracles and High Adventure: The Tale of the High Priest Kõchi.” This was a combined lecture/ performance of a recently rediscovered proto-bunraku play text.
Winter 2016
February 25 – March 6: English Kabuki at PSU: The Revenge of the 47 Loyal Samurai: A total of eight kabuki performances
February 19: Linda C. Ehrlich (Case-Western University)
“A Century of the ‘Revenge of the 47 Loyal Samurai’ on Film: From the Silent Screen to Keanu Reeves”
February 4: Maribeth Graybill (Curator, Portland Art Museum)
“The 47 Loyal Samurai in Ukiyo-e Prints”
January 21: David Atherton (University of Colorado)
“The Art of Vengeance in Early Modern Japan: Realities and Imagination”
Fall 2015
November 5: General Eiji Kimizuka (Chief of Japan’s Land Defense Forces at the time of the triple disaster)
“Operation Tomodachi: The Cooperation Between Japan’s Self Defense Forces and the U.S. Military in the aftermath of the 11 March 2011 Triple Disaster (Earthquake/Tsunami/Fukushima Nuclear Plant Meltdown)”
October 29: Hiroshi Komiyama (President Emeritus, University of Tokyo)
“Beyond the limits to Growth--New ideas for Sustainability from Japan”
October 13: Mort Bishop III (Pendleton Woolen Mills)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The Story of Pendleton Woolen Mills in Japan”
Spring 2015
June 3: Fourth Annual PSU Student Japanese Theater Performance
Drama! Dance! Drums!
May 21: Jay Rubin (Professor Emeritus, Harvard University)
"How Not to Write a Book on Murakami Haruki”
May 1: Ryuhei Kawada (House of Councillors, Parliament of Japan)
“The Truth About Japan’s HIV-Blood Scandal”
April 16: Sheldon Garon (Princeton University)
“The Transnational Destruction of Cities: What Japan and the U.S. Learned from the Bombing of Britain and Germany in World War II”
Winter 2015
February 26: Ken Ruoff (Portland State University)
“Master Narratives of Modern Korean History Told in Museums in Korea”
February 12: Hikari Hori (Columbia University)
“Momotaro’s Wars: Images of Disasters and Transnational Cinema in Japan”
January 15: Jeffrey Alexander (University of Wisconsin)
“Brewed in Japan: Beer and the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Japan”
Fall 2014
November 18: Ken Ruoff (Portland State University)
“Memory Wars in East Asia I: Pluralistic Memories in Japan”
October 29: Jim King (Japanese Art Proprietor)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The Making of Shogun’s Gallery”
October 8: Kunitoshi Kineya (Kabuki Artist)
“One-Man Kabuki Storyteller”
Spring 2014
June 6: Third Annual PSU Student Japanese Theater Performance
Drama! Dance! Drums!
April 24: John Breen (University of London and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies)
“Tales of Ise: The shrines, their priests and patrons in post war Japan”
April 8: Cemil Aydin (University of North Carolina)
“Understanding Muslim Admirers of Japan’s Shinto Emperor: Entangled Histories of the Middle East and East Asia in the Age of Modern Empires, 1839-1919”
Winter 2014
February 13: Mark Frandsen (New Seasons Foods Inc.)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“How Japanese Corn Soup Transformed an Oregon Food Processor”
January 30: Carol Gluck (Professor Emerita, Columbia University)
“Modernity in Common: Japan and World History”
January 12: Ken Ruoff (Portland State University)
“What became of the Samurai in Modern Japan?”
Fall 2013
November 20: Presentation and Discussion PSU Faculty featuring Professors Kominz, Suwako Watanabe, Patricia Wetzel, Emiko Konomi, and Jon Holt
“What Makes PSU's Japanese Language Program among the Best in the World?”
November 8: Richard Samuels (MIT)
“3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan”
November 7: Debra Samuels (Japanese Food Writer and Stylist)
“Japanese Culture in a Box”
October 23: Shawn Bender (Dickinson College)
“Taiko Boom!”
October 11: Toshimitsu Shigemura (Waseda University)
“A Japanese Perspective on North Korea”
Spring 2013
June 6: Second Annual PSU Student Japanese Theater Performance
Drama! Dance! Drums!
May 7: Gabe Rosen (Proprietor, Biwa Restaurant)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The Biwa Story: Establishing and Managing a Japanese-style Pub in Portland”
April 29: Leith Morton (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
“Fascism and Modernism in Maekawa Samio’s Tanka”
Winter 2013
February 28: Naoko Shibusawa (Brown University)
“America’s Geisha Ally”
February 5 – March 19: Loomis and Linda Tamura
“Coming Home (Oregon Nikkei Endowment)”
January 17: Sho Dozono (Azumano Travel)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The “From Oregon with Love” Story”
Fall 2012
November 15: Hiro Ito (Portland State University)
“What Lies Behind the Territorial Disputes between China and Japan?”
October 18: Brant Reiter (Fuji Television)
“The Global Outreach of Japanese Popular Culture: The Influence of “Iron Chef” on American TV Programming”
October 4: Haruo Shirane (Columbia University)
"Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts”
Spring 2012
May 16-21: Donald Keene will be a guest of the Center for Japanese Studies
Multiple lectures and other events
April ?: Beate Sirota Gorden
April 13: Yuzaburo Mogi (CEO of Kikkoman)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“Kikkoman’s Global Business”
Winter 2012
February 28: Greg Robinson (University of Quebec at Montreal)
“Japanese Redress in North America and its Larger Legacy."
February 16: David Adler (University of Idaho)
“National Security and Civil Liberties in Wartime: The Internment of Japanese Americans.”
January 26: Davinder Bhowmilk (University of Washington)
“The Spirit of 1968 and 1969 in the Basetown Literature of Ikezawa Natsuki and Murakami Ryuu”
January 18: Ayşe Selçuk Esenbel (Bogaziçi University)
“Japan’s Global Claim to Islam: Transnational Nationalism & World Power 1900-1945”
Fall 2011
November 29: Patricia Wetzel (Portland State University)
“It’s Not About You: Language Clutter on the Japanese Landscape”
November 3: Haruo Kurata (Former Corporate Vice President at Ajinomoto Co. Inc.)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The Case of Ajinomoto”
November 2: Ken Belson (The New York Times)
“Fukushima – What Lies Ahead”
October 13: Mika Tsutsumi
"Why my book 'Poverty Superpower America' Sold 500,000 Copies in Japan."
October 4: Woon Do Choi (Northeast Asian History Foundation, Seoul)
What Would It Taker for Korea to Forgive Japan for the Past?”
Spring 2011
April 14: Ms. Mika Tsutsumi (Journalist and Author)
“Poverty Superpower: The United States”
May 12: Dr. Richard Samuels (MIT)
“Japan-China-U.S. Relations”
Winter 2011
January 12: Dr. Brian Hayashi (Kyoto University)
“Asian-Americans in the American Spy Service in Asia”
January 31: Doug Smith (Port of Portland)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The Inspector Story”
February 8: Dr. Yoshio Kayano (Meisei University)
“Restoring Ainu Culture, Identity, and Community in Greater Tokyo”
February 25: Dr. Ken Ruoff (Portland State University)
“Imperial Japan at Its Zenith”
Fall 2010
October 14: Dr. Gavan McCormack (Australian National University)
“The US-Japan Alliance at 50 and the Question of Okinawa”
October 26: Mr. Junki Yoshida (Founder of Yoshida Foods, International, LLC)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The American Dreamer” (in Japanese)
October 28: Mr. Junki Yoshida (Founder of Yoshida Foods International, LLC)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
“The American Dreamer” (in English)
November 4: Dr. Yoshiharu Tsuboi (Waseda University)
“Intensifying the Japan-Vietnam Relationship”