This section is currently under construction.
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”
Spring 2009
April 17: Donald Keene (Professor Emeritus, Columbia University)
“Behind the Scenes with Mishima Yukio; A Conversation with Donald Keene”
April 16: Donald Keene (Professor Emeritus, Columbia University)
“World War II and Japanese Writers: A Journey through their Diaries”
April 3: Natsu Nakajima
“A Woman’s Path in Butoh”
Winter 2009
January 20: Maribeth Graybill (Curator of Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum)
Led a Walk-through Tour of Reingold Collection
January 15: Donald Jenkins (Emeritus Curator of Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum)
“The Appeal of Postwar Japanese Prints: Form and Imagination”
January 13: Ed and Ellen Reingold (Collection Owners)
Led a Walk-through Tour of their Collection in the Littman Gallery
January 8: Norman Tolman
“The World of Postwar Japanese Prints”
Fall 2008
December 4: Hitsujiya Shirotama
“Using Just the Human Body”
November 17: Nishiura Kihachiro (a Kôdô master from Japan)
"Japanese calligraphy: From Genji to Today"
November 3: Katsura Kan
"Post-War Japan and the Origins of Butoh and the Avant-Garde”
October 13: Nishiura Kihachiro (a Kôdô master from Japan)
"Genji Incense: Enjoy the Fragrances Yourself"
Spring 2008
May 22: Van Gessel (Brigham Young University)
“On Murder and Missing Husbands, and Flying Squirrels: Tsushima Yuuko's Literary Processing of Her Son's Death”
April 23: Mark Oshima
“Kabuki Song & Dance: Creating a Flow of Beautiful Moments in Kabuki Dance and Music Performances of the kiyomoto song & buyo dance, “U no Hana”: Performance and Explanation”
Winter 2008
March 13: Carl Horn (Dark Horse Comics)
“The Business of Adapting Japanese Comics for the U.S. Market”
February 27: Laurence Kominz (Portland State University)
“The Uses of Disguise, Deception, and Deceit: New Mishima Play Translations”
February 6: Tim Clark
“Swordless Samurai: Bushido in Today’s Japan”
January 29: Linda Angst & Leila Wice (Lewis and Clark College)
“Kabuki Girls and Beauty Queens: Women, Class, and Propriety in the Edo Period and Postwar Okinawa”
Fall 2007
November 20: Lynn Katsumoto (Research Associate at the Portland Art Museum)
Led a Walk-through Tour of Noh Costumes Exhibition
November 16: Donald Jenkins (Emeritus Curator of Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum)
Led a Walk-through Tour of Kôgyo Exhibition
November 6: Maruki Yasutaka (Pacific University)
“Transformations of the Main Character in Noh Drama”
November 1: Bruce Coats (Scripps University)
“Kôgyo’s World: Japanese Theater Prints”
Spring 2007
May 10: Ulrike Schaede (University of California, San Diego)
“Japan’s Corporate Renewal: Business Strategies in the 21st Century”
April 12: Nina Marini (Microsoft)
“Competing in the Japanese Online Market: The Challenge of Balancing Global and Local Resources”
Winter 2007
March 12: Michael Hutchison (University of California, Santa Cruz)
“Financial Crises in East Asia and Around the World: Could it happen again?”
February 17: Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
“Fighting for Civil Rights in an Era of Terror”
Fall 2006
November 28: Ed Kawasaki (Atomic Bomb Survivor Speech)
“The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima: A Survivor’s Story”
November 10: Lisa Yoneyama (Professor of Literature, UCSD)
“Competing Views on the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima”
Spring 2006
June 30: Dr. Kenji Tominomori
“Will Japan Really Reform? A Clash Between the Old and New”
May 18: Dr. Tom Willet (former Director of International Research at the US Treasury and Horton Professor of Economics at Claremont Colleges)
“The Growing Role of Asia in the Global Economy: Challenges and Opportunities”
April 4: Ken Belson (New York Times Reporter)
“Hello Kitty: How Japan's Feline Phenom Turned into a Billion Dollar Lioness and the Lessons to be Learned.”
Winter 2006
February 20: Dr. TJ Pempel (University of California, Berkeley)
“The Koizumi Surprise: Japan Moves to a New Politics”
February 9: Dr. Hugh Patrick (R.D. Calkins Professor of International Business Emeritus at Columbia University)
“Japan’s Economic Future in Historical Perspective”
February 2: Mr. Alex Sokol-Blosser (President of Sokol-Blosser Winery)
Success Stories of Oregon, Washington, & Japan in Business
"Sumo, Sushi, and Selling Oregon Pinot Noir in Japan"
Fall 2005
November 4: Mae Smethurst (University of Pittsburgh)
“The Roots of Anime in Traditional Japanese Theater”
November 3: Dr. Richard Smethurst (Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh)
“Going Along or Going Alone: Japan and World War II”
October 20: Franziska Seraphim (Professor of History at Boston College)
"The Political Landscape of War Memory in Japan”
Spring 2005
May 12: Dick Samuels (MIT)
“Japanese Security Policy: The Times They are a Changing”
April 27: Yoko Tawada & Aki Takase
“Japan in Europe: Fiction and Jazz”
April 21: Tim Clark (Translator and Entrepreneur)
“Saying Yes to Japan: How Outsiders Are Reviving a Trillion Dollar Services Market”
Winter 2005
March 15: Takeshi Hara (Meiji University)
“The Use of Time in Governing the Japanese Empire”
March 11: Teruo Kurosaki (Founder and Chairman of Idée’) & John C. Jay (Co-Creative Director of Weiden + Kennedy)
“Tokyo Design Revolution”
January 18: Tim Clark (Translator and Entrepreneur)
“Lessons from the Seven Dwarfs: Translating Between Japanese and English”
Fall 2004
December 1: Eleanor Jorden (Professor Emerita, Cornell University)
“A Forward-Looking Retrospective”
October 21: Laura Hein (Northwestern University)
“What is the point of an economy? Citizenship and Consumption in Postwar Japan”
Spring 2004
May 7: Donald Keene (Professor Emeritus, Columbia University)
"The United States and Japan: Their Postwar Literary Connection"
April 8: Takie Sugiyama Lebra (Professor Emerita, University of Hawaii)
“Addressing ‘You’ in Japanese: Triadization and Lococentrism”
Winter 2004
March 5: Mark Oshima
“Song,Dance,and Acting: the Basic Ingredients of Kabuki”
February 26: Dr. James Brandon (Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii)
“Democracy and Kabuki under the U.S. Occupation: 1946-49”
February 5: Yumiko Kawamoto (Waseda University)
“What Japan Knew About America Before It Opened”
January 29: Gil Latz
“Challenges for Japan: Democracy, Business, Gender, Aging, and International Relations”
Fall 2002 - Spring 2003
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More research required
Spring 2002
May 2: Donald Keene (Professor Emeritus, Columbia University)
“Emperor Meiji and his Foreign Guests”
Winter through Fall 2001
Donald Keene (Professor Emeritus, Columbia University)
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Winter through Fall 2000
Origins of the Center of Japanese Studies
Bruce Brent on his Friendship with Emperor Akihito