The Weatherhead Center’s Program on U.S.-Japan Relations celebrates its thirty-fifth year as a leading program that brings together faculty, students, and visitors at Harvard to advance social science research on Japan’s global role. During the 2014–2015 academic year, the program’s weekly seminars featured Alexis Dudden (University of Connecticut; 2006), Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University), Takatoshi Ito (Columbia University), John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago), Joseph S. Nye, Jr. (Harvard Kennedy School), Wei-hsin Yu (University of Maryland), and many others. In April 2015, the program hosted its twenty-eighth Distinguished Visitor on campus, and honored Ellis Krauss, professor in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at University of California, San Diego.
Former Associates of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations have had distinguished careers in international organizations, government, business, media, and academia. They include Ban Ki-Moon (1985), Secretary General of the United Nations; Hisashi Owada (1981), Judge at the International Court of Justice; Fred Hiatt (1987), Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Post; Naoyuki Shinohara (1986), Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Naoko Ishii (1985), Chairperson of Global Environmental Facility in the World Bank Group; Mariko Bando (2007), Chancellor and President of Showa Women’s University; Katsuya Okada (1986), President of the Democratic Party of Japan; Tsuyoshi Okamoto (1987), Chairman of the Board of Tokyo Gas Company, Ltd.; Kojiro Shiraishi (1990), President and Senior Executive Editor of Yomiuri Shimbun; Tateshi Higuchi (2001), Japanese Ambassador to Myanmar; Heizo Takenaka (1981), former cabinet member and Professor of Economics at Keio University; Junko Kato (1997), Professor at the Graduate School for Law and Politics, University of Tokyo; and Koichi Hamada (2011), Tuntex Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Yale University and Special Advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The program’s former Postdoctoral Fellows now hold senior faculty positions in universities in the United States and around the world. They include Daniel Aldrich (2007), Professor of Political Science, Purdue University; Verena Blechinger-Talcott (2003), Professor of Japanese Politics and Political Economy, Berlin Free University; Jennifer Chan (2005), Associate Professor of Education, University of British Columbia; Erin Chung (2004), Charles E. Miller Associate Professor of East Asian Politics, Johns Hopkins University; Ian Condry (2007), Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Christina Davis (2002), Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University; Margarita Estévez-Abe (2001), Associate Professor of Political Science, Syracuse University; William Grimes (1996), Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Boston University; David Johnson (1997), Professor of Sociology, University of Hawaii, Manoa; Hans Martin Krämer (2007), Professor of Japanese Studies, Heidelberg University; Henry Laurence (1997), Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies, Bowdoin College; David Leheny (2002), Henry Wendt III ’55 Professor of East Asian Studies, Princeton University; Patricia Maclachlan (1996), Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin; Mark Manger (2008), Associate Professor in the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto; Kim Reimann (2002), Associate Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University; Ethan Scheiner (2002), Professor of Political Science, University of California, Davis; Ming Wan (1994), Professor of Public and International Affairs, George Mason University; and Michael Witt (2001), Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management, INSEAD. In addition, Mireya Solis (2001) serves as Senior Fellow and Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Frank Schwartz (1991) serves as President of Showa Boston Institute.
Photo Captions
Top: Former Weatherhead Center Director, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., speaking on his recent book, Is the American Century Over? Photo credit: Jennie Kim
Bottom (right to left): Susan Pharr, speaking at a symposium on “Advancing the Status of Women in a Globalizing Japan: A 70-Year Retrospective,” together with Mariko Bando (Showa Women’s University), Sumiko Iwao (Keio University and Tokyo City University), and Margarita Estévez-Abe (Syracuse University). Photo credit: Lisa Cohen