Japan

Jooeun Noh is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Socio-information and Communication Studies at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo, Japan. She received her Master’s degree in Area Studies from the University of Tokyo. Her research interests include the modern history of East Asia, particularly China, Japan and Korea. Her dissertation explores the history of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, especially focusing of the aftermath of the earthquake. During her stay at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, she will carry out archival research at Harvard-Yenching Library and work on her dissertation.

Misook Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Socio-information and Communication Studies at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, Tokyo University, Japan. Her research examines the possibility of a transnational public sphere beyond international borders in the case of democratization movements in South Korea in 1970s and 80s. Transnational solidarity for South Korean democratization movements from overseas, including from Germany, Japan and the U.S., has been reported on since 2000. However, there is little academic research examining the method and reasons why overseas citizens formed transnational solidarity. Her research tries to articulate the process and the meaning of transnational solidarity within the issue of Korean democratization movements, especially focusing on activities in Tokyo. Tokyo was the center for sending Korean grassroots underground information to overseas and the location of many foreign missionary and correspondent offices. In her dissertation, Lee Misook’s goal is to understand the work and meaning of transnational advocacy networks (including overseas Korean communities, Christian networks, and intellectual activist groups) in empowering democratization movements in South Korea.

Yu-chi Chang is currently a PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Japan. She obtained her BA in Anthropology from National Taiwan University in 2006. She obtained her MA from the Graduate Institute of Sports & Leisure Management, National Taiwan Normal University in 2008. Her research interests include ethnic dance and socio-cultural aspects of health and the female body. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the localization of belly dance in Taiwan. She explores how Confucian values influence the belly dancing experience of Taiwanese women. Furthermore, she aims at comparing the healthy benefits of belly dancing interpreted by women from different cultural backgrounds.

Yasuhiro Kamimura is Associate Professor of Welfare Sociology and Comparative Social Policy at Nagoya University, Japan. He studied at the University of Tokyo, and worked there and at Hosei University. He has published on the development of welfare states in East Asia, new corporatism in Korea and Taiwan, and social foundations of East Asian social policy.

Dr. Ikuo is the current governor of Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. To read a recent article about Dr. Ikuo, please click here.

OKI Yasushi is Professor of East Asian Literature. The main subject of his research is Chinese Literature of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He received his B.A. (1981), M.A. (1983) and Doctor of Literature degree (1998), all from the University of Tokyo. Before being appointed to his current position in 2002, he was a Research Associate at the Institute of Oriental Culture, the University of Tokyo (1986), Associate Professor at the faculty of letters, Hiroshima University (1989) and Associate Professor at the faculty of Letters, the University of Tokyo (1991). He stayed at Harvard Yenching Institute as a visiting scholar from 1999 to 2000 and at National Central University in Taiwan as a visiting professor from 2006 to 2007.He has long been interested in Feng Menglong (1574-1646, born in Su-zhou), who is well known as a compiler of the vernacular short stories "San-yan". He has been researching various aspects of culture and society in late Ming Jiangnan, such as popular literature, civil service examinations, publishing businesses, intellectual friendships and courtesan culture, approaching these topics as different facets of Feng Menglong's work and life. Recently he is interested in Mao Xiang, another man of letter in Jiangnan in the late Ming and early Qing.
His publications include A study of Mao Xiang and his Reminiscences of the Convent of Shadowy Plum-blossoms (Tokyo: Kyuko-shoin, 2010, 539pp.), A Study of the Publishing Culture in late Ming Jiangnan (Tokyo: Kenbun-shuppan, 2004, 268pp.), A Study of Feng Meng-long's Shange (Tokyo: Keiso-shobo, 2003, 840pp.), Chinese Gay Quarters, the World of Courtesans in Nanjing, Qinghuai in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Tokyo: Seidosha, 2002, 293 pp.), History of Chinese Literature from the Point of View of Discontent (Tokyo: Chikumashobo, 1996, 245 pp.), and An Unorthodox Intellectual in the Late Ming: Feng Menglong and Suzhou Culture , (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1995, 254 pp.).