Oh, this looks like a good book!

Check out Simon Partner's "Life Stories from Japan" simonpartner.substack.com

Next week Seth Jacobowitz & Jonathan E. Abel will be launching the new book "Modern Japanese Literary Studies" at the University of Pittsburgh. Register for the virtual conversation at pitt.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

📣Call for graduate students in Japan Studies! Application deadline is this Friday the 23rd at 5pm ET⏳ Looking forward to seeing everyone in Vancouver very soon! tr.jpf.go.jp/conference-a...

Save the date! We will hold our usual meeting-in-conjunction for Digital Humanities Japan at #AAS2026 in Vancouver in March (3/14). If you would like to have a few minutes to showcase a recent project, please email me prior to the conference! 💻🗾

We are pleased to announce the Digital Humanities and Digitization Workshop for Japanese Materials workshop, which will be held 3/13 during #AAS2026! Learn about text encoding, codicology, & more from field experts. 💻 The workshop is free, but please register by 2/15! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Whether you're conducting short-term research, organizing a conference/seminar, building a website, or digging into a translation project, an AAS EIAC grant can offer support. Apply for one by February 2 and get the resources you need to do the work. bit.ly/EIAC26

Willing to run a mentoring session at #AAS2026? Time to sign up! www.asianstudies.org/aas-2026-cal...

Subodhana Wijeyeratne has saved me the trouble of writing a history of Japan's space program! And he's published his book with my favorite press @stanfordpress.bsky.social www.sup.org/books/asian-...

This is exciting ... academic.oup.com/ahr/article-... #transportation #history

What could go wrong?

_Verge: Studies in Global Asias_ is inviting proposals from potential guest editors. Send us your ideas for a special issue!

Any historians of post-WWII Europe here? What primary sources & scholarship do you use to teach upper-level History majors about legal, intellectual, institutional, cultural (etc) democratization in post-WWII Germany & Italy? #history #democracy

The new issue is out! #Japan

Climate ingenuity with water: www.earthday.org/from-sewage-... (Note: the editor added the word "global" to the title; not the author's word choice.)

Leave it to the Finns, man ...

Happy International Tiger Day! More from Benjamin Abel: www.earthday.org/how-cats-con...

I'm not sure if I'm connected to any South Asianists here, but ... have you ever used Kautilya's Arthashastra in teaching the Maurya Empire? What section did you assign? How'd it go? I'm thinking of using Book IX, "The Work of an Invader." Advice, please!

#CFP Four Verge-sponsored panels at #AAS2026—deadline to apply is July 18. buff.ly/R8zA6p6

A plea for help from people who teach Southeast Asian Buddhism: What's a good primary source to assign for an intro Asian Civ-type class? Main points of the lesson: show particular aspects of Theravada & adaptation to local circumstances. I've never taught or even studied this before, so ... help!!

TODAY: Want to know what a railway has to do with democracy? Come on over to Todai to hear all about it! Inst. of Social Science, Univ. of Tokyo May 20, 6PM Rm. 549, Center Kaigi-shitsu, Akamon Research Bldg, Hongo Campus "Training for Democracy: Railways and the Cultivation of a New Postwar Japan"

Yesterday's fun archive find: a "conte" from a 1948 radio show. Kid: How much are those peanuts? Shop owner: 15 yen for two bags. Kid: So how much for just that one? Shop owner: For the one, it’s 8 yen. Kid: Ok, I’ll take the other one. (Nothing to do with my research, but a nice midday chuckle.😁)

There's an international symposium on a century of Japanese broadcasting history coming up at Nichibunken (and online), July 11. Info and registration here: www.nichibun.ac.jp/en/events/ot...

Time to start thinking about #AAS2026!

Off to Tokyo soon, and I'm excited to present some of my new research at Tokyo U. Details below. Hope to see you there! "Training for Democracy: Railways and the Cultivation of a New Postwar Japan" Tuesday, May 20, 6pm Room 549, Akamon Research Bldg, Hongo Campus. Discussant: Prof. Iokibe Kaoru

*Verge* is now accepting submissions for Issue 13.2 "Things That Matter: Materiality and the Making of Global Asias" edited by Neelima Jeychandran, Monica Merlin, and Tina Chen. Convergence Feature Proposal due September 30, 2025 Essay due May 1, 2026 For details visit: bit.ly/4j21tSD

At USC tomorrow! It's new stuff, so if you attend, please be nice 😉 calendar.usc.edu/event/jessam...

Translated this poem by Mizuno Hironori, written after military censors pulled his 1932 book from shelves due to its anti-war messaging, three years ago. It hits different in 2025.

My conversation with Michiko Suzuki about her terrific new book, Humanitarian Internationalism Under Empire, is now available on the Modern Japan History Assoc website: www.youtube.com/watch?v=abU-... #internationalism #empire #humanitarianism @columbiaup.bsky.social @modernjapanhist.bsky.social

Wow, they remade 新幹線大爆破 (which they're calling "Bullet Train Explosion" but I think "Big Blast on the Bullet Train" would be better). Can't wait to compare it to the original, which I wrote about in *Dream Super-Express* www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxj6... #shinkansen @stanfordpress.bsky.social

New book series in media studies on Asia from U Pitt Press: upittpress.org/series/power...

Scholars at Risk is seeking help with its Volunteer Proofreader Initiative—if you can, please donate some of your time to assist displaced scholars embarking on job searches in new academic environments.

I got to know the main presenter, Mr. Kawashima, for some project and I was so impressed by how much work he does to generate pedagogy and share knowledge with Japanese high school history teachers. He's amazing. Join us to learn what is going on in classrooms from him.

Sign up for an #AAS2025 Conference Mentor Session. I'll be running a session on "Traveling a Non-Standard Career Path" at 3pm on Saturday.

I might be thinking too much about this best knock-knock joke ever as some kind of a subconscious defense mechanism to keep my brain occupied, but ... I made some revisions (with apologies to Dgar): Knock, knock. Who's there? Hike. Hike who? Yes. Can I come in? It's freezing out here.

Trying to decide if this is the best knock-knock joke ever. (Not a high bar, to be sure, but still)

The Journal of Japanese Studies’ Winter 2025 volume is now live! In addition to new-book reviews, find essays by Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer, Samuel Yamashita, David Atherton, Christopher Smith, Andrea Germer, and Andrew Elliott. Visit online.ucpress.edu/jjs for more information.

Read my interview with @alexdecampi.bsky.social, IF YOU DARE! #comicbooks #comics #scifi

1/ Some thoughts on Japan's wartime personal newsletters (個人雑誌), the Substacks of their times. One of the more clever ways leftists in Japan adapted to censorship was to publish these newsletters, which were small enough in circulation to escape outright bans Consider, eg, Ubukata Toshirō's 故人今人

Get even more out of #AAS2025 with a Pre-Conference Workshop—these five special offerings on Thursday, March 13 give participants an opportunity to dig deep on a topic, meet new colleagues, and enjoy an energizing early start to the Annual Conference! Register now: http://bit.ly/AAS2025-workshops

Interested in #humanitarianism, #internationalism, #empire, #war, or #Japan? Come hear Michiko Suzuki talk about her excellent book on the Japanese Red Cross Society. Register for the Zoom event in the posted link below.

Cool, now I can get some exercise *while* doing research!

MJHA is thrilled to announce the three finalists for the 2025 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize! Congratulations to Matthew Augustine, Ryo Morimoto, and Jun Uchida for their excellent work! @ucpress.bsky.social

This will be a great field trip for #AAS2025 attendees! 🤩

Our Spring/Summer 2025 catalog is now available! upittpress.org/spring-summe... Poetry, Architecture and Urban History, History of STM, Latin American Studies, and Composition/Rhetoric: there's something for everyone!

If you want to live in a congested and irrelevant city 20 years from now—keep on building freeways to the suburbs. If you want to live in a prosperous and livable city 20 years from now—invest in the best transit you can today.

You can also pay $29.99 for a gorgeous 312-page remastered hardcover of the comic from @imagecomics.bsky.social wherever books and comics are sold—such as here: bookshop.org/lists/graphi...

High-speed rail, which has already transformed Europe + Asia, is coming to North America. But the newsletter's about more than bullet trains, shinkansens and TGVs. I'll be posting dispatches about the latest in sleeper trains, budget services, and regional and inter-city rail around the world.