Our Crowdfunding Groups
Thank you to everyone who helped us exceed our goal of $10,000 for the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund in March by raising $10,080. It is amazing to see how many lives he impacted throughout his career on campus and in the community.
Our giving page is no longer active, but if you would like to provide any additional support to our project, please do so here.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund this month! We have been very successful ($8,425) and with just one day left we hope to reach our $10,000 goal. Here is a little more about Brad Richardson's early days at The Ohio State University and the lasting impact not only on campus but in the community as well.
Comments from Professor Richard Moore, Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Natural Resources, OSU and Senior Fellow, National Council for Science and the Environment:
“Brad Richardson and Chung-min Chen (Anthropology Department, Director of EAS) teamed up in 1985 to make the initial hires for newly created positions in anthropology, history, business, and language for the newly created Institute for Japanese Studies. I was lucky to have been offered the position in anthropology. At the time Brad had created key ties with Honda and associated companies like Peat Marwick (KPMG) and government agencies like the State of Ohio Department of Development which had played a key role in helping Honda establish its presence in Ohio. For this reason thanks to Brad’s encouragement we established many outreach seminars and workshops to teach cultural dimensions of Japanese business and help local communities trying to attract third tier Japanese automotive suppliers. With Brad’s leadership many people pitched in to help create people to people ties such as the Japanese Saturday schools and Japan-America Society of Central Ohio. He carried on and built upon a long tradition of people to people Ohio ties such as the Christian women in Columbus who helped create International Christian University which was OSU's first institutional tie. Brad helped to expand our university ties and exchanges and was very supportive when I brought the Hokkaido University exchange to OSU. Brad’s expertise on the Japanese political system was inspirational to students and faculty alike but probably Brad was best known for his strong support of and dedication to Japanese Studies in all its diversified meanings.”
Thanks to the generous donations of those on and off campus, we have raised almost $7,000 during the month of March, which will be used to propel the Institute toward the same goals that Brad promoted: supporting academic and outreach activities that promote Japanese Studies on campus and that enhance the interest, knowledge and discourse on Japan-related topics in academic communities and the general public. With only a few days left in the campaign, we hope that with your help we can finish strong this week.
Here are some of Brad Richardson’s outreach efforts:
Honorary Consul General of Japan for Ohio: Brad Richardson was appointed Honorary Consul General of Japan for Ohio from 1999- 2004 to further strengthen the U.S.–Japan relations, particularly through Japan’s growing ties with the State of Ohio.
Japan-America Society of Central Ohio (JASCO): Brad Richardson was a founding Executive Board Member of the Japan-America Society of Central Ohio (JASCO) in 1997 and served many roles on its board and programming committee through 2015.
Comments from Isao Shoji, President, Japan-America Society of Central Ohio (JASCO):
“Dr. Richardson was the one of the first people who showed me that there are people in Central Ohio who truly care about the U.S.-Japan relationship. More than simply having Japanese friends or having done business with Japanese companies, he was someone who worked diligently and tirelessly to promote this critical relationship because he saw the strategic importance of it. As someone who immigrated from Japan, I know that I benefited tremendously from what people like he did in Central Ohio for someone like me.
“His work is a reminder to me that I, along with others in Central Ohio from Japan, should never forget how fortunate we are here. We cannot take it for granted that this is a such a comfortable, welcoming place. It is a result of decades of relationship building and cultural outreach that made Central Ohio what it is for Japanese natives today. Dr. Richardson was at the forefront of that effort, and I am forever grateful.”
Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture on March 4, 2016
Brad Richardson giving remarks at 2009 Japanese Language Speech Contest
Brad Richardson Lecture 2012: “Can Japan Survive?” Lecture Q&A
To see the playlist with the videos from the the Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture that was on March 4, 2016, please visit: Link
Welcome back to everyone that was on spring break last week, campus was very quiet. Thank you very much to everyone who has donated to the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund. The campaign is going well, but we hope to make even more progress towards our $10,000 goal in the next few days.
A little more about Brad Richardson and why we want to carry on his legacy by supporting academic and outreach activities that promote Japanese Studies on campus and that enhance the interest, knowledge and discourse on Japan-related topics in the academic communities and general public:
Scholarly pursuits: Brad Richardson was a leading scholar in Japanese politics as well as a notable academician, lecturer and author on Japanese culture, business and politics, and received the Ohio State University Distinguished Scholar Award in 1996.
Education: Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1966; M.A., Columbia University, 1960; A.B., Harvard College, 1951.
University Service: Director, East Asian Studies Center; Founding Director, Institute for Japanese Studies
Languages: Japanese, Spanish, German, French
Specialization: Japanese politics: comparative political behavior, policy-making in Japan; event analysis.
Publications: “Political Parties in Japan,” in Political Parties, eds. L. Diamond and R. Gunther, John Hopkins University Press, 2002; “Japan’s 1955 System and Beyond,” in Political Parties and Democracy, eds. L. Diamond and R. Gunther, John Hopkins University Press, 2002; “Political Traditions and Political Change: The Significance of Postwar Japanese politics for Political science,” Annual Review of Political Science, co-auth. D. Patterson, 4, 93-115, 2001; Japanese Democracy: Power, Coordination & Performance, Yale University Press, 1998; The Japanese Voter, co-auths. J. Watanuki, S. Flanagan, et al., 1991. [Career Publications: 22]
Comments from Maureen Donovan, Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University Libraries, Japanese Collections
“Brad was a booklover and ardent researcher who appreciated the value of Japanese primary sources for scholarly inquiry. He took a passionate interest in the Japanese collections of the OSU Libraries and often advocated for increased funding for acquisitions. In addition to donating many wonderful Japanese language research materials from his own library once he finished working on a project, he also gave me advice about building the collection. Among other things, he recommended sources such as ministry white papers, newspaper backfiles and statistical sources, but he also told me that, most of all, he hoped to encounter the kind of books that would inspire ideas for further research into Japan's political economy as he browsed the library bookshelves. This became my challenge!
"During his visits to used booksellers in Tokyo's Kanda Jinbocho Brad became aware of the great potential of Japanese company histories for research on a wide range of topics, so he recommended that Ohio State begin collecting them. That was in the mid-1980s. I was able to arrange for a large purchase with special funding from one of those bookstores, thereby establishing a good foundation for the collection. We continued to build on it after that by requesting copies from companies as they were issued year by year. Ohio State now has one of the biggest collections of these corporate histories in the United States. It is actively used by researchers.
"Brad was also an early adopter of technologies for accessing Japanese research materials. As the Libraries began subscribing to online Japanese databases, encyclopedias, dictionaries and both current and retrospective newspaper and journal files, Brad became an avid user of them. I knew about that because I received frequent emails or telephone calls from him about how best to take advantage of these fabulous resources, as he continued his research activities long into his retirement.”
Thank you to everyone who supported the very busy first week of our campaign to build the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund! With your help, we raised $6,100 so far to help carry on the legacy of Brad Richardson. TS Tech Americas, Inc., a Reynoldsburg company, showed their support of the Institute for Japanese Studies’ work by donating very generously to the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund – thank you! Please join TS Tech Americas, Inc. and the other donors and consider giving in any amount to the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund.
Who was Brad Richardson?
Bradley M. Richardson, Professor Emeritus in Political Science, the founding Director of the OSU Institute for Japanese Studies and a former Honorary Consul General of Japan for Ohio who promoted Japanese studies and raised awareness of U.S./Japan, including and especially the Ohio-Japan, relations. We seek to continue his legacy through various academic, educational and outreach programs made possible with this funding.
Leadership on campus: Brad Richardson was the Director of the Institute for Japanese Studies (IJS) from its inception in 1985 till 2002. He also was the Director of the East Asian Studies Center (EASC) during 1977-1980 and 1999-2002.
Comments from Mineharu Nakayama, Professor, OSU and former Director, Institute for Japanese Studies
“Brad Richardson is the founding director and one of the grant writers who established the Institute that has been solely dedicated for Japanese Studies over 30 years. Only a handful of US institutions still have such a special place for Japanologists. The institute allowed me to establish several innovative programs with the University of Shizuoka and to host the Journal of Japanese Linguistics for seven years. The former experience gave me the opportunity to work with colleagues on and off campus in different fields, with whom I would not have otherwise had a chance to work."
Support Brad Richardson Memorial Fund by giving $5 (or specify a different amount).
