Thank you to everyone who has supported the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund campaign this year!

2022 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture:

"Bridging Divides: The Work of Cultural Ambassadorships in Contemporary Japan"

February 21, 2022, 4:30 – 6:30pm ET

Christine Yano, University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Lecture Recording

The Institute for Japanese Studies presents:

"Bridging Divides: The Work of Cultural Ambassadorships in Contemporary Japan"

Christine Yano
University of Hawai'i at Manoa 

with respondent 

Dr. Mari Noda
Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Literature, The Ohio State University

Abstract: The notion of cultural ambassadors – people, products, artistic expressions, ideas that span different locations – can be useful in thinking through global interactions. If the role of the political ambassador is to create long-lasting liaisons between nations, then the role of the cultural ambassador is to achieve similar kinds of linkages through soft-power, positive interactions. Cultural ambassadorship has been critical in steering paths of globalization as key vectors of influence. In this talk I point to one contemporary cultural ambassador that has gone from Japan to different parts of the globe – Hello Kitty and the concept of kawaii (cute). My approach here is not as comprehensive as I would like, since my research on the topic has focused primarily on the United States. (Notably, if I were to truly research the global impact of Hello Kitty and kawaii, I should spend years in different parts of Asia where the plush toy is very popular.) Nevertheless, thinking through the cultural ambassadorship of Hello Kitty and kawaii in the United States points us toward important lessons in transnational interactions, meanings, commercialism, and critique. This case study suggests that the project of bridging divides is both crucial and fraught, creating contingencies of empathic reach.

Christine R. Yano, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai`i, has conducted research on Japan and Japanese Americans with a focus on popular culture. In 2020-2021 she served as the President of the Association for Asian Studies. She has served as Chair of the American Advisory Committee to Japan Foundation from 2018 to 2022. In 2022 she begins her tenure as President-Elect of the Society for East Asian Anthropology, American Anthropological Association. Her publications include Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song (Harvard, 2002), Airborne Dreams: “Nisei” Stewardesses and Pan American World Airways (Duke, 2011), and Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty and its Trek Across the Pacific (Duke, 2013). Her latest book is Straight A’s: Asian American College Students in Their Own Words with Neal Akatsuka (Duke, 2018).

A specialist in East Asian language pedagogy, Mari Noda is primarily interested in curriculum, material development, and assessment. She directs SPEAC (Summer Programs East Asian Concentration), which currently offers intensive Japanese and Chinese language programs. She is a lead producer of the NihionGO NOW! series (2021, Routledge), a new beginning-to-intermediate-level learning material, and the Japanese Skills Test (JSKIT), a low-stake online assessment tool. She is also a co-author of Japanese: The Written Language  (2006 and 2018, Yale University) and “Remembering the future: compiling knowledge of another culture” (with Galal Walker, 2010, National East Asian Language Resource Center at The Ohio State University). She serves on the Board of Directors of Japan-America Society of Central Ohio. At OSU, she serves as the faculty advisor for the Nihongo Osyaberi-kai (Japanese Conversation Club).

Free and Open to the Public

If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact EASC at easc@osu.edu. Requests made at least two weeks in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date. 

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.

The Brad Richardson Memorial Fund Lectures were inaugurated in 2016 to address higher contemporary issues in Japanese studies and Japan’s international relations. 

• 2022 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: "Bridging Divides: The Work of Cultural Ambassadorships in Contemporary Japan" by Christine Yano, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. With post-lecture discussant: Mari Noda, Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, OSU, February 21, 2022, 4:30 – 6:30pm ET.
  
  
• 2021 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: "The Challenge of Global Governance and Japan's Role" by Christina Davis, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and Professor of Government, Harvard University. With post-lecture discussants: Mitch Lerner, Professor, Department of History, The Ohio State University; Director, East Asian Studies Center, The Ohio State University and Alexander Thomas, Professor, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University, February 22, 2021.
  
  
• 2020 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: "Effective Leadership in Japan: The Case of Shibusawa Eiichi, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist" by Gil Latz, Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs and Professor, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Discussant: David Welch, Department of Political Science, The University of Waterloo, February 28, 2020.
  
  
• 2019 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: "Abenomics: Escape from the Lost Two Decades of the Japanese Economy,” by Takatoshi Ito, Professor, International Public Affairs, Columbia University, February 22, 2019.
  
  
• 2018 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: "Has Abenomics Revived the Japanese Economy? Comparative Macroeconomic Perspectives with the US Economy," by Takeo Hoshi, Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Senior Fellow, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center & Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, February 26, 2018.
  
  
• 2017 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: "Japan’s Grand Strategy and the US-Japan Alliance," by Richard J. Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for International Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology, February 17, 2017.
  
  
• 2016 Brad Richardson Memorial Lecture: “Natural and Unnatural Disasters in the U.S.-Japan Comparative Perspectives: 3/11, 9/11, Asbestos, and the Unmaking of Japan’s Modern World,” by Brett Walker, Regents Professor and Malone Memorial Professor of History, Montana State University, and 2015-16 Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies, Harvard University, March 4, 2016. 

Other lectures that have been or will be supported by the Brad Richardson Memorial Fund:

• IJS Lecture Series: “China’s Hot-Button Maritime and Territorial Claims: A Role for Japan” by David Welch, Research Chair and Professor of Political Science, University of Waterloo, February 27, 2020.
  
  
• IJS Lecture Series: “Abenomics and Monetary Policy” by Joshua Hausman, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan and faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, February 14, 2020.
  
  
• IJS Lecture Series: "Patsy Takemoto Mink and Anti-Nuclear Politics:  Atomic Testing in the Pacific during the Cold War" by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Professor and Chair, Department of Asian American Studies, University of California, Irvine, April 3, 2017.

Bradley M. Richardson, Professor Emeritus in Political Science, the founding Director of The Ohio State University Institute for Japanese Studies and a former Honorary Consul General of Japan for Ohio who continually tried to raise awareness of Japanese studies and U.S./Japan relations. We seek to continue his legacy through various academic, educational and outreach programs made possible with this funding.

 Order of the Rising Sun Award (2008): Brad Richardson was honored with the Order of the Rising Sun, a national decoration that the Japanese government awards to individuals who have contributed greatly to the nation and the public in politics, business, culture and the arts. Brad Richardson was recognized for his outstanding accomplishments in Ohio State’s goals in international relations, education and exchange that relate to Japan to the U.S, Ohio and local communities. 

 Honorary Consul General of Japan for Ohio: Brad Richardson was Honorary Consul General of Japan for Ohio from 1999- 2004 to strengthen the U.S.–Japan relations, especially through Japan’s growing ties with the State of Ohio.  

 Japan-America Society of Central Ohio (JASCO): Bard Richardson was a founding member of the Executive Board of the Japan-America Society of Central Ohio (JASCO) in 1997 and served many roles on its board and programming committee through 2015.

 Ohio-Saitama Sister State Relationship: Through the Ohio-Saitama Sister State relationship, he established the Ohio-Saitama Company Internship program in which 88 Ohio students from 13 universities and 29 students from Saitama universities participated during 1991-2014.   

 Leadership on campus: Brad Richardson was the Founding Director of the Institute for Japanese Studies (IJS) from its inception in 1985 until 2002.   He also was the Director of the East Asian Studies Center (EASC) during 1977-1980 and 1999-2002.

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: Brad Richardson received his PhD from University of California at Berkeley, his MA from Columbia University and his AB from Harvard College. His languages included Japanese, Spanish, German, and French.  At Ohio State, he taught Government and Politics of Japan, including comparative political behavior. He had over 20 publications, such as, “Political Parties in Japan,” and “Japan’s 1955 System and Beyond,” in Political Parties and Democracy, eds. L. Diamond and R. Gunther, John Hopkins University Press, 2002; and “Political Traditions and Political Change: The Significance of Postwar Japanese politics for Political science,” Annual Review of Political Science, (with D. Patterson) 4, 93-115, 2001.