Distinguished Visitors

Since 1987, the Program has annually hosted a leading commentator on U.S.-Japan relations or other relevant topics to give a major address. At Harvard for several days, the Distinguished Visitor also lectures in classes and meets with Associates and students. The individuals so recognized in recent years, and the titles of their speeches, are listed below.

2012-13
Michael Green

Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Associate Professor of International Relations, Georgetown University

Lecture title: "Can Japan Be a 'Tier One Nation' in the 21st Century?"

Discussant: Stephen Walt. Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School

2011-12
Yoichi Funabashi

Chairman, Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, and Editor-in-Chief, Asahi Shimbun (2007-10)

Lecture title: "The Rise of China from a Japanese Perspective"

Discussant: David Gergen. Professor of Public Service and Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School

2010-11
T.J. Pempel

Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

Lecture title: "Japanese Politics: Between Pork and Productivity"

Discussant: Hirotaka Takeuchi. Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School

2009-10
Sheldon Garon

Dodge Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Princeton University

Lecture title: "'Keep on Saving': How Other Nations Forged Cultures of Thrift When America Didn't"

Discussant: Lizabeth Cohen. Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, and Chair, Department of History, Harvard University

2008-09
Carol Gluck

George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University

Lecture title: "Past Obsessions: World War II in History and Memory"

Discussant: David Blackbourn, Coolidge Professor of History and Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

2007-08
Jeffrey Sachs

Director, The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University; and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Lecture title: "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet"

Discussant: Michael Reich, Taro Takemi Professor of International Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health

2006-07
Takatoshi Ito

Professor, Graduate School of Economics and Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo, and Member, Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, Japanese Government

Lecture title: "Economic Integration in Asia"

Discussant: Dale Jorgenson, Samuel W. Morrison University Professor, Harvard University

2005-06
Peter J. Katzenstein

Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University

Lecture title: "Anti-Americanisms in World Politics"

Discussant: Stephen P. Rosen, Beton Michael Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs, Harvard University

2004-05
William W. Kelly

Professor of Anthropology and Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies, Yale University

Lecture title: "Sport, Culture, and Society: The Case of Japanese Baseball"

Discussant: James L. Watson, Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society and Professor of Antrhopology, Harvard University

2003-04
Joseph Nye, Jr.

Dean and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Lecture title: "Reflections on Soft Power"

Discussant: Richard Samuels, Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for International Studies, MIT

2002-03
Gerald Curtis

Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

Lecture title: "Turmoil and Change in Japanese Politics"

Discussant: Roderick MacFarquhar, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science and Chair, Department of Government, Harvard University

2001-02
Sadako Ogata

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1991-2001), now President, Japan International Cooperation Agency

Lecture title: "Global Humanitarian Crises and Japan"

2000-01
Bruce Cumings

Professor of History, University of Chicago

Lecture title: "U.S. Relations with East Asia in a New Century and a New Administration"

Discussant: Akira Iriye, Professor of History, Harvard University

1999-00
Ryutaro Hashimoto

Former Prime Minister (1996-98), and Representative, Japanese Diet

Lecture title: "Making Sense of Japan in the 1990s"

1998-99
Takie Sugiyama Lebra

Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Hawaii

Lecture title: "Making a Career in the World of Men: Women's Strategies in Japan"

1997-98
Takashi Inoguchi

Professor of Political Science, Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo

Lecture title: "Looking Forward by Looking Backward: Lessons for the 21st Century from Westphalia, Philadelphia, and Tokugawa"

Discussant: Akira Iriye, Professor of History, Harvard University

1996-97
Ronald Dore

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics

Lecture title: "Can Japanese Capitalism Remain Japanese?"

Discussant: Richard Cooper, Professor of International Economics, Harvard University

1995-96
Donald Keene

University Professor and Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature, Emeritus, Columbia University

Lecture title: "Mishima and Japanese Aesthetics"

Discussant: Philip J. Fisher, Felice Crowl Reid Professor of English and American Literature, Harvard University

1994-95
Robert E. Cole

Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley

Lecture title: "Learning Japan Quality Practices in American Industry: Hares, Tortoises, Donkeys, Ostriches, Parrots, Chameleons, and Owls"

Discussant: Daniel Bell, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1993-94
John W. Dower

Henry R. Luce Professor of International Cooperation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lecture title: "Coming Out of War: Japan After World War I"

Discussant: Nagayo Homma, Professor of American Studies, Tokyo Women's Christian University

1992-93
Arthur Stockwin

Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, Institute for Japanese Studies, St. Antony's College, Oxford

Lecture title: "Japan's First Woman Party Leader: The Rise and Fall of Takako Doi"

Discussant: Shirley Williams, Professor, Kennedy School of Government, and Member, House of Peers, United Kingdom

1991-92
Yukio Matsuyama

Honorary Chair and former Chair of the Editorial Board, Asahi Shinbun

Lecture title: "After Kaifu: Japan's Leadership Challenge"

Discussant: Stanley H. Hoffmann, Professor of Government, Harvard University

1990-91
Yotaro Kobayashi

President, Fuji Xerox Company

Lecture title: "The Race for Technological Superiority: Japan and the United States in the 1990s"

Discussant: Charles H. Ferguson, Postdoctoral Associate, Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development, MIT

1989-90
Seizaburo Sato

Professor of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo

Lecture title: "U.S.-Japan Relations in the Post-Cold War Era"

Discussant: Samuel P. Huntington, Professor of Government, Harvard University

1988-89
Hisashi Owada

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Japan

Lecture title: "Soviet-Japanese Relations in the Light of Recent Developments"

1987-1988
Ezra F. Vogel

Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences, Harvard University

Lecture title: "Economic Reforms in Guangdong Province"