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.

2007-08
Jeffery 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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"Global Humanitarian Crises and Japan"

2000-01
Bruce Cumings
Professor of History, University of Chicago
"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
"Making Sense of Japan in the 1990s"

1998-99
Takie Sugiyama Lebra
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Hawaii
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"Japan's First Woman Party Leader: The Rise and Fall of Takako Doi"

Discussant: Shirley Williams
Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Member, House of Lords

1991-92
Yukio Matsuyama
Honorary Chair and former Chair of the Editorial Board, Asahi Shinbun
"After Kaifu: Japan's Leadership Challenge"

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

1990-91
Yotaro Kobayashi
President, Fuji Xerox Company
"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
"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
"Soviet-Japanese Relations in the Light of Recent Developments"

1987-1988
Ezra F. Vogel
Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences, Harvard University
"Economic Reforms in Guangdong Province"

Back to top

61 Kirkland Street | Cambridge, MA 02138
tel. 617-495-1890 | fax. 617-495-4921
us_japan@wcfia.harvard.edu
Last updated on April 21, 2008 10:40 AM