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"
