SOLD OUT: THANKS!! Japan and the American Embrace: Author Talk and Book Signing
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED R. Taggart Murphy will speak drawing on his new book Japan and the Shackles of the Past
Since 1945, Japan has been enfolded – voluntarily or otherwise – in an American embrace, to borrow John Dower's term. In his recent book Japan and the Shackles of the Past, R. Taggart Murphy identifies this embrace as one of the shackles that serves to block the transformation Japan needs. In his talk, Murphy will discuss the origins of the American embrace and its perpetuation. He will also argue that a shoulder-to-shoulder alliance of fully sovereign states would be better for both the US and Japan than the suffocating, paternalistic embrace that now characterizes relations between the two countries.
Signed copies of the book will be available for sale at the event.
The Harvard community in particular should find the topic of interest since Harvard has produced some of the leading architects of the embrace as well as some ardent critics.
DATE and TIME: February 9th, Monday, 7:00 – 9:00pm (Doors open at 6:30pm)
VENUE: Roppongi Hills Club
Admission 5,000 yen includes standing buffet at Roppongi Hills Club with cash bar.
REGISTRATION: Please use the form on the right of this page.
Please register by February 7th. Questions about registration to carl@tokyoway.jp
SPEAKER BIO:
R. Taggart Murphy is Professor of International Political Economy at the MBA Program in International Business at the Tokyo campus of the University of Tsukuba. He is the author of award-winning books on modern Japan including the Weight of the Yen (Norton, 1996) and, with Akio Mikuni, Japan's Policy Trap (Brookings, 2002). His articles have appeared in publications from The New Republic to the National Interest, The New Left Review and the London Review of Books and he has contributed a number of op-eds for the New York Times, most recently on the eve of the Dec. 14 election. A former investment banker, he has also taught at the university's main campus, was a Non-Resident Senior Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and was a coordinator of the web's leading clearing-house for serious writing on Japan, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. He will be discussing his most recent book, Japan and the Shackles of the Past, published at the end of 2014 by Oxford University Press.