Harvard Club of Japan

The Japan Foundation Awards 2016 Commemorative Lectures

“The Enigma of U.S.-Japan Relations: A 50-year Perspective”

Lecture by Susan J. Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
 

Professor Susan J. Pharr at Harvard University, who has been a leader in Japanese studies in the United States for many years, was selected as one of the recipients of the 2016 Japan Foundation Award. In celebration, The Japan Foundation is proud to organize a commemorative lecture by Professor Pharr. She is widely recognized for her broad perspective and her insight into Japanese politics from the standpoint of comparative politics. At Harvard University, she has organized some 2,000 seminars and symposia to date, and supported the research and studies of some 600 fellows and graduate students, many of whom today are leaders in their fields.

Pundits once claimed that how Japan worked internally was an enigma, but a far greater puzzle is why U.S.-Japan relations, despite quite profound differences between the two countries and periodic shocks, have worked as well as they have, and won broad-based popular support in both nations. Professor Pharr sees the answer in Japan’s remarkable success over 50 years at intellectual infrastructure-building. Widely emulated by other Asian countries, Japan’s strategies, public and private, bind the nations at the citizen level, and the question is, will the infrastructure hold in the face of the challenges ahead.

The lecture will be followed by a reception with Professor Pharr. (Beverages and light meals will be served.)

Please join us for this very rare opportunity!

Susan J. Pharr has been a leader in Japanese studies in the United States for many years. After receiving her doctorate in political science from Columbia University in 1975, she held positions at the Social Science Research Council, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Joining the Harvard faculty in 1987, she became the Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics in 1991. She has served as Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, since 1987 and was Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies for seven years, until 2011.

Taking an interest in the enactment process of the ground-breaking Japanese constitution, which was formed with the inclusion of women’s suffrage and gender equality, she began her career as a Japanologist by surveying the participation of women in politics in Japan following World War II. She has subsequently expanded her areas of interest to include comparative politics in advanced nations, democratization and social transformation in Japan and East Asia, civil society and non-profit organizations, political ethics and corruption, political science in relation to the environment, the role of media in politics, and participation and leadership by women. Each of these issues is growing in importance today, and she is widely praised for her foresight and her insight into Japanese politics from the standpoint of comparative politics.

As Director, she has organized some 2,000 seminars and symposia to date, and supported the research and studies of some 600 fellows, many of whom today hold leadership positions in academia, the media, business, government, politics, and civil society throughout the world, including Japan and the U.S.

She has also worked to deepen intellectual exchanges between Japan and the U.S. through her service on the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission; the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON); as an advisor to the “U.S.-Japan Network for the Future” program of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, and as a trustee of The Asia Foundation.

Professor Pharr garners great respect for her richly balanced and fair stance of understanding for Japan and for her humble and sincere character.
We award her the Japan Foundation Award in recognition of her notable contributions over many decades to promoting international mutual understanding, particularly between Japan and the U.S.

Supported by Japan Airlines